Hi Everyone,

So a couple of days ago it was my birthday! thats right I turned 24 :( it was a miserable moment but a fab couple of days.

We started my birthday in delhi waking at 5.30am to go and meet our driver at 6am. He took us for some indian breakfast which was basically flat bread covered in oil with potato inside, it wasnt the amazing start to my birthday I was hoping for but he had tried his best. We then went on an 8 hour journey which our driver had said would take 5? to Pushka. Pushka is known for being loved by the hippy community and you can see why as soon as you arrive. It is a little town set in the middle of deserts and mountains, there is one made road which contains the market and off of this road is all of the guesthouses and cafes. Many of the cafes where offering a lovely drink called a Banga Lassie, Lassies are yoghurt drinks which are mainly fruit flavoured - they are delish but never the cheapest drink on the menu - a Banga lassie is the same but with the added magical ingredient of Weed ... hence the reason why the hippy travellers make it to Pushka and hesistate to leave.

We arrived in the afternoon and went straight to see the camel guy who rents out camels for 3 hours up to 7 day trips. We booked in for a 3 hour sunset ride that evening and were informed that our camels would collect us from the hotel. We checked into our reasonable accommodation and as we were drinking chai near the pool kim turned to me and said "what time is my camel picking me up?" it sounded so normal at the time it wasnt until a couple of minutes later that we giggled at the thought of what was ahead. Our camels arrived, Kims was called Joni and mine was Jimmy ... Jimmy and Joni?! very inventive. I was bricking it when I realised how we had to get onto them, I had visions of 'Youve been framed' moments ahead and really didnt want to fall off such a massive animal, oh the shame! But we got on with no problems and set off on our desert trek. To start off with I didnt enjoy myself, Jimmy had a slanty back so I didnt feel safe at all and was holding on for dear life! However after we had walked through town and out into the desert with our indian guides sat behind us and balancing jimmys wonky back out I started to have fun. Kim was on a beautiful camel (thats sounds weird but its true) which walked smoothly and therefore made Kim look rather majestic and regal in the process. My camel however did not have the same grace, he plodded along - all he had to do was follow kims camel but he kept looking around and if something caught his attention he would happily wonder off to have a look, which meant I was constantly going the wrong way and kim was always waiting for me to catch up. I have never known a camel be so interested in a pig before, saying that ive never known a camel before so maybe thats why?

We made it into the desert for sunset, we got off of the camels and walked up a sand dune to get a good view. It was so quite and the view was splendid, some locals came to join us - they sat behind us looking at the view and we forgot they were there ... up until they made us s*** ourselves when out of no where they pulled out some weird indian instruments and started playing their favourite local folk songs. The racket was unbelievable! (I did video them and will upload it for you all to see as soon as I can) me and kim were finding it hard not to laugh and out of respect tried to smile at them and then focus our attention on the setting sun as a distraction.

We got back on our camels and road back into town. I kept asking my indian guide questions about the town and the use of camels but due to a lack of english most of his answers where "yes" at one point he did manage to point at a goat and say "eat" so that was both interesting and factual :)

By the time we got back I had a very numb bum, this was mainly due to the fact that we were running late so our guides decided to run the camels back home. The is nothing more ungraceful than a woman bouncing up and down on top of a running camel - a camel which found it difficult to do anything but plod completely unco-ordinated in the first place! I looked absolutely ridiculous! But it was funny when kims camel decided to over take me, I looked across to see a determined camels head bounce past followed by kim smiling away, "hiya, only me!" is all I heard her say to me before she trotted off down the road.

Our day was topped off by a delicious meal and a quick jump on the net - not the craziest birthday ever but definately a good one to remember.

On the same day as my birthday it is the first day of Diwali in India - its the Hindu version of christmas, everyone gives out presents, put fairy lights around their houses and set off fireworks.

Indians and fireworks arent a great combination - they are completely nuts! They buy the loudest ones possible which make bangs like bombs that can be heard across cities. One went off near me and kim and I went deaf in one ear for 10 mins afterwards! They also take no care for safety - theres no bonfire night code of conduct here im afraid with them setting off boxes of fireworks and then just hoping for the best. If the firework doesnt explode they go over and look at it baffled then simply jump out of the way if it goes off late. Oh and dont just thinl they are doing this outside, on my birthday they were setting them off in the middle of the building! I checked the fire escape routes before I went to bed just incase ;)

And that was my birthday in Pushka

Thank you all for your messages, I loved reading all of them and I hope you all had a great bonfire night!