Amritsar

After donning our head scarfs and washing our feet we enjoyed a nice slow stroll around the water and the shimmering reflection of the 'Golden Temple' - The most sacred Sikh shrine. We arrived at the station to embark on our 25 hour train journey,and were hit with the news of a 6 hour delay.

Varanasi

30 hours later we arrived at 3am. To make matters worse there was a powercut and we had no hostel booking. Our driver kindly helped us negotiate the winding alleyways in the pitch black by foot, with only the light of a mobile phone! Knocking on Hostel doors trying to find a room, we eventually found one.

Varanasi is probably the most important Hindu City, where people wash away their sins in the Ganges river and bodys are burnt and sent downstream. It is by far the most interesting yet crazy place we have visited so far, a heady mixture of religon, touts, tourists and cows. Strangely, despite the the hecticness, we found that it was also a place that you relax. We watched the pilgrams bathe, bodys burn and saddhus' meditate as we strolled along the ghats (riverbank). Our highlight was being rowed up the ganges at sunrise through the mist as the city came to life.

Sunauli

We stayed the night in the border town of Sunauli, was a funny sort of place. Managed to enter Nepal and then go back to India twice before we discovered where to get our passport stamped and buy our visa.

Lumbini

The third destination of huge Religious importance we visited in the space of a week - Lumbini is the birth spot of Buddha. Had a really nice day cycling around the the 'sacred lake' to the various Buddist temples donated from around the world before seeing (apparently) the exact spot Buddha was born. A 9 hour journey through breathtaking views of the mountains and breathtaking driving (for other reasons) up to Pokhara was next.

Pokhara

What a delightful place, nestled in a valley below the Anapurna and beside a lake, Nepal's second city is clean, pleaceful and full of friendly warm locals. After a day's recharge we made an afternoon trek up the hill side to the World Peace Pagoda and prepared for our coming whitewater raft down to Chitwan Park.