The journey from Sikkim to Delhi was a long one, after we rattled out of the mountains on our rickety bus we boarded the train for a marathon 30 hour journey.

With our ticket not fully confirmed and initially only one seat between us we had an eventful journey that saw us sharing our cramped berths with a multitude of fellow passengers along the way. A family of three had also been allocated my seat and were eventually moved on by the ticket inspector at 1am. Pam gave a chap who boarded in the middle of the night the shock of his life as he tried to push her to the back of her berth so he could sit on the front obviously not realising who he was dealing with! Pam was sleeping with her body and face covered by a sarong, when she lifted it to protest he screeched "ahhh western woman" and scarpered to the other end of the train!

We were happy to arrive in Delhi and be met by our good friends Jason, Keerti and their adorable 18 month old daughter with whom we would stay for our 5 night stay.

As we have previously lived in Delhi for around 4 years there was no compulsion to do any of the usual sightseeing, simply catch up with old friends, eat, drink and be merry!

We were lucky enough to be in town for the fab festival of colour 'Holi'. After 10 minutes of play our brilliant white kurtas were a riot of colour, after half an hour there was barely a square inch of cloth that wasn't covered!

So now we are returning home to Blighty for a few weeks of R&R with friends and family before heading off to Mexico in mid March for a spot of cruising.