Namaste,

On leaving Ooty is was a relatively short bus ride to the city of Mysore, down the mountain and hairpin bends, past tea plantantions with some wonderful views across the valley. Then it was thru a tiger reserve that went on for miles. Altho i didn't see the elusive big cat i did see many spotted deer and lots of monkeys which were pretty cool.

Mysore is famous for its big palace for the former maharajas who lived there up until the 70's. Well i toured this during the afternoon time which was interesting, but by night the palace was lit up with thousands upon thousands of lights and was absolutely amazing, certainly a cool night time place!! The next i wemt to see a large 7 storey temple on the top of a hill overlooking the city. The views were good but i couldn't face the crush of people trying to get in literally lining up in their hundreds giving no one any space so i was happy to see the temple from the outside.

After Mysore, came my favourite place in India (if not the whole trip) so far in Hampi. Close to the small village are the ruins of a 15th century empire that ruled southern India from a city of half a million inhabitants. There are ruins and temples very well preserved all over the place and the landscape is that of rocky boulders everywhere making it look a bit like planet of the apes land. The first day there i just walked from site to site close to the village in awe of the ruins and the next day i hired a bicycle and toured round all day visiting the ruins a bit further afield. It was off season as well which meant it was very quiet and at a lot of the ruins i had them completely to myself which was all the better.

I then got a train to Goa which was an interesting experience. The trains in India are first class and seats are like beds, so much more comfy than back in England. Anyway the funny story is that of Haermaphodites, if anyone saw Paul Merton in India where he followed around a group of Haemaphrodites as they went from business to business extorting money by vowing to put a curse on anyone that didn't give to them you'll know what i mean, well there were quite a few of these groups on the train walking up and down asking for money!! Thankfully they stayed clear of the white tourists, but alot of Indians did in fact give them sme change, not a bad business really!!

In Goa i spent a couple of days inland visitng the old cities of Panaji and Old Goa before heading to the beach for a few days. Immediately it felt a bit different to the rest of India with more european influence, Goa having been Portuguese until the 50s or 60s. Panaji was a nice small city with interesting buildings but Old Goa was something else. Back in the 16th century it was bigger than Lisbon and London but all that remains now is the Chapels, Churches and one of the largest cathedrals in Asia all of which i visited, quite appropriately seeing as it was Good Friday!!

I decided to check out a few beaches so i spent a day at Candolim, a day at Calangute and 2 and a bit days at Anjuna. Candolim was nice but was Sunbed city full of English package tourists, i did sit on the beach for a bit but there was a nice fort at one end so i walked along the beach and up the cliffs to check that out. Calangute had fewer sunbeds and it was a mixture of European and Indian tourists so this was a nice beach, it was a saturday and it showed the fotball so that was nice. I spent quite a bit of time on this beach. One funny story was when i was reading my book, and got quite deep into it when suddenly i heard a moo and looked up and i was surrounded by 18 cows!! They just roam around on the beach, i don't know if any one owns em or if they live free, who knows, but it is not what i expected when sunbathing on the beach!! Anuna was my favourite of the beaches, not a sunbed in site, hardly any tourists and nice golden sand, the only problem was the hassle of the women trying to sell you stuff which was pretty constant, but i learnt to deal with it just about. I sat for a few hours one day and every five minutes a girl (or a gay guy) would come up to you and say the following:

Hello, how are you?

What is your name?

Where do you come from?

Arrh England, nice country, very cold yes?

Your first time in Goa?

How long you stay in Goa?

You Married?

Have Girlfriend?

No, why not?

Can i ask you one question, you have a look at my shop?

Why not, cheapest in Anjuna?

Promise to look at my shop?

After a few Nos they would sit there for a while saying come look, come look, come look and then eventually leave.

Every conversation went the same way so eventually i cut them off at the start either pretending not to speak english or telling them not to try and sell me anything!!

Anyway i spent a couple of nice relaxing days on the beach there before heading to the Goan famous wednesday market that they hold in Anjuna. It was a huge affair selling evrything you could want, i ended up with 2 T-shirts and a belt so managed to resist the urge to splurge!!

I then got an overnight train to Mumbai on which i met some real nice Indian folks, though it did get a bit wierd when one woman started preaching to me about Jesus's love for me and how only he can save me. Well i smiled and went to bed shortly after this only to be kept awake for the next half hour by them praying and singing hymns which sounded kinda like a cult more than a church going folk.

I arrived in Mumbai at 4am yesterday morning and after the hotel of my choice being full i ended up at a cheap hotel in the Islamic part of town. The tour operator in my hotel and in fact most down my road offer trips to Iraq which i find kind of a wierd place to holiday to!! I spent yesterday touring the city going to the gateway of India and the Taj palace hotel (where the shootings of last year were) and walking around around looking at the architecture before walking along the seafront promenade to Chowpatty beach. The water is apparently toxic, so no swimming there and there was some protest as it was the first day of the Indian elections and they were letting of small bombs and flares so i didn't hang around there for to long, but it was a pretty nice beach nonetheless. I then went to Gandhis old house where he lived for about 10-15 years. Having just read his autobiography, this was very interesting to me and putting photos to things i read about made it all the more interesting. Although he had some religious ideals and thoughts that i don't neccessarily follow, he sure was a good man who done good for the people of India and beyond.

Today i went on a boat ride to Elephanta island about an hour of the coast of Mumbai where there are very impressive caves cut into the rocks centurys ago. They were pretty special but the real attraction were all the pesky monkeys that were everwhere ina nd around the caves!! I have just been to a street market and sitting in an internet cafe across the road from the Leopold cafe, the cafe where westerners were dining when the gunmen attacked Mumbau. It was a bit packed tho so i didn't go in, looks a real nice place tho as well as the hotel. I'm off to have a look at the busiest train station in Asia in a minute before going to the cinema (if i can find one) to go and watch a Bolloywood movie (think i should seeing as i'm where it all happens) and try to stay awake for its duration!!

Ps if you haven't seen em and want to i put some african photos on facebook, won't put them on here as well as takes ages

Thomas