Back to Delhi, McLeod Ganj and Amritsa

Hey hey there again,

Well we spent another night in Delhi and Romey very kindly donated us another hotel room. Very fancy - being very spoilt! We did the usual and I collected my suit (cannot put any weight on now!) before heading to McLeod Ganj on a rubbishy bus. We left 4 hours late due to broken air conditioning (we all complained until they fixed it, despite the long delay) and only had a couple of break downs along the way to fix leaking oil and so on.

McLeod Ganj was lovely. So unIndian (is that why we liked it?!) The town is 1700m above sea level so nice and COLD - we weren't sweating from morning to night! It's the home of the Dalai Lama and many Tibetan monks who left Tibet due to it being unsafe. The atmosphere is brilliant. It is so calm and respectful (men weren't getting in our faces too much), the roads were clean - surprise - and even had rubbish collection vehicles. There was very little traffic and when the clouds cleared, we could see the beautiful mountains and nearby villages.

We basically spent the time there eating. The food was delicious, Western and soooo cheap. We ate lemon cheesecake (divine, although I could've eaten 5 of them), I had 4 tuna melts (not all at once), gorgeous hot brownies with hot chocolate sauce and best of all, hot apple crumble with cream. I haven't had apple crumble for about 18 months, and it was delicious. There was Tibetan food which we tried, - some yummy noodles, and the odd place offering Indian cuisine, but we just had to eat about 4 times a day as it was so tasty! We weren't able to do the massage as we didn't have enough time (what a shame, we had to eat again), but we did volunteer doing conversational English with refugee Tibetan monks who were learning English. Fantastic to talk to and such a privilege too. So we did that one afternoon, then another session of yoga. Very sexy instructor this time, very French, not creepy and sleazy like our Varanasi one. And very encouraging, letting us do half poses if we weren't able to do them fully!

Our hotel was like a little ski chalet - someone's home with cute furniture, and even our own en-suite bathroom and working TV. We spent the 4 days taking things easy, seeing the Tibetan temple there, walking to the nearby village, eating a lot (first proper latte coffee in India - beautiful) and enjoying ourselves.

It was a lovely break from the hectic India that we've seen, and we were very glad to do McLeod Ganj last, despite it meaning we have to travel for longer. We are soooo obsessed about foods, and the ones we crave, that it was perfect gorging ourselves for a few days! Absolutely lovely.

So travelled all day yesterday on a bus and train to Amritsa. The bus was very bumpy and dusty, but we made it (eventually). The train was worse. They had overbooked the seats so we were very crammed in, but worst of all was the cockroaches. The place was infested. So many (thankfully little) beasties walking around all around us, and on Haz. (Thank God wasn't me!!!) They were on her legs and back - really really disgusting. Absolutely horrible. The 3 hours we were on the train were horrific. Worst train journey by far. So uncomfortable and just wrong with the number of cockroaches.

But we have to get another train tonight for 10 hours back to Delhi. We arrive at 7am (hopefully) and then leave again late afternoon for a 15 hour journey to Mumbai. We arrive there Saturday morning (hopefully) then fly home on Monday.

Can't believe that there's only 4 days left of our trip. At the moment we're tired from the humidity and the constant attention, and don't really want to travel on the trains either. The temperature is 35 degrees with 60% humidity, so it feels like 43 degrees celsius (according to Yahoo weather).... We both need a strong coffee and some food, and to cool down a little. So home sounds pretty great at the moment - can't wait to eat and drink and eat and drink and eat... lots of very strong cravings!

Anyway love to all, and see you sooooooon!
Love from us both,
Alice xxx