We embarked on another overnight train journey to Chennai, we thought the journey would be boring but we were wrong. A group of Indian men were playing music from their phone and so we decided to join in singing, they had the music taste of a 13year old girl. Backstreet boys, blue and Bryan adams, everything i do i do it for you! After disturbing the other passengers we finally got some rest.

In Chennai we met up with Suhanya's aunt and she let us use her shower (1st hot one in a week!). We decided to be geeks and go to the science museum and planetarium. The museum was good in theory but everything was broken and run down! The planetarium however was really nice. The next day we headed for some sari shopping. There sari stores are as big as department stores, it was amazing! We went to a restaurant where we ate off banana leaves! We went for dinner with Suhanya's aunt and cousins. Nicole got spat on by a rickshaw driver after refusing to pay him for a 400m journey after he had a flat tyre and couldn't complete the journey. All in all we were very pleased to leave Chennai!

We then flew back to Delhi for a day (with dodgy stomachs after a bad Chennai milkshake).

We headed off for Varanasi on the train. Varanasi is a holy place for Hindus. They wash in the Ganges river and put dead bodies in! The water is septic but people believe the water is good for them. On Nicole's birthday we saw the burning ghats where the dead are cremated, it was gross. Nicole had a sitar lesson and Suhanya had a tabla lesson. We had lots of fun and our music instuctors were lovely. We splashed out at dinner and went to a v posh hotel with live music. It was nice to see how the sitar and tabla should be played, i don't think we will be giving any performances ourseleves anytime soon!Varanasi was dirty/busy so we went to a nice hotel for a day with a swimming pool and a steam bath, we felt so clean! We were ready to leave India. We escaped Varanasi on the night bus. There was the most disgusting man who followed Suhanya around the bus and stared at us for hours, we got the help of some lovely Nepalese men and were very greatful.

We fled India at dawn, crossing the border at Sunauli. We breathed a sigh of releif at the relaxed atmosphere and kind people, pleased to have escaped the Indian hassle.

All in all India had many ups and downs. Overall we had a good time. Our highlights were:

Taj Mahal

Backwaters