4/5/10: We woke up with extremely sore calves and front legs muscles. The trek down really took its toll and I could hardly move. We wanted to go shopping for some Tibetan antiques so we had some veg momos for breakfast followed by some cake, hot chocolate for me and coffee for Jacinta, if you couldn't already tell we had a craving for sweets. We waddled down the hill as it hurt so much to walk properly. We visited a dozen stores that day and ended up buying a rare stone book more than 100 years old (paid 8000rs), a big timber prayer flag blank that is used to print out prayer flags (paid 7200rs); this was a nice rare piece with amazing craftsmanship as everything had to be carved in reverse, a singing prayer bowl ... read more

26/4/10: We slept but not that well; it was noticeably cooler making it more comfortable. We actually arrive on time as the train didn’t even stop through the night. The train stopped at New Jalpurgari, we were told that it was nice to get the Toy Train up to Darjeeling and hopped that we weren’t too late to buy a ticket. We got hassled by jeep and taxi drivers to take us to Darjeeling but we wanted to go on the Toy Train. The Toy Train is a train with very narrow tracks and only around 5-8 carriages long. They are wide another to accommodate four people side by side, it also takes eight hours to climb up the steep mountain range. The Toy train was not running due to some striking so we were force ... read more

28/3/10: We arrived in Amritsar at 6:00am and caught a cycle rickshaw to town 3km away. It only cost us 20rs and we thought that was the bargain of the century. We had breakfast and opted to find accommodation together. This backfired big time as we almost spent an hour walking around with our packs on trying to find accommodation for 350rs/night. We found one that was quiet run down and dirty called the Sharma Hotel and decided to keep looking. We ended up come back as there was nothing under 500rs/night and we were tired. We were that exhausted from the train that we ended up having a sleep for a few hours only to emerge from out room around 2:00pm. We thought we had better do something so we went to see the Golden ... read more

AGRA 24/3/10: I love Valium, we woke up on time and only an hour away from Agra, dreaming until we finally got into town to see how much of a shit whole Agra really is. Once again there were unimaginable amounts of rubbish and filth including men pissing and shitting in plain view beside the road. We unloaded our packs from the top of the bus and were happy to still have them. Jacinta was on a mission and already had organised a tuktuk for us to head into town. We noticed a terrible smell that hung in the early morning air as we were going into town. Jacinta made it very clear to the tuktuk driver that we don't want to be dropped off at a hotel we want to be dropped off at Joney’s ... read more

UDIPUR 17/3/10: I slept alright but could have done with more. Jacinta once again had trouble sleeping through the night and tried to sleep in as much as possible. It was hard to sleep being right next to the toilets and sink. Every time someone went to the toilet the smell would waft over her nose reminding her off what she was sleeping next too, not to mention the whole Indian morning cleansing ritual. Someone near the sink was making a terrible vomiting noise, this lasted over 10min and it really started to piss me and Jacinta off. There is nothing worse than hearing someone choke, cough and splutter within meters of you sleeping. INDIAN MORNING CLEANSING RITUAL I’m not sure if I have written about this before but in the morning the Indians have a ... read more