So we have cleared four states since we last blogged and pushed further and further North. A short hop through Madhya Pradesh took us to Mandu where we cycled in the country chased by smiling children and explored tombs and palaces totally to ourselves. We then crossed into Rajasthan and saw more forts than you can shake a stick at as well as jumping in at the deep end for Holi the festival of colour, it was overwhelming intense and you have no chance of returning home clean or even with your shirt (women exempt from the latter) as coloured powder and water is chucked everywhere. It's basically like a water fight but sanctioned by the whole country. We then took an unplanned trip to Delhi after strike action paralysed the rail network and forced us ... read more

Hellooooooooooo, After leaving Fort Kochi we made our way back up into the hills to Munnar on the Western Ghats. At around 2000 Meters it was quite chilly again but so stunningly lush. A small town literally surrounded by rolling hills of bright green tea, rivers and forest. On both the couple of days that we spent there we managed to disappear into the surrounding hills breathing in that amazing clean, crisp air. From Munnar we headed down, back into Tamil Nadu to Pollachi where we sadly had to stay a little longer that expected due to me eating some dirty rice, getting another bonus sickness for a few days. Chistof was so good to me though feeding me plenty of cheap tasting chocolate eclairs so i was soon on the mend and we on our ... read more

Well we've made it all the way to the very Southern tip of India now and have begun the early stages of our long leg back up the West coat. We enjoyed Tamil Nadu with it's rickety buses, huge temples and the chance to get up Kodaikanal, a hill station with cool, clean air and a beautiful lake. It felt good to reach the bottom of India a full 1487 as the crow flies from Darjeeling, our most northerly point so far. The southern point is marked with a huge statue and memorial on two separate island and it was fun to go out on the ageing and rolling ferry where you could see 270 degrees of ocean. We've now crossed into Kerala where the scenery turned bright green the undergrowth is like the jungle book ... read more

It's been an awfully long time since we've blogged but we've got the reasonable excuses of internet being harder to come buy and being struck down by horrible, horrible illness that is now (touch wood) way behind us. Since we were last with you we have traveled between Kolkata and our current location of Mamallapuram. The journey has taken us through the southern part of West Bengal, the entire coast of Orissa then south into Andhra Pradesh where we cut inland for Christmas in Hyderabad. The coastline has been hugely variable from quiet little fishing villages with sludge covered beaches to cities with purpose built promenades where locals and Indian tourists stroll and eat candy floss, samosas and stuffed chilies. We have traveled by train, rickety slow local bus, terrifying fast express bus, ferry (big canoe), ... read more

Hellooooooooo, After an 8 hours train to Patna we left firmly hating the place disgusting first night hotel then a quest to find somewhere else but no hotels wanted us due to us being foreign so we walked around and faced a lot of 'no room at the inn'. I was sweaty and dusty and christof even more so but we found a nest in the end. Took a 16 hour overnight train to Silguri which is a small little town that provided a delicious egg curry feast and much needed shut eye after the minimal sleeping on the crowded, smelly train (we were by the toilet). From Silguri we took a cramped jeep up the steep, winding and hairpin/hair raising Tenzing Norgay road to Darjeeling. We climbed high with our ears popping (obviously Chris' more ... read more