For those of you who might be slightly worried I know I said we'd touch base before leaving India but sometimes these things don't work out as planned!

When we last wrote we had arrived in Varanasi and it was by far our favourite place in India. It was chilled out and everyone accepted no as an answer for the first time! Despite it being chilled out there were an awful lot of cows which did little to help Ellie's overnight fear of cows! The pat making machines were everywhere.

We went on the hunt for lassi, a traditional indian drink made of yoghurt. Our first experience wasn't great but we decided to give it another go and we're so glad we did. The blue lassi shop in varanasi served up heaven in a clay pot. Ellie ordered Papaya and Apple Lassi and it came full to the brim with fresh flecks of apple and was out of this world.

Sunday was fathers day, we didn't forget, and we ended a great day in Varansi with a boat ride on the Ganges. We saw the sunset and watched the daily ceremony from the boat and it was something we won't forget in a hurry. We dipped our feet over the edge of the boat and washed away the sins, of our feet anyway, it was a nice way to end the day. However I did manage to catch a glimpse of our captains private parts due to his choice, or lack of, clothing. Incredible.

We left Varanasi headed for Delhi and we travelled overnight in First class on a sleeper train. What an experience that was, a private 2 berth compartment with oversized beds, it was a nice way to travel and a far cry from sleeper class! We arrived back in Delhi on Tuesday and we hadn't missed the city heat. We tied up a few loose ends and visited the Red Fort before posting a few things home that we shouldn't have even packed in the first place!

We managed to avoid the dreaded 'Delhi-belly' for 99.99% of our time in India but it left us with a parting gift when the Watermelon juice in the departure lounge wasn't 100% fruit juice which meant a lot of our time in Bangkok was spent on the toilet!

We left India with mixed emotions, both me and Ellie had a different view on it although neither of us disliked it. If we say I'd be the first to book a ticket back I think that's fair. Once you look past the people staring and wanting photos, the locals are nice people and outside of the capital you can connect with those who don't just see you as pound signs.

So on to Bangkok and we used our time their for admin really. We sorted our Viatnamese visas and managed to ditch the diarreah! We're all in good health now but we didn't see much of Bangkok although we will be back there soon enough to see if there's much going on. We left Bangkok yesterday and took a bus to Siem Reap where we are now which was fine, quite inexpensive and the horror stories of being scammed at the Poipet border with Cambodia seem to be a thing of the past if you are smart about traveling across.

We saw the temples of Angkor today and they were incredible, the Taj and Angkor in 10 days have been something to remember. We're off to Phnom Penh tomorrow and possibly Sinoukhville for a couple of days before heading to Vietnam on Friday/Saturday.

We'll be in touch soon

Zak & Ellie

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