I left Varanasi with Kimberley on a train which took 32 hours -Yeah you read it right 32 HOURS! I know that sounds like a hell of a long time but India is a huge country and whilst travelling around it I didn't do a journey less than 6 hours so 32 although tiring, long and unpleasant a lot of the time it wasn't to challenging to us. In fact we even thought at the time that at home a 4 hour journey to Scotland or 8 hours to the southern coasts seems like a lifetime, you get figity after 3 hours and often watch the clock in the hope that you are nearly there - but in India I found that getting there is usually a big part of the adventure - to see the landscape change, to speed past sunset and then sunrise and to meet the people all going the same way as you.

We boarded at 12 noon and the train was quite pleasant, I had space to spread out a little, put my feet up and let the wind from the open window whistle on my face as I stared out.On long journeys like that it's the peace that you enjoy the most, if you are left alone to listen to music, read your book or play some Sudoku the time fly's - but if you are constantly bugged by something or someone the journey is a long and stressful one.I was enjoying the train and catching up on some reading when we pulled into a stop around 5 hours in - by this point me and Kimberley were starving so we jumped off of the train to grab some food (Indian trains usually stop for 15 mins at large stations so the smokers and hungry can get off and satisfy their needs) we got back on piled high with samosa's, stuffed paratha and veg cutlets but we couldn't find our seats? We wondered up and down the carage attempting to remember our seat numbers when I recognized my bag - it was underneath and Indian family who had all crammed into the 6 seats under the sleeper beds (when you book a sleeper bed you get a seat underneath too) there were loads of them, kids parents - grandparents, in fact the whole train was suddenly swelling with people! The rest of the journey was far from pleasant, almost every bed had a family of 4 or even 6 on it and because they obviously couldn't all fit on the narrow beds (which I didn't think you could fit 2 people on) the men (fathers / brothers) would sit anywhere they could, near the stinking toilets, in the isle or on the ends of other peoples beds.I ended up sleeping with 2 men perched on the end of my bunk, I woke up at one point to find one man sleeping with his head on my leg and hugging my feet! But how do you kick someone off and ask them to sleep on the filthy floor where spilt food and tea from the day before had attracted any number of beetles and cockroaches - I couldn't do it, so instead I slept crunched up in the smallest ball possible and one of the men at the end of my tiny bed did the same.He thanked me in the morning.

The following day was long, after a restless night I woke to the sound of music being played from a mans phone (a classic Indian thing to do- Its always screeching bollywood music and its always loud enough for the whole carriage to enjoy … at 5am!) and as I sat there tired and hungry I realized that there was still 12 hours to go L

When we finally got off of the train it was like someone had kept us in a box for over a day, our limbs were sore due to the amount of luggage on the train we couldn't straighten our legs unless we climbed over the people and parcels to get off of the train at one of the stops - but by the time you got off the whistle would blow and it would be time to get back on.After that train Mumbai never looked so freakin good!

We only stayed on day in Mumbai - it was nice to go back as a proper traveler, to see it with savvy eyes and understand the culture a bit better.

Then it was time to fly to Singapore! Indian was amazing, I will admit that whilst there it was hard to appreciate exactly what it was I was seeing and doing, hard to accept the cultural differences such as the spitting, s***ting and pissing in the street - the lack of any organization in any aspect of their lives and the fact that Indian people have an inability to talk to each other in anything other than a loud shout.The noise, the dirt, the attitude - all of these things can easily get to a person as the time goes on and its not until I was on the countdown to leaving that I realized how special all of these qualities are - India doesn't follow the traditions of any other culture but its own and in its blind stubbornness to let the western world affect it it can come off as quite primitive but its this that sets it apart from many other countries and cultures.India is a force to be reckoned with, it grabs you, spins you round, screams in your face and then completely ignores you but you cant help but find some fondness towards it.The way I see it is its like a obstinate old man, he has a mind set in its ways and he is not afraid to voice his opinion - even when no one asks for it.But at the end of the day that old man who you may not agree with or even like sometimes, is still loveable in a way and you can find fondness for him regardless - this is the way I view India.

Not that india doesn't have its positive side - for me it held some of the most phenomenal experiences - I had some of the most culturally rich times of my life in this country.I sat and swooned over the Taj Mahal - one of the seven wonders of the whole world, I hung off of the side of a speeding train, enjoyed cocktails at sunset in Goa and was blown away by the mass prayers in Varanasi.I came I saw and I understand now better than ever how incredible a country India is, you might not like it, you might not enjoy it but at the end of the day you have to appreciate the vibrancy, variety and passion this country holds.

And now … onto to South East Asia!! Wooohooo!