Hello all!!
Sorry I've not been able to post anything sooner! ..saying thats its only been a week, but a very busy one!
We've had a brill time so far, the golden triangle tour of delhi, jaipur, agra was amazing (thanks pam and rog!) and a really good way of getting to understand a little about india.We arrived in varanasi last night (after a 19hour train journey) and found a guest house along the Shivala ghat, where the travelling begins. :-) Everyone we have met so far has been lovely! hopefully a good sign of things to come. Its cold here (about 8 degrees C) and so will be heading south at the end of this week and hopefully into the warmth!

I wont be able to upload pictures for a little while, as need to download a file to let me, but I'll try get something on here as soon as i can. (see www.flikr.com for pics from Tom)
I'll give a quick explaination of what we've been up to so far...

Day 1.-Delhi
We arrived in Delhi on Monday at about 11.30 and spent the rest of the day just chillin out and catching up on jet lag from the journey!!
Day 2.
We went sight seeing!! The roads were chaotic here! so glad we had a driver! no one waits for anyone.. our driver told us to drive in india all u need is, good brakes, good horn and good luck! argh!! we saw... Jama Masjid (The Friday Mosque), Raj Ghat (Ghandi's memorial site), New delhi's india gate, Tomb of Humajan (Which was the inspiration for the taj mahal) and Qutb Minar!! In nearly all of the places, me and tom seemed a bigger attraction than the monuments! everyone wanted a picture of us, was really weird!

Day 3.-Jaipur
We went to see the 'pink city'. Was still really hectic in jaipur, but not as much as Delhi, the hotel was lovely and on a really good strip to walk along and see things, such as the water palace! we saw... Hawa Mahal (the wind palace), Jantar mantar observatory, The city place and went for a walk along the local market!!!
Day 4.
We got up early and was the brightest day so far, still not warm, but much less fog! We saw.. amber fort, water palace, how block painting is done and got invited onto the roof top of our hotel to fly kites!!! -it was the india new year and so kite festival was going on everywhere!

Day 5.-Agra
Today was lots of driving... but we saw Fatephur Sikri, meet up with our travel agent for india (Madhav) who was lovely and so so helpful and then went to see a show about the taj mahal later that evening!
Day 6.
We woke up to th thickest fog we have ever seen, u litrally couldnt see ur own hand if u put it out in front of u!!! we on;ly went to se agra for in the morning as was too foggy to appreciate the taj properly. Later in the afternoon we visited a hanicapped school and helped out for an hour with the children.
In the evening we went to Madhav's house and had tea and met his family, who were lovely! we got quizzed about marriage and families and learnt all about how different things are in india!
Day 7.
Was still foggy today but went to see Taj mahal..was so impressive!! Then later to kill some time before we went to get the night train we went to ee akbars tomb and then for a meal with madhav and his family!! We got the train at 11.30pm to varanasi, which was meant to take 10 hours and then we were on our own....

Day 8.-Varanasi
So after a 19hour train journey!! we obv go delayed along the way! we arrived in Varanasi at about half 5 and get a 'tuktuk' to the guest house we booked!
Day9.
SLEEP IN! Went for a walk along the ganga river and bought some india style trousers and had a look around all the local shops! here its a lot more chilled out, and a lot less people pester for money and try drag u into their shops!

Lots of fun so far, and i will post a new bog when i can!!

Hope everyone is well! keep tracking us when u can!

Lots of love leanne and tom xxxx