I have made it to India! It is very very hot and set to get hotter, apparently I came at the worst possible time. I thought I'd be ok after being in Bangkok but I was wrong, it is like being in a furnace.

Anyway, weather reports aside, I'm not quite sure what to make of India yet. I arrived on the night of the 15th into Delhi airport. I have two friends from home (Birmingham), Arvarinder and Deepti, who are originally from Punjab, and helped me plan my route before I left home. Since I've been away, they decided to visit home and coincided their trip with mine, they even changed their flight to arrive on the same day and waited for me at the airport. When I arrived they announced they had left England for good and had packed up completely before leaving! Arvarinder's mum had come to collect us so we left Delhi airport at 10pm to embark on an eight hour drive to Ludhiana, Arvarinder's hometown, with driver, mum, random English girl and 7 bags in tow.

Remember the roads in Vietnam? Yes, I had been warned in advance, and I'd already experienced the traffic in South East Asia, but India is definitely the most, er, "exciting" country as far a driving goes. You know those drug-fuelled boy racers who come screeching round the corner, driving right up behind you, overtaking hazardly and honking their horn, and if they get caught they're likely to get a driving ban? Well, everybody in India drives like that, and bearing in mind it's the second most populated country in the world, the roads are fairly busy. It's like being in a rally-racing game. Since being away, I've learnt to just trust. I remember my first bus journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay in Vietnam, I spent the whole time leaning forward in terror, staring at the oncoming traffic and convinced there was going to be a head-on collision every second. Now I just think, "it's fine, everything will work out", and it does, invariably at the last second, and the last inch. Everybody wants to be in front of the vehicle immediately in front of them, right then and there, so you spend the whole time either overtaking or being overtaken, or both, and the traffic on the other side of the road is doing exactly the same. Coming out of Delhi was manic. There were three lanes painted on the road, but the traffic had arranged itself into about six overlapping lanes, overtaking on all sides with about a three inch gap between the cars. Not just cars either, the roads in India are populated in equal measures by cars, motorbikes, lorries, buses, horse-and-carts, tuk-tuks, bicycles, and cyclos. There are normally some cows chilling out in the central reservation (if there is one) too.

Well, that's the traffic. As for the people, they are the most hospitable people I've ever met. Arvy and Deepti only got married two years ago in England, and have only had, at best, fleeting meetings with each other's families. So I have been guest to meetings with in-laws, and in-laws' families. For example, on my second day here we went to visit Arvy's sister's husband's aunt's farm. I've mainly been staying with Arvy's mum and unmarried sister in Ludhiana, but the other day we went to Amristar, which is home to the most important Sikh temple, the Golden Temple, which was very gold. This is very close to the Pakistani border so we then went to see the flag-lowering ceremony, which was entertaining, as crowds gather on both sides only feet apart, and the soldiers march up and down, swinging their legs in the air and yelling at each other.

After that we went to Deepti's parents' house in Chandigarh, where I also met grandmothers, uncles, and cousins. Chandigarh is a pretty interesting place, apparently the whole city was designed by a French architect, and laid out in grids or sectors, a little bit like Canary Wharf I guess, but with less glass and steel. We went to the Rock Garden, which is the life work of an artist, I forget his name, who has built the whole thing out of recycled waste - well, things like broken pottery and jewellery rather than rubbish, so it's better than it sounds. It was very cool.

As I say, everyone here is very hospitable. People keep buying me presents and it took me three days before I was allowed to pay for dinner, and I'm the guest! The general population, however, don't seem as friendly as the South East Asians. I don't know how different it would be if I was on my own. I was warned before I came about the men, but so far they seem less, "eager", than in SEAsia. Though I have been with native Indians the whole time so far, so it's obviously hard to judge. Even at the airport though, the men were definitely attentive, but in a polite, chivalrous way rather than a pervy way. Most people ignore me to be honest, even though I haven't seen any other white people since I arrived. I've had one or two kids staring at me but that's about it. I do miss SEAsia a lot, I think as far as people go in general terms, they are the friendliest I've met so far, especially in Laos.

I only have three weeks here, well, two and a half now. I realised before I got here that this is nowhere near enough time, but I can't really stay longer as my visa expires just after I leave. We were originally going to do Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Goa, somewhere else further south and then Mumbai. This was at best optimistic, so we are now doing Rajasthan, Agra, Delhi, and then I'll go to Mumbai for my flight. The plan is still being formulated, but transport will be a mix of trains, buses, and cars, and the next stop will be Jaisalmer. Arvy has lots of friends in the hospitality and tourism industry so that should work out quite well.

Anyway, I am very very very hot now, especially with the computers, so I'll be off.