The Crazy Dash Accross The Sub Continent.

Once we are safely in Gaya we catch an autorickshaw to a buddist area Bodhgaya where we check in to a hotel and hang out for a few days. It was a good job the pace is so slow here as Julia and Sian both have stinking colds! The three of us head to the temple where budda is said to have attained enlightenment. By now we have been to several mosques and temples but this is the first buddist place we have been. What strikes us all so much is how peaceful it is. There are a few beggars but no where near as many as we have been seeing all over India. Also when we enter the temples we are hard pushed to find any kind of collection box.
We book tickets to Kolkatta through our friendly internet cafe and travel agent. Once we are back in the station we are delayed by 5 hours. It was not too bad though, as we had managed to aquire a bottle of brandy and made friends with Stephano from Italy and Derk from Germany. The guys were heading in the same direction as us so we hung out together whilst Julia and Sian amazed the toothache men with singing and dancing! (They are named toothache men as they wear scarves in a way only people with a toothache would!)
In Kolkatta we head straight to the train booking office in an attempt to book train tickets to Chenai for the next evening. Julia has a friend in Bangalore who she is desperate to see before she goes back to America for christmas. By now it is 11th December and we have 3 days to get there! When Sian approached the counter she was told all the trains were booked! It was another Sian Panic moment. it can sometimes be really difficult to do the most simple things in India! By now we are all tired and weary of this! Julia takes it all in hand, explains to the ticket office that we have an 'emergency' and somehow we managed to get tickets for the next day, on the sme train as Stephano.
We spend a say wondering around Kolkatta amazed at how much like London Kolkatta is, and how much more orgainised the city is compared to Mumbai, or the cities we vistited in Rajisthan. To us all this is further confirmation of why we all need to come back and re do India.
The train to chenai is a massive 33 hours, but goes suprisingly fast. Stephano amuses us with his 'donkeynation' comments a phrase which Steve has now proudly copied.
We arrive in Chenai at 5 am on the morning of the 14th DEcember tired and weary! We find a 24 hour travel agent and book flights to Srilanka, leaving from Trivandrum on the 28th December. We are chuffed at how cheap they are, until we realise the price has gone down due to an Indian Sharuk Khan concert being bombed a few days before.
We take a tour around Chenai which includes wondering along the beach, visiting Mosques and Temples, and a catholic church with Jesus in the cross... Fully robbed! Maybe the Muslims are having an affect on the Christians, as they even pray with their heads on the floor!
We leave Chenai in the afternoon in an air conditioned train to Bangalore. The journey was only 5.5 hours this time, so not so bad!
In Bangalore we avoid the cow wondering around the train station and head to MG road to check in to a hotel with hot water! After 2 nights on a train we are so pleased of comfy beds to sleep on!
Bangalore is the city India should be most proud of. Julia and Sian spend 4 days dragging Steve around the fantastic fixed price shops. We get to hang out with Brooke and eat fabulous food, which would put some resturants in London to shame!
After 3 days of luxury beds we catch a night Bus to Goa, where we are meeting Sam and Syd the next morning. The bus was possibly the worst journey we took! They switched all the lights off at 7pm, so we were unable to read... it was pants! Every time the bus turned a corner we were woken up with a falling off the bed felling, it was just awful!
Once we met Sam and Syd we cheered up! We went Jet Ski-ing on the beach which was really cool and we must do that again.

That night we go to club cobana, owned by the son of a bollywood star, it is set in the hills in a converted mansion, it has a pool, lots of bars, a cool view and lots of white leather sofas all around the various terraces, very Ibiza.

I'm at the doctors the next day, antibiotics needed to finally cure the tummy thats been annoying me since we got to India!! So during the day we hired motorbikes and went to Ajuna beech. After a while though I needed to go as i was feeling a little nauseous, sadly for a beech restaurant, my manly attempt at not being ill failed miserably and I was icky right by people eating!! I'm only mentioning this gross event because it greatly upset the owners (as you can imagine) and they proceeded to shout at me lots while I was being ill!! All I could do was raise a finger, and feel rather embarrassed. Still, managed to ride the bike back, then slept for about 17 hours and awoke feeling like a new man, the antibiotics were working!! During that night Sian and Julia went out clubbing again and got in at 9am, I'm so bloody jealous!!