Haridwar was great. It's just how i imagined India to be. Hectic but a lot less so than the cities and it was mostly hassle free because everyone was so religious and spiritual. The train journey there gave us both a chance to relax and wake up properly because getting up at 5.40 in the morning in Delhi was not particularly pleasant.

Yesterday in Haridwar we found a room easily, dumped our stuff and headed up in a cable car to a temple called Mansa Devi. The temple was very colourful and had great views. Me and emma both got blessed. The people in the town of Haridwar spend their days creating gift of flowers and other decorations on wooden sticks which in the evening they send down the river Ganges. We discovered they do this everyday- 7 days a week! It's very beautiful watching the gifts all drift down the river some of them alight with candles. Haridwar was a very intresting place to visit but we only really needed a day to do it so this morning we got the bus to Rishikesh.

Rishikesh is definitly my favourite place in India so far closely followed by Anjuna in Goa (would be my favourite if not for the food poisoning!) Rishikesh is spiritual seekers and yoga fanatics paradise! We're staying in a lovely hotel which is costing us 1.25 per night and it's up in the mountains but not too far away from the river Ganges. We have hot water which is a relief as we havnt had any for days and my hair desperately needs a wash!

Once we arrived here we went for a walk in the mountains and found some wonderful views and then we walked down to the river, we sat on a river beach where we made friends with other travellers who were also recovering from food poisoning they were on the same 'enjoying every minute of health as if it might be the last' wave length as us!

There are holy men everywhere in these towns (Sadhus), they don't look angry, anxious, jealous, sad like other people. They just look content. They don't take a 2nd glance at two wanna-be-hippy white girls with their lonely planet bible!

Tomorow we're taking a yoga class in the morning and then we're going water rafting in the afternoon.

One last thing! My tastes buds are being reborn! I still am not eating a lot but I am gradually introducing things back into my diet. I ate an orange today and I thought my mouth was going to explode with happyness! Post food poisoning joys!