Victoria Memorial

Absolutely Stunning!

St Paul's Cathedral

We got special permission from the priest to take photograph's inside the church. It's so beautiful. Hope you like them mum and grandy xxx

From Buddism to Sikhism - Amaritsar

So we arrived in Amaritsar after an eventful six hours on a bus that burst a tyre followed by someone's camera being stolen in the aftermath. So glad we asked to driver to put our bags up front cause everyone else's were on the roof and we could see random locals just jumping onto the roof ladders of other buses! So anyway after we managed to get off the bus after waiting 10 minutes for some locals and the conductor to stop fighting we checked into our hotel, which was clean and quiet!! However it is plain to see that Amaritsar is not a peaceful city, we've been here a day and witnessed 3 fights on the street! We've been stared at beyond comprehension and even followed, matthew had to face up to this guy who trailed us for about an hour - then he ran away!
So the golden temple is not quite what we expected, yes it's very religious but we got a fair amount of hassle and it made us quite uncomfortable along with the heat!! As you can see from the pictures though it is very very beautiful. In light of the temperment of the locals to westerners... we have been spat at as well! We decided to skip the border ceremony with Pakistan and are booked onto a 37 hour train to Kalkutta! Why KalKuttu you may think, well it's the only other connection to darjeeliing apart from Delhi and we though we might as well see a different hot horrible city! To ease the pain we've booked into an expensive hotel, which is all inclusive and has a bath! yeah! That'll leave us with one afternoon to see a couple of sights and saturday night we're heading to darjeeling. Sadly we were forced to book a nicer AC class cabin cause the cheaper one was booked out, what a shame... ;)
Hope you like the photos, we're beginning to think anywhere beyond ther hill stations = delhi belly since we're onto round three! xxx

Golden Temple

This is the golden temple, couldn't get any close ups cause the zoom is broken but we sneaked a few from the roof when the priests weren't looking!

Henna Tatoo and the Dalai Lama

Here's some photo's of my funky tatoo! And the following three are at the residence of the Dalai Lama. The picture with the bells shaped objects are the 'Kora' they are places around the outside of the residence and as you walk along and turn them the resulting phrase is a goodluck blessing or something... The gold statue of a man is Padmasambhave an indian scholar who introduced buddism in Tibet. And the many headed female is the Avalokitesvara

the Tibetan Diety of compassion.

A Taste of Tibet - Mcleod Ganj

Hello Everyone!
We are in Mcleod Ganj now, which is about 3 km from the more widely known Dharamasala - and is home to the Dalai Lama, about whom we have had a swift one hour cramming session about his life in the local Tibet Museum. We went to see 'the residence' but it was just two temples really/ We have funky photos to put up but we can't get the USB connection to work today. Rather shocked at the Tibet-China situation when you hear the details! There are so many people here missing fingers and toes due to frostbite when they escaped from Tibet.
I've got a very cool tattoo..... henna obviously! On my foot, it's a quarter sun with lots of flames, emanating from my ankle! Thinking of getting another on my arm but this may lead to some strange tan lines! We're staying in a Tibetan hotel which is very clean (HOORAY!) and makes really good Tibetan food! There's loads of rooftop cafes here so we're making the most of leisurely meals and games of chess!
The trip here was really quite awful, no sleep all night and then stranded at 5am! And it seems like the trip to Amaritsar will be similarly annoying since the bus leaves at 5am, but it's 3km away and the local bus road is closed!! We're chilling out here for another day, there are some local walks we'd like to do and very unusual jewelery which needs further investigation!!
Love to you all xxx

Kinnaur Valley Blog

So off we went, intrepid explorers into the great unknown with only our day packs and water.... and what did we discover. That we defintately need some mountain walking practise!!! After an attemp at our tour guide's (Nazier) optimistic suggestion of a three hour hike up a vertical mountain, we found a compromise of 'some up and some flat'! Even though in reality it was much more up than flat! We went with two spanish girls called Noelia and Helena, who were great fun, we spent most evenings playing cards and drinking beers!
We started in Tattapini with a three hour hike from a random drop off point to the hotel, very hot! And let me tell you walking downhill hurts your calves more than uphill! Especially after 6 months on your bum studying for finals! Our hotel overlooked the Surjat river, and had some local sulphur baths. We did not indulge in these because the eggy smell wasn't too appealing! However we did trek to the Shiva caves, which apparently will be underwater in the next two years when the 10,000 MW dam project in northern India is completed!
The following day we went to Sarahan, long jeep trip, but fabulous home cooked indian food. we can now venture from our staple diet of rice and dal!! We went for a nice flat walk in the forest, and trip to see the Sarahan palace, the twin of which lies in Rampur which we saw on the last day. Sangla was our last stop, and offered snake charmers and a great trek along the river and through the forest, didn't quite make it to the top! And this wasn't due to lack determination (in india, we english are known for being fulll of the stuff!) but heart attack risk!!!
A fifteen hour jeep journey took us to Manali, where today we are time wasting waiting for our over night bus to MCleod Ganj, home of the Dali Lama. We been shopping at a Tibetan market and visted several temples and monastries. Now we're off to 'Johnson's cafe' which is the only place we've eaten in Manali cause it does damn good museli and porridge! and i've spied cheese board on the menu which shall be sampled shortly!
That’s all for now, our love to everyone!!
Lauren and Matt xxx