well finayll i foudn a computer that will let me update my blog... right now im in mcleod ganj where i have been since yesterday after arriving from amritsar

soo monday 2 weeks ago i posted my parcels to home and wales. the process of sending parcels was not as easy as i thought it would be. my 17kg's first of all had to be fitted for there covers by a tailor and then the tailor sewed the parcels into the material bags and then sealed them with wax. this process took about an hour and a half then i had to write on the parcesl where they were going. unfortunaly i managed to adress one worong so it is was back to the tailor to sew on a new cover to corret the mistake. so 3 hours later and my bank account with a significant hole in it my parcels were off.

wednesday i dragged my massive bags up to the school to say goodbye to the kids and teachers. it was so sad to leave them and they all kept saying how much they wanted me to say. the principaleven hugged and kissed me which i was very surprised at. i then went to the children's home to give the money which everyone so kindly donated. the total amount of money will cover 2/3 of the education for 2 boys and a girl. the women in charge of the home aunty moyta was very greatful to recieve such a generous donation and sends a big thankyou to everyone who gave money.

that evening i caught a luxurious sleeper bus to chandigarh where i met 3 girlstravelling to dehra dun also so we decided that it would be quicker and more comfortable to catch a taxi to dehra dun together. however this being india things obviously never turn out according to plan. we got not one not even two but 3 flat tires. of course it was the same tire each time that blew. ironically each time we had to stop we stopped outside a garage so that was very fortuante.

finally i arrived in dehra dun slightly later than i planned. we spent 1 night in dehra dun which was n't a very pleaseant city but we did manage to see the worlds largest stupa and a 35m tall gold buddha statue which was amazing. we needed some western food on thursday night so instead of heading to a nice restaurant where else would you go but mc donalds!! it was a good idea at the time but we all felt a bit ill after. but of course we had to top it off with ice-cream from nirula's and i had delhi delight (anne's favourite, mum).

we left dehra dun on friday for Haridwar which was a fantastic city. we watched the ceremony at the bathing ghats where people were bathing, and floating leaves filled with flowers and a candle down the Ganges. yet again i found myself an attraction and was handed several babies to pose for phtos with. we spent th days wandering the market and looking around. on saturdya we decided to go to the tempple at the top of haridwar. first of all we sat in a large tent with hundreds of other people to wait for our number to be called. we were then ushered into almost runs where we waited until we could then stand in a cue for the ride in the gondola up to the temple. we then were ina another cue to actually go in and see the small shrine. so after 3 hours of curing in heat we saw a tiny shrine we dont know what for so totally not worth it.

on sunday morning we drove to the Corbett Tiger Reserve. we spent the day lounging around on the hammock under the mango trees. our camp was goreous and the tents even came complete with air con! we went on our first safari in the afternoon and saw several types of deer, birds and loads of elephants. we sat and watched the elephants for about half an hour the little ones playing and the huge 'tuskers' fighting. it was amazing! unfortunaly we didn't see any tigers. the next day our second safari was drowned out by the monsoon rains that had come early so unfortunaly we didnt see anything except deer and birds.

that morning we drove to rishikesh but along the way we drove through a town that had flooded becaise of the rains. our driver seemed to hesitate instead of going through the water for some reason so when he finally decided to drive throught the water we got about 10 metres down the road when the car wheels liftedoff the ground and we were floating down the road! the water outisde was about 1m high and some water had flooded in the car. our driver had to push our car onto the road and we spent the next few hours stopping at garages along the way to get spare parts for the engine that had flooded.

finally after my feet being in 10cms of water for 2 hours we arrived in rishikesh where daisy and i didn't have the worlds my pleasant room. for only 100rs a night it was good but the room was filled with mozzies and we even found a scorpion! we managed to get rid of the mozzies and the scorpion but unfortuanly the next day i had too much of a bad headache to move from bed so i didn't actually end up seeing any sights in rishikesh.

next we headed to chandigarh which was a relief simply because it felt as though we were beack in western civilisation being in a big city. we stayed in a nice hotel and daisy and i saw the famousrock garden which was very weird but very cool. there were statues covered in broken bangles! diasy and i managed to find a cheap and very comfortable coach to amritsar complete with free water and a movie.

amritsar was very very hot an dhumid but the Golden Temple was amazing! even though there were hundreds of people there it was so peaceful and quiet just walking around. we went to the india/pakistan border clsoing ceremony on the second night and it was spectacular. the atmosphere was amazing both sides screaming india/pakistan zindabad(long live) and the high kicks performed were something else! we went to a temple on the way back that was mroe like the fun factory than a temple. you had to crawl the caves, go through a house of mirrors walk through ankle deep water ina a cave it was very cool.

im now in mc leod ganj hanging out with other gappers and im off back to manali to say final goodbye and collect beleongings then we leave for ladakh on wedesday!

sorry it took so long but this is the update o nmy travlesso far

miss everyone

luv alex xxxxx