Hello all back home. I have only written 1 blog since ive been away which yes i am aware is really crap so here is a long one.

I am currently sitting in the lounge at Singapore airport where I have taken up residence for the next 9 hours til my connecting flight to Cambodia so I have time!

So I left Goa and took a horrible bus journey from a little town called Chowdy which of course was 2 hours late. We got on and were thrown into a flea ridden pit for 10 hours. Lights went straight out so we had not much choice but to try and sleep. We didnt.

We arrived in Mangalore where we had 5 hours to wait before our train down to Kerala so headed for a hotel with a pool and had lunch. Did a bit of shopping, called Dawn to say happy bday then hopped on our train in the afternoon. We really like the trains in India...when you get your own bed its actually fine. We slept better that night than the one before and saw some beautiful scenery on route.

We arrived in Kerala and decided to go to Kovalam where we checked into a hotel on a hill. We were to meet Lalu, a friend of a friends somewhere in Kerala-which is massive-and coincidently ended up picking a hotel 5 mins from his house. We spent a week or so in Kovalam...mainly the Leela which was a 5 star beautiful hotel. debbie and ben had arrived by then so being their holiday we thought we should treat ourselves. We are not very good at roughing it yet.

Me and Debbie went on a sightseeing tour and to Tamil Nedu which is a different state where three oceans meet at the very south tip of india. We came across about a million indian tourists on their holiday. We are definatly the main attraction in India....everyone, and I mean everyone...points and stares, asks for our picture and wants to touch our hair and skin. its crazy.

We did elephant riding and feeding which was cool but I couldnt manage to put a banana in the phonts mouth without it sucking half my hand which was very slobbery. We went to a croc farm which was closed but climbed up to see some huge angry looking reptiles being kept in very small compartments.

After Kerala we headed back up to Goa so that Ben could get some beach time and it seems to be the only place in India that has a nice beach. Did some good sun tanning and swimming and spent a lot of time just chilling out. We then headed to Delhi with not as much time left as we'd wanted for north India.

We only got to see Delhi and Agra although they were fantastic. Agra obviously for the Taj Mahal and beautiful Fort (although we had a sand storm whilst there and could barely see the Fort) and Delhi, as disgusting, smelly and overcrowded as it is, is great. The Taj was fantastic although we got bothered by a lot of photographers in the blistering heat and about 20 nuns fascinated by us.

We loved the Rickshaw drivers the most who drive on the opposite side of the road when too much traffic on their side and force other vehicles up on to the pavement. They all try to charge you 10 times the price but we soon wisened up and were paying about 8p for a ride to Connaught place the centre. The train station in Delhi was something else. You can barely find space to walk as their are so many homeless sleeping on the platforms aswell as the people actually there to take a train. Of course our train was 2 hours late so the beggar children took full advantage of our being stuck there.

At first you dont mind giving away a few pence but they soon tell their friends and then you are surrounded by a million beggars. It sounds horrible but you just want to get away from some of them-one boy had teeth growing outa his lip/cheek where his mouth had deformed, one man who crawled along the platform due to disease grabbing at our ankles for attention and then there was the mentally handicapped boy who was actually quite scary as you didnt know what he might do. he would come up close in our faces and screach and flap his arms. Rats and more homeless people would hang out on the actual tracks. Im sure that would be on the news back home if just one person lept down there!

So anyway we spent a couple more days in Delhi going to the main Bazaar to get hassled, reclothe a few dying children and take a few more hysterical rickshaw rides. Ben went home yesterday and me and daisy headed for the airport. Once again we were on seperate flights so she is currently in Bangkok I think and as I said I am in the lovely singapore airport. We are going to meet in a guesthouse by a lake in phnom penh tonight at 7pm ish so I hope that goes to plan as my mobile no longer works.

I think id better get off the internet now as ive already caused havock in this lounge as they wouldnt let me upload my photos, anyway i did although i think i got the poor guy in trouble. Im gonna go see what free food is on offer for my $15 and take a hot shower before taking my skytrain to terminal 2 to find where my flight goes from.

Hope everyone is well and that the weather is okay for you...its been 47 degrees at points here but I think the rain is ready to pour in cambodia so thats the end of it for a while.

Loadsa love, miss ya. Ellie.xxxxx