We couldn't get enough of airports so decided to spend the night in Chennai airport, wasn't so bad we had blankets previously pinched from the Egypt Air flight so the cold was kept at bay. They decided to fumagate the whole terminal a few times during the night to rid the place of the mosquitos, quite a surreal experience seeing a big plume of smoke coming towards you when you're half asleep!!

I can't tell you much about the flight to Delhi as we were all getting some sleep while we could!!

Delhi came as no big surprise to us, lots of noise, pollution, rubbish, people, beggars, open urinals etc... Had we have arrived in Delhi 1st i think we would have got the first plane out of there and maybe out of India too. All that said being a bit more seasoned to India we all find Delhi quite OK , the room is nice enough and has hot water showers the 1st we've had in over 2 months!!

There's loads of shops all up the main bazaar where we're staying and the prices are really cheap so a great place to pick up new clothes, some necklaces and bracelets and almost anything else you could possibly need.

We have had to change our itinerary a bit due to the fact we were screwed over by the guy who booked all our train tickets. Our most important train from Varanasi to Calcutta we were put on the waiting list for which had to be confirmed, we were reassured that there would be no problem,it turns out that the ticket he got for us is never brought unless you have confirmed seats as it's the most popular in India, WICKED!!!

It's taken some shifting about and we're going to Rishikesh which is near the source of the Ganges instead of Varanasi and are now flying to Calcutta from Delhi which has hit the wallets a fair bit. The trains in India need to be booked at least 2 weeks in advance for long haul and sleeper class so there was no other option, i just hope that karma works it's magic on the Oik that took advantage of us!

We still had our tickets to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahl, which once inside we all agreed is totally impressive, clean and free of cows. Our experince of Agra was hassle free thanks to the advice of many people not to bother with a guide just get in have a look around and get out, as Agra itself is nothing special and renound for theft and harrssing touts. We were quite content with seeing the most famous building in India if not the world too and headed back to the train station for the 4.5 hr train journey back to Delhi.

To pass the time on the train we made great use of the chai and food vendors. Roger managed to rack up a total of 6 samosas all of varying quality. Train travel around India has been very good, you never have to worry about going hungry or thirsty although using the toilets may leave you feeling a bit queazy!!

Off to Rishikesh next for a few days to experince the Ganges.....