Hello at home,

It's just gone 4pm here in Varanasi and it's been a week since we left home. Since we last posted we've been to 2 other cities and are now in our 4th.

We managed to get ourselves a driver in a nice air conditioned car during our time in Delhi. Whilst we were still getting used to the surroundings we thought it best to have a safe haven to return to amongst the stares and constant requests for pictures!

We have seen some amazing things in the past few days and it all started with India Gate, Qutub Minar and Humayans's tomb in Delhi on Monday. We left Delhi with mixed emotions towards India and thought maybe Jaipur might be slightly better!

We weren't disappointed, it was less chaotic and much nicer a place although one thing I don't think either of us will ever get used to is the lack of sanitation and people openly going to the toilet in public. If you can look past the initial shortfalls India is quite a charming place.

Jaipur was probably our favourite place we've been and we were shown around in a tuk tuk over a day taking in the Amber Fort, Jantar Manter (Ellie's favourite place) and City Palace among other things. The train to Jaipur was better than we expected although there isn't any signs at any of the train stations so knowing if it's your stop or not is complete guess work!

Having chilled out a bit in Jaipur in a great hotel & rooftop restaurant we were acclimatising to Indian life and slowly but surely starting to settle down. We decided to scrap our sleeper train tickets from Jaipur to Agra and instead bought a bus ticket which was fairly decent but for anyone who's been on a bus in the UK it's not like that! The driver was throwing the 50 seater thing around like it was a reliant robin. Crazy scenes!

Arriving in Agra after a relatively pleasant bus journey we headed off to visit the Taj on Thursday as it's closed on Fridays. We got to our hotel and it was scorching, 49 degrees maybe. We took the short walk to the west gate to get our tickets and the sun disappeared. I think you know what's coming next, the heavens opened. The sun didn't return and our glorious plans for a sunset viewing at the Taj had been scuppered.

We didn't let it dampen our spirits, no pun intended, and we sat around for a while and although it had rained it brought the temperature down by 8 or 9 degrees and we had a really good time. Both me and Ellie were taken aback by just how magnificent it was.

We met a really nice Finnish lady who had travelled for the day from Delhi and despite constantly vomiting on the way here she managed to keep her Delhi Belly at bay whilst we were with her!

We've just arrived at our hotel in Varansi and yesterday was by far the best day we've had since arriving here. We were relaxed and the temperature was a mild 42 degrees. We'll update you before we leave India on Wednesday and hopefully over the next few days take in a boat ride down the Ganges for sunset and head back to Delhi.