Hellloooo from Delhi, yes- I've left the beaches of Goa behind me and I've planed it back to Delhi. I would've spent longer than 2 weeks there but Mum came back to Delhi to send Keeran (my bro) back home (he's lost his voice cos he was ill) and we followed. So now there are 3 of us left. We had a great time in Goa - Maya fell in lurve with a guy that we've nicknamed Mowgli cos he ooks like Mowgli from the Jungle Book. Actually, he is quite cute and he fancied me first (as he should!), but that just made it more of a challenge for Maya, and if you know her than you know she loves a challenge! Anyway, so she's been 'Mowglying' as we call it for about 2 weeks or so. Apart from that , the beach hut place we were staying at in Colva Beach for the first week in Goa (which is where Mowgli worked) was the best - it had everything - great food, hammocks, friendly workers and the beach went on for miles. Colva actually means 'silver' and is named that because the sand does actually sparkle because it does have silver in it- I knew that one day I'd be walking on silver! I had lobster in a great seafood restaurant called Kentucky which was amazing and they had live music (which mum loves). The singer was amazing - he could mimick the voice of every singer, from Oasis to Bon Jovi. We were in hysterics when he even managed a Cheryl Crow! Maya's been laughing because everywhere we go, someone fancies me... two workers in Kentucky were both after me (which mum liked because we got great service!), then there was a desperate fisherman who's chat up line was 'I like you', with a cheesy grin - atleast I got a free coconut out of that one! What else did we do in Colva... we went on a Jungle trip to see the second highest waterfall in Goa, Dudhsagar Falls. That was beautiful and I've never been in a jeep before that actually crosses the river and fills up with water as it crosses! After Colva, we went to Anjuna Beach, famous for two things - partying and the weekly Anjuna Market. The market was huge and they had just about everything a girl could want, at great prices. Mum was funny cos she'd bring down prices from 800 rupees to something stupid like 100 rupees (just over a pound) most of the time she was just joking and mentioned ridiculous prices to annoy them because they rip tourists off so much, but when they agreed to the prices, it was very funny and very suprising. Mind you, they did think she was Indian most of the time, cos she speaks Hindi. You will be suprised to hear that we didn't party in Anjuna even once, reason being because Maya caught an eye infection from Mowgli the day that we got to Anjuna, so she missed the market. She had to stay in for most of the week, but we had a good laugh indoors as well - Keeran made up a tune with a flute he bought in Anjuna market which went: "Swollen eye, Swollen eye, What are you doing on my face?" I also started practicing a belly dance with just finger symbols and no music (when it's ready, maybe I'll do a bit of busking!). There was a beach next to Anjuna which has a large statue of Shiva's head lying on the beach - it was carved by an Italian. That was impressive. I saw a beautiful sunset on the sea (I think it's the first whole sunset I've ever seen). After Anjuna, we went to the capital of Goa called Panaji. Here we went on a river cruise which showed us traditional dances of Goa and even mum got up to dance! The Indian guys on the boat were hilarious to watch. I can't really explain to you what they were doing, but some could have been monkeys and I was so sure that a few of them were having spasms. My jaw was literally wide open for about half the time from the shock of watching there dance styles, but it was really good to see people having fun. Me and Maya also went to a theatre here, but unfortunately on that night there was a play on which was in Konkani (the Goan language), so we only picked up part of the plot - the mother wanted to go to America to start a journalism uni course, but her husband and kids were totally against it. We left at the interval. I went on a tour of South Goa which was great except the guide sat next to me and really pissed me off when he touched my leg. I snapped at all the guys who approached me after that. I saw huge churches and I saw the coffin of the Saint Francis Xavier whose body is miraculously undecomposed after hundreds of years.

Mum's leaving Delhi tomorrow night. Today we just did shopping, but yesterday we did a day tour of Agra, where we saw Agra Fort, a tomb that I can't remember the name of, but most importantly, the Taj Mahal. It was stunning. Whenever I've seen pics of the palace, I've always thought it's probably not as big and beautiful as the pics make out, but it really is more beautiful than I could have imagined. The guide told us interesting facts like the writing that runs up the Taj is larger at the top and smaller at the bottom so that visually it all looks the same size to the viewer. Also the amount of work that went into it - there were intricate carvings on whole pieces of marble and gems had been brought from 4 or 5 different countries to be set in the marble. One flower was made of 64 of these different stones, and there must have been thousands of them all over the Taj. It was quite hot yesterday and even so, the marble that we walked on was amazingly cool. Agra Fort was also quite impressive, but a one day trip is definately not the way to do it as 10 hors was spent just travelling. Anyway, I've been babbling for a while so I'm going to go now. Tomorrow we're going on an afternoon tour of Delhi which should be good.

Thanks for the messages guys and I'm sorry it took so long to write/upload pics. Keep writing and I'll have more pics up soon. Would you believe that I actually haven't had time?(!) I've been constantly busy seeing things and moving around. Not sure what we'll do for these last couple of weeks in India. Maybe I'll go to Rajasthan. Anyway, Thailand's after that - we'll be on a trip for a month or so until 4th Jan and hopefully Anthony will meet me after that. He's actually thinking of getting a multi-stop ticket himself as it's working out the same price as a return to Thailand. Selina, don't worry about not being able to come out and meet me, I'm sure money's tight with uni and Soraya, I'm going to find out the exact date, but it looks like I'll be in Sao Paolo around or on the 10th July so start finding out ticket prices to come and meet me! Ta Ta for now, Rish xxxxxxxxxxx