Hello all,

We have safely landed in Sri Lanka and have happily found our routine at the elephant orphanage which I'm sure you will guess involves a lot of poo. May I add that we have no rakes or shovels, so you can use your imagination.

Now that we have arrived in the peaceful village of Pinnawala we have had time to reflect on our travels across India and have settled on our top memories as well as the worst. This was meant to be a top ten list but things got out of hand very quickly as you will see.

Top 24 memories:

1) Rickshaw racing - pay extra to race against your friends. The most daring wins. And also nearly dies.
2) The 'James' head waggle - impersonate an Indian, get better stuff
3) Asha & Baby - old but ace
4) Iron Maiden - specifically, swiping a VIP pass and handing it over the wall to 9 non VIPs. Free Vodka all round.
5) VIP tent inferno - at said gatecrashed event, an illegal stray cigarette causes mayhem but brings out the firefighter in Cameron Higgins*
6) The A-Team - you know who you are**
7) The Pondicherry Party Villa - Hotel, pool, booze, DJ/DD/thief, Moosejaw pants.
8) My sari
9) The Times of India - Although mislabeled as Lauren, we still did get into the paper after one week in Bangalore. And that time it was at a VIP event we were actually invited to.
10) Taj Mahal Jamal! - The only two reasons to visit Agra: the Taj Mahal because it's ace and Jamal the crazy rickshaw driver who gave us the best insight into Indian life.
11) Monkeys at school - I'm not referring to the pupils, there were real live monkeys in the boys toilets.
12) A-Team phrases - 'Unreal', 'Holy mackeral', 'Ace', 'Don't judge me', 'Off me gats', 'Not so much' 'Gee whiz', 'Spoon', 'The cream is in the night', 'For sure'
13) Shirleys cooking
14) RAVE Magazine - the key to all VIP events, three in one week
15) Wasim going mainstream
16) Vijay - my guitar hero
17) Raghu Dixit - local Bangalorean celebrity inviting RAVE plus groupies into his pad for interview and beers
18) The local - seedy, dark & dingey. The highlight was finding that the staff had cut us out of the paper. The lowlight inspires the song 'You Point it, You Shoot it' (see point 19).
19) Group songs - including such hits as 'Rickshaw Man', 'Mrs Katary (I'm So Sorry)' & 'You Point It You Shoot It', inspired by the horrendous squat toilets in the local
20) Sophie Frost appearing on the beach in Goa
21) Sleeper trains - esay, cheap and fun
22) Mass spooning in Goa: Part II
23) Card games, drinking games and lateral thinking courtesy of Cameron Higgins
24) Cafe Coffee Day - Costas only it cost us a lot less

Worst 15 memories:

1) No Delhi Belly but Goa Gut and Bangalore Bum - for more see next blog entry!
2) James and Sukhi beaten by cops for getting into a rickshaw?!
3) Mosquitos and Lucy's fat little foot
4) Simon's head wound
5) Man fully inspecting his penis on the side of the street in Udaipur
6) The losing spree - James's Phone, Louise's bank card (at the hands of James), Jane's camera (at the hands of DJ/DD/thief) all in the space of 2 days
7) Simon's French
8) The rudeness of the upstairs old folk
9) Jez
10) Rave ceasing publication just before James gets published
11) Being a girl in India
12) The atermath of the Katary Party and the resultant curfew
13) Not going to the zoo
14) The 8-hour, 8-person car journey back from Pondicherry. Too close for comfort.
15) The 16hour bus ride back from Goa - A Ribena soaked matress, a groping arm through the window and screaming at the driver for a toilet break.

*Possibly inspried by the Tazmania bushfires. Our thoughts go out to him.
**We include Madge and McHaggis in this.