Hi Everyone

This is the final journal entry from India and we have had a fantastic experience here.

India is a beautiful country with many hiden gems. We have enjoyed ourselves far more than we anticipated and have managed to do so much in a short space of time. Our favourite place so far would have to be Pushkar (Holy City).

We arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) on Wednesday morning and had a grueling 40 minute taxi journey in a non- air conditioned car in 30 degree temperature. Mumbai is far more commercialised than any other city as its the financial capital of India, however as a result is far more polluted, which combined with the humidity makes life very uncomfortable.

Our hotel on arrival was in a rural area (Chembur, Mumbai). We must have been the only guests in the hotel and to be honest did not feel entirely safe as this was a non tourist area. We also had a very bad experience on the local transport (train). As men and women travel in seperate carridges it is difficult for tourist (couples) to stick together. As we didn't want to be seperated Alanna sat in the all male carridge (Big Mistake). After 3 stops the carridge was like a can of sardines. There must of been at least 200 men and us per carridge. It was extremely uncomfortable not to mention intimidating and scary. So much so that we decided to jump off after a couple of stops and opted to pay the extra and catch a taxi to our hotel.

The next day we moved into the centre of Mumbai (Colaba) which was much more tourist orientated and safer. We cheated slightly and stopped in a fantastic hotel, which enabled us to have a nice hot shower and relax, whilst Al being the good soul she is washed my clothes, like women should do over here. (She'll kill me for saying that!)

We enjoyed a loverly day yesterday doing a little shopping, despite the humid weather. However, Al forgot that any additional items need to fit into her already packed backpack. Would you believe it, but she's now complaining about back problems and she wonders why. I tell you!.

Oh, this will make you laugh. We were outside "The Gateway To India" and an Indian gentleman asked me and Al if both he and his son could have a photo with us. We never found out why he wanted these photo's. You'll probably see us on the internet.

We fly to Singapore tonight (12:30am). Were quite sad to have finished our first country, however are now looking forward to our next adventure.

Namaste from India..

Al and Paul x