Well, we've survived nearly 2 weeks in India! It was a bit of a shock to the system at first, Delhi was just all hustle and bustle and nothing like we've ever seen before. Auto-rickshaws, cycles, rattling buses everywhere, all honking horns and ignoring road markings... mayhem! We did a bit of sight-seeing in Delhi, ate some street food, wandered along the crowded and chaotic main market, and booked our first train journey...

From Delhi we travelled by sleeper class to Jodphur, in the state of Rajasthan. It was a novel experience, travelling by train: quite basic, lots of people, and constantly being bombarded by questions because we're foreigners (no peace for the wicked!). We've found that a lot actually, on subsequent journeys - people seem to be fascinated by these strange white girls who are travelling by lower class modes of transport and they are always asking about marriage status, family, what it's like back home... they're just being friendly and curious but after 3 hours of interrogation it gets a bit tiring! Also, Jess causes a bit of confusion with her colouring, as most people say she looks Indian, and are convinced she must be lying when she says she has no Indian in her family. Having turned quite brown already, wearing hooped earrings and a nose stud just confuses the issue! Sara, on the other hand, is still quite pale and very British looking, and we're sure they take one look at her and drive up the price by quite a few rupees!

In Rajasthan we saw the fort and blue city of Jodphur, then bussed the 300km to Jaisalmer which is in the middle of the desert and has the most magical fairytale sandstone fort complete with maharaja palace and rabbit-warren, winding streets. Then another train to Jaipur, the state's capital, which supposedly has an old, 'pink' part of the city - more like terracotta! We did have fun in Jaipur, though, eating at an interesting restaraunt on top of the fort walls and going to see a Hindi film in a creamcake, meringue-themed pink cinema. Words cannot describe it....

Of course, we went to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We stayed in a budget hotel only 50m from one of the gates, so we were able to visit it in the morning before the hordes of visitors appeared. Typically, the one day we went to see one of the most iconic images of India, it was foggy. Darn it! As the day wore on, though, the fog cleared a little so we managed to get some decent photos. It truly was an amazing experience, the building is so much larger than we'd imagined, and sits there very serene and regal. That evening, before we left Agra, we sat on a rooftop cafe, writing postcards and overlooking the Taj Mahal. It was such a romantic, atmospheric moment as dusk fell, one we'll remember for a long time to come.

We caught an overnight train from Agra here to Varanasi. While waiting at the platform, we were invited by the kind station master to come and warm ourselves over the heater in his room (yep, it does get chilly here, and we're quite glad of our little fleeces we brought). Then the kind man gave us some tea! That's an example of the random acts of kindness we've experienced here - we get hassled by taxi drivers, touts and shopkeepers, pestered by beggars and street urchins, but are also shown great hospitality and friendliness wherever we go. Other backpackers turning up for the same train looked at us quite enviously as they called into the office to find out about which platform the train would depart from!

So here we are in Varanasi, one of India's holiest cities because it's on the Ganges. Many people come here to bathe at the steps or ghats all along the river, and the place is heaving with colourful flower offerings, powders and beads. Sunset is the best time to see the ghats and rituals being performed so tonight we'll be taking a stoll along the river, and hopefully in the morning we'll take a boat trip down the river for a bit as it's the best view and very atmospheric (although the guidebook does warn that we may see a corpse or two burning).

We're loving the food here, especially the cheap street vendor and dhaba-snack places - so far no Delhi belly, woohoo! Everything's ridiculously cheap, and it's a real effort not to go crazy buying things in the market. We've been quite self-restrained, but today we're cracking, and going to treat ourselves to an item or two in the street markets right next to our guest house. We've resigned ourselves to having to post things home, as we'll never be able to fit 6 months' worth of souveirs in our backpacks - oops! But we're only here once and we're more likely to regret not getting things than the marginally heavier bags.

The weather's been good, but at the moment is sightly cooler and hazy, with misty mornings. Hopefully as we travel down south and hit the beaches we'll start getting more blazing sunshine. Then Sara can work on her tan! Whatever the weather, we're looking forward to the next few weeks and seeing some more of this crazy country that's full of contradictions that puzzle us, bug us and make us laugh every day...

PS. REALLY SORRY, but we can't put up any photos yet - we have been taking loads, we promise! But the internet connections here are slow, computers old, and unable to cope with even our humble digital cameras! But when we get somewhere with better facilities we'll spend some time uploading a few albums for you to look at.