Namaste,

Surprisingly we have managed to survive India..even without the to be expected 'Delhi Belly'!!! We spent another day cruising around the outskirts of Varanasi..ventured into the Muslim area and the next thing you know we're sitting down with the locals having dinner with them!! All hands and newspaper, great food..and no dodgy Taliban insight!!! We then headed to a small town called Khajuraho which has some of India's best preserved Medieval temples. They were quite amazing the detailed carving was very impressive..some of them had quite an erotic theme..Kama sutra stuff!!! Was very funny watching peoples reactions and the turning of the heads to get a better view...I'm sure some of the guys were taking notes!!!

From there we went to Agra saw the mighty Taj Mahal...it really does live up to all the hype..and more!! It was definately worth the furnance of bus ride to get there! We spent a few days in Agra taking in the sights, one day we went out by cycle rickshaw and it started bucketing down..we both had umbrellas and so did the driver..still we were saturated..we must have looked a sight because even fellow travellers were stopping to take photos of us!!

After a mammoth 18hour train ride followed by a 4 hour bus ride we arrived back into Nepal we spent a night at the border then took another 8hour bus to our current spot..Pokhara!! Needless to say we are completely over public transport and can't wait to start trekking!! Our time in India was a real experience, we really needed more time to do it justice! We were mainly in one region which happens to be the most populated and with the highest rate of poverty in India. Because of this, the beggars, touts etc were drawn to us like moths to a flame!! They could be damned annoying but we had to 'try' to keep it in perspective. You take the good with the bad though, we had one little guy we befriended (or vice versa?) we hung out with him for awhile athe the end we gave him a NZ $5 as a momento..his little eyes welled up adn he was trying not to cry..bless him!! It's those little things that make it all worthwhile!

Tomorrow we leave for our trek..so excited!!! We can see the mighty mountains looming in the not too far distance..kind of scary too!! Our trek in called the Annapurna Circuit we're allowing 21 days to complete it...wish us luck!!! Will fill you in when we get back....

Ma and Kots

PS Thanks for all the messages, it's great to hear from youall ;)