We had the luxury today of having a rare lie in which was definitely most welcome after our numerous early starts and the whole group was feeling exhausted!! We both awoke to the early morning sun striking our room and even had some toast and jam for breakfast accompanied by tea that did not taste of washing up liquid this time! I managed to squeeze in a couple of games of snooker and beat Abhi who I don't think was very pleased although he tried not to show it. The wifi Internet still did not work but the group kept trying it to no avail despite myself trying to be that annoying traveller who says 'you don't need technology, it is all part of travelling'. Additionally the power kept cutting out and had to wait for generators to kick in which could become a bit frustrating but in India it comes with the territory.

At 11am Abhi took the whole group once more into the village and again we were mobbed by hoards of children who seem to instinctively know we were coming! We were bombarded with the greeting of 'hello pen' which sounds bizarre I know but because westerners used to give children pens they have associated the word pen with us not even knowing what it actually is. This in its own way is quite sad and does show why we need to be responsible and not reinforce this 'begging' behaviour. We were allowed to visit the police station and saw two policeman on a bike armed with AK-47s which I thought was a bit extreme. For some reason Laura wanted to see the handcuffs but could not get her shot of me cuffed in an Indian cell to send to mum! It was getting warm at this point and we watched some pottery being made before heading back to the palace.

We got a sneaky shower in before checking out of our room, although not before allowing everyone to have a turn in our shower as it seemed to be the only decent one in the hotel! We had a late lunch and departed about 6pm for the train station for our overnight train to Varanasi, of which there was obvious anxiety in the group!! I felt ok because I had experienced these trains before and Laura felt ok about it too. On the bus ride we encountered three Indian weddings with loud music, lights and loads of people dancing in the street, absolutely crazy. The groom in one of the weddings was even on horse back!!

We waited for our 10:30 train and there was a potent smell of human waste that had been dumped from the train on the tracks near the platform, definitely a good way to suppress your appetite. The train arrived and we boarded and the first thought was how tightly packed the sleeping compartments were! Everyone was trying to place bags under seats and get the beds sorted, luckily I got a spacious one at the end but being a model boyfriend I gave it to Laura as she felt a bit claustrophobic in hers!! It was funny seeing everyone crammed into this carriage but after talking and laughing, every one gradually calmed as the lights of the train went out and the only sound was the hum of the air conditioning and the occasional rattle of the train, plus the old man continuously farting on the bunk below me. This I when realised, was going to be a long night...........