Namaste!

So, we arrived safley in Mumbai and swiftly got through arrivals and baggage collection and found the idex rep easy peasy! We then hit the crazy roads of Mumbai where everyone seems to do their own thing (including the cows!) Tuk tuks nip around everywhere beeping there hornes, there are no road markings nut somehow there are no crashes either!

We arrived at Hotel Symphony where we met everyone else (who are very nice) before heading off on a 2 hours journey to Lonavla where we have been staying at an Ashram ever since(a gated yoga and threapy retreat with its own little community). We explored the market that evening and got some really good and ridiculously chreap saris, we also experienced beeing poked by littleindiand children begging fro money!

The next day we set off on our trek which first involved an extremely bumpy ride on a mini bus. The trek was quite easy to begin with but then became very steep and hot! We soon got to a rural indian village which was really cute! The indian families cooked us an amazing lunch which we hadto eat sat on the floor of this really dark room as they save their solar electricity for the night time! Cooking for tourists is thevillages only income so you can imagine how well we were looked after! Then it was time for activitiessuch as tite rope walking, monkey climbong and ABSAILING! which was great fun (dont panic helen, ellie got down in one piece!) We were absailing at 1000m high from the remains of an old indian fort, ok we only absialing for 50m but you can imagine the amazing views and 'dont look down moment'. The only real scary bit was the look of the ropes and dodgey pegs that were holding us up! The toilets were also pretty scary, ellie found a lizard in hers and they consist of a hole in the mud and a small amount of privacy from a tin shack which didnt shut- ten times worse than glastonbury!

After a night sleeping (or not if your ellie) on a mud hut floor (with loads of creepy crawlies) we set off for more trekking. this time our first destination was a huge lake where we went for a lovely swim. the water was so dirty but we still came out cleaner than when we went in! It was so nice and refreshing and even better when the people from a nearby vilage brought us lunch by the lake. We tried to help them clear up but they insisted on doing it themselves. everyone so far has been really caring and generous. Then came the hardest bit of the trek, we had to scramble up steep sided hills and the rocks were so loose that everyone kept falling over, but every now and again we would stop concentrating on our feet and realise that we were surrounded by incredible views of the mountains. We stopped of at an indian temple(Hare krishna!!) and then walked to the next village where yet another rickety minibus picked us up to go back to the ashram.

When we got back we had our dinner. the food is all really good but there is a definite difference between the family cooked food, with lots of fresh vegetables, and the food in the lonavla restaurants which is more spicy and less fresh.its really different to our typical tikka masala and onion bahjis back home. vicky loves it cos theres mango juice everywhere (better than rubicon!) and ellie loves it because everything is vegetarian. there is plenty of chapatti to go round, yesterday ellie had 8!

this mornings activity of yoga required getting up at 6, but was worth it for the lovely roof terrace setting. later we booked in for a mud bath with some of the other girls for tommorow, and went to some nearby caves/temples. all the indian people wanted photos of us standing with them.we were a bit reluctant because aparantly they take the pictures home and tell everyone we are their new girlfriends!

Can't wait for the next few days and our transfer to Goa. Hope you are all well and not missing us too much!!!!!!!

p.s. no sunburn yet...