Hey Guys and Gals! Quick update on how our India trip is going. Things have changed dramatically since we last left Delhi about a week and a half ago. Coming up to the mountains has been lovely, it's so much cooler and calmer up here, so much so that it feels like an entirely different country. Although you still get a certain level of hassle here it's nothing on the scale of what goes on in the big cities and we have been ab;e to well and truly chill out. After leaving Delhi we headed straight to Shimla which was used by the British in their time here as a summer retreat to escape the heat of the plains-no bloody wonder! We stayed in Shimla for 4 days generally wandering the hills Julie Andrews style and visiting temples that had been besieged by monkeys-Jammy is really not having luck with them here-we went up to this temple which was covered in the little b*****s so we copied the locals and hired a stick to try and keep them away. jammy however thought he was some sort of Indiana Jones and tried to save a lady who had one climbing on her pants by brandishing his stick, which in turn made the monkey turn on him-fangs and all! It was so funny, he almost wet himself and quickly lost his confidence whilst the female monkey just strolled away. After Shimla we headed up here to McLeod Ganj, again in the hills, which is totally different again. It's full of western traveller's here, most of which are here to meditate and find themselves. We met a random English woman with a name not far off Riggypoo who is building a spiritual centre here in the hills-It's a tad difficult not to remain sceptical! The reason they are all here however is because it is where the Dalai Lama lives since his exile from Tibet so it's a real buddhist centre and home to a lot of Tibetan refugees. If you're not familiar with what the Chinese have done in Tibet then you should look at this website: www.freetibet.org The food has been great up here, it's actually quite difficult to get hold of alcohol tho' contrary to what a couple of the photos imply! Yesterday we did a day trip in a taxi (flashpacking) to Amritsar which is home to the Golden Temple which is the most famous Sikh temple in the world. Its a fantastic building and well worth the scary journey back in the car although we literally got the chance to experience what it must be like to be famous-every five seconds we were being asked for a photo or being asked our names etc. It's not normally an issue but yesterday it was so hot as we had come down from the hills and at times we were literally surrounded by 30 or 40 Indians which can be quite intimidating. It's only because they are curious but it can get quite annoying, or then again maybe they thought Jammy's effort of a purple head cover was just far too entertaining to miss out on a pic! The most fascinating part of the temple was the chance to get a free lunch,literally. Every day the temple feeds 30, 000 pilgrims (quote Lying Planet 2004!)which means getting the chance to live like a refugee for 30 minutes. Quite an experience to say the least, certainly very humbling! After the temple our taxi took us to the India-Pakistan border ceremony which was highly amusing! This is a really big event that happens every single day and consists of a face-off between the two sides supposedly all in good humour although we're not totally convinced. it was a lot of fun tho with lots of shouting and chanting, especially when a poor Pakistani soldier goose-stepped with too much vigour and fell on his arse!! Right,gonna shut up now. We have already booked our flights to Bangkok for the 18th May so we only have 10 days left in India and I don't wanna waste it on a computer. It's gonna be sad to leave but it's the best thing to do when it's 45 degrees outside elsewhere in India! In the mean time we are gonna pack in as much as possible! Make sure you have a look at the photos although some of them are really boring due to the fact that me and Jammy have come over all a bit David Bailey! Hope everyone is well, send us an email or please leave a message!!! Mel And JammyXXX ps Jammy is gonna write next time as he is complaining that he has to take a ribbing otherwise.