Hi Folks

So we made it to Varanasi and did both a sunrise and sunset boat trip along the Gangees which was an amazing experience. As it's one of the worlds most polluted rivers we opted out of bathing in it, but we watched the ceremonies that take place on the river banks and saw the thousands of people who visit the river every day. And for something that is so polluted it is a very beautiful sight when thousands of flowers with candles are floating along it at night.

From Varanasi we travelled by overnight train to and then jeep to Darjeeling. It wasn't quite as picturesque as I'd imagined and it was a lot colder. So much for my beach holiday! We had to buy more wooly gloves, hats and long johns. From Darjeeling we headed north to Gangtok in the area of Sikkim where it got even colder. We were much higher up and were at the base of the Himalayas. From Ganagtok we went over to Pelling and visited a lake and some waterfalls with Everest and the mountains all around us trying to peek out from the clouds all the time. After a few days up there we headed over to Delhi where suprise, suprise it was raining!

Delhi was good and seemed cleaner and slightly more organised than Mumbai but we only had time to spend 2 night there before we flew down to Kerala (below Goa). Stepping off the plane in Kerala was amazing - hit with 35 degree heat, sunshine at last, YIPPEE!! We stayed in Cochin Fort which was lovely and we did a boat trip along the backwaters which was so peaceful. We headed up to Bekal from there and then to Gokarna. We stayed on Kudle beach in Gokarna which was beautiful, warm sea, hot sun, nice hotel - finally my beach holiday!

We are now in Palolem with Nick and Rebecca (Christians brother and fiance). It's a really nice beach with lots of restaurants, shops and cows dotted along it. Nick and Becca bought us so many goodies from home - wotsits, quavers, salt and vinegar squares, Heat, Now and OK! We having a great time and its so lovely to see them but we'll see all of you soon too as were home in only 18 sleeps! Thats only 17 days left to work on my tan so I'm off to the beach, see you's!