Last Saturday we left camp - everyone was very emotional, we didnt realise how sad it would be saying goodbye! Luckily we didn't have to say goodbye to everyone just yet, our friends Emily and Amanda were also leaving, and our friend Mohan was coming to Mumbai to pick up a new group of volunteers. We all got on the sleeper train which this time was quite good fun, we were all in the same carrige this time and passed alot of the time doing somersaults betwen the poles of the bunk beds - great fun! The trains in India go along with the doors open so we sat and chilled there for a bit which was really cool at sunset! Then after a little sleep we arrived in Mumbai at 5am, way too early! Especially when the train station is in the middle of a very smelly slum! Luckily it wasn't long before we got to the lovely Hotel Symphony where we could dump our bags, have a We went with Emily and Amanda to the Gateway to India which was really cool, Elephanta Island and saw some ancient temples and then to Leopoldes cafe, some famous place an escaped convict went to work. Mumbai was actually really nice, esspecially compared to some of the things we've heard about it. We even bumped into a begging child who claimed to of been in Slumdog millionaire, we're not oo sure if this was true but Vicky still asked for his autograph! Talking of films...the best thing in Mumbai was being asked by some agency to be extras in as Bollywood movie! The worst thing was that it was to be filmed the next day when we weren't going to be there! On the way back to Hotel Symphony our taxi driver showed us all the places that slumdog millionaire was filmed which was cool/interesting. There are so many slums its crazy, 55% of Mumbai's population live in slums!

When we got back to the hotel we were running a bit late as soon we had to leave to catch our 22 hour train to Jaipur. We quickly ordered a tuk tuk to get us to the station and they said it would be 10 minutes, plenty of time to get our bags and say our goodbyes! Although... we literally turned around after ordering it and it had already appeared from no where and the driver was really eager to get going! Both of us went into panic mode runing around trying to find our bags and everyone we had to say goodbye to! It was horrible! Emily and Amanda we're planning to met up with in Thailand so that was a quick and easy 'se you later' goodbye but then we had to say goodbye to the camp staff and Mohan which was the worst because we wont ever see them again! We quickly hopped into the tuk tuk and off we went into the dark slums of Mumbai all on our own, we were really upset that our project had come to an end and we had to leave everyone but obviously really excited for the rest of the trip (apart form maybe the 22 hour train journey!!)

After sucessfully finding our platform/train/carrige at Mumbai station we found our sleeper...and the 8 small children that we were sharing it! It was mental, they were all runing around all over the shot! At first the parents tried to shift us off into another carrige and sneakily tried to trick us that we were on the wrong train so that we would get off and give them more space (all 10 of them had 6 cramped beds betwen them). In the end Ellie came up with a great idea that we just took the two top bunks so we were out fo their way, we somehow managed to explain this to them through funny little actions and they seemed happy with it! So up we went to our little bunks, just enough space to lie down and sit up with a hunched back! But at least we were next to eachother so we could chatter away and listen to music etc... We basically stayed up there for the next 22 hours, somehow it went really quite quickly and before we knew it we were in Jaipur! We arrived at 7pm and had a 6am train to Agra to catch the next morning so unfortunately didn't have much time to expolre so we quickly checked oursleves into hotel moonlight! Less than 5 a night yet absolute luxury! We had our first hot shower since we've been in India and treated ourselves to egg and boiled veg on room service! We would of spent the whole night at the hotel if we didn't have so little time, we really wanted to se the pink city so our hotel manager kindly took us round for a tour! The Water Palace was really impressive but the city itself was quite different to what we expected, obvously it was quite dark when we saw it, but it really didn't look that pink! However, the hotel manger explained that the Indian goverment have been quite stingy lately, normally it gets painted every year but because theres been no mosoon for the past 9 years they have refused to paint it and instead used the money to buy food for the camels - aparently. Although im not too sure if thats what he meant, his english wasnt that great!

The next morning we had to be up pretty early for that 6am train, the hotel had orderd us a tuk tuk for 5.15 am and our alarm was all set for 5am, sorted. All we had to do was wake up... which we didn't!! Or at least not until the hotel was ringing the phone in our room to tell us the tuk tuk was waiting for us! PANIC!!! We both jumped up and got dressed faster than we ever thought we could and thankfully caught the train just in time! This train was only 5 1/2 hours which semed nothing compared to what we'd been used to, allthough on this train journey we were sat opposite a really fat man who was making strange noises, burping, cleaning his ears, and eating really wierd food the whole time, it felt like forever before we arived in Agra!

It was definately worth it thoug - we loved Agra! Although our hotel room here was the other extrme to the one in Jaipur. For the same money we;d spent in Jaipur we manged to bag ourselves lovely damp, cobwebbed, brown coloured room with a hole for a toilet and a jug for a shower, lovely! We actually found it quite funny and were really happy to have somewhere to stay - some poor old man had been driving us around on his bicycle tuk tuk all morning trying to find us somewhere to stay but everywhere was full! He was pulling both of us and our massive bags and looked so weak like he was going to pass out, we offerd to get out and walk but he insisted we stayed sat down so we just gave him generous tip!

Obviously in Agra we went to see the Taj Mahal, we were expecting it to be amazing but it really really was amazing! You walk in and it really is like WOW. We walked around a bit, took the classic touristy photos and then went inside for a little nap! (yes a nap inside the taj mahl, not really the done thing but we were soooo tierd it had to be done) The Taj Mahl has been the worst place so far for being mobbed for photos, we'd got pretty much used to it by now but at the Taj it was mental. Mobs of people queing to have photos with us and some families would just come up and dump their baby in your arms and take a photo! Very bizarre! Its also been the most expnsive place so far, for an Indian to get in its just 10R's (15p) but for a foreigner its 750R's (11 pounds)!! annoying yet worth every penny! We stayed there for quite a long time so that we could see it at twilight which was great and if we hadn't hung around we wouldnt of bumped into Jennifer from camp! It was so random we din't even know she was in Agra! Then when the three off us were walking around togeter we bumped into ANOTHER friend from camp, Emily - how freaky! Theres soo many people there yet we still all manged to bump into eachother!We went for some lovely diner together, tried out a local delicacy, Masala Dosa and then went to Coffee Day. Coffee Day is the India version of Starbucks and we love it! Its nice to get a bit of western culture every now and again and we stayed there chatting all night, catching up on the goss even though it had only been a few days since we last saw eachother!

The next day we had another 6am train, unfortunatly this hotel didnt quite facilitate room telephones or wake up calls but thankfully we did wake up in time (only to find an india man with his head pressed up against our window having a right nose, even when he'd seen that we'd seen him he didnt seem to botherd and carried on starring). This train wasnt too long either, onyl 4 1/2 hours, it was quite exciting this one actually because half way through the journey a big fight broke out between all the men in our carrige, not too sure what it was about but were guessing it may have ben seats. It was so crammed, we were nodding off for most of the journey and everytime we opened our eyes there would be a new person that had squeezed onto our bench or onto someones lap, we were so squashed! When we got off at our stop it was evident something was not right as noone else was getting off and we had to literally barge our was through the packed train using elbows and everything and heaving our huge bags after us! When we recovered from this exercise we realised we were actually 19 km away from Delhi...interesting. So we hopped on a bus and hoped it would take us to the right place. We got quite a nice little tour of the city and saw the commonwealth games arena. We got off at the Main Bazaar which had been recommended to us for cheap acommodation and sure enough it was a short walk to a 100 rupees/night hostel. We're not sure exactly what our room looked like though, as we were sharing with a poor man suffering from liver disease who insisted on having it pitch black at all times. This made packing a bit of a hassle! Anyway the Main Bazar looked so good we were keen to get out there and go, so we dumped our stuff, had a quick lunch in this really cute little bakery and went shopping! There are many bargains to be had in Delhi and overall the city seemed really nice....however if you are interested in getting a henna tattoo of a mouse then do not do it in Delhi! Vicky now has a brown splodge on her wrist that most definitley is not a mouse. ah well it will only be there another 5 weeks! We had dinner at a roof top restaurant and then went back to the hostel to pack (in the dark) ready for our flight to...THAILAND! We were really sad to leave India but people we have met along the way who have been to Thailand were so positive about it we couldnt possibly be not excited!