Look carefully..

Yep, still in delhi! See you in a bit x

Border ceremony

High kicks, stamping and loud music. A great piece of theatre at which we all clapped, shouted and laughed. Fabulous.

Temple at night

So we revisited at 10.30 at night. Vaguely cooler (32 and very humid) the temple was dazzling. Caroline is wearing a scarf blessed by the Karmapa (3rd most holy tibetan Lama), i have a silk hand loom number from Fabindia. Both are warm to wear.

Golden Amritsar

Really, by now you'd think we'd have learnt a few things.. We know what all the things on the menu are, why the man is selling piles of twigs and what wood they are. We know which way to walk around a temple.. But today we forgot the other rule of temple visiting, ie, don't go in the middle of the day when the heat and crowds both peak. Still beautiful though, even to us dimwits

How many men does it take to fix a pylon?

One, plus one to catch him if there's a problem and at least 4 to watch!

Paddy fields as far as the eye can see

In the Kangra valley, behind me are snow capped mountains, but they don't photograph against the white clouds.

Toy train arrives at the station.

Narrow guage, just like Cookham!

On the Kangra valley toy train

Baijnath temple

Momo's in the rain

Tibet

A packed talk with a Tibetan political prisoner in McLeod Ganj. He was imprisoned and beaten for over 7 years for participating in a 15 strong demonstration. A further 4 years were spent under police supervision. He had to apply for permission to get medical treatment in Lhasa for injuries sustained in prison. He escaped in 2007.

Monks in the clouds

Om mani padme hum

Temple at the Dalai Lama's residence

McLeody town

By the temple in the centre of town

Nek Chand sculptures

Wall of jars Nek Chand

In the amazing rock garden in Chandigarh

Haridwar train station

Sleeping bodies, 100% humidity and lots of flies. The train couldn't get here soon enough..

Seaweed soup and sushi

In a fab korean restaurant in McLeod Ganj

Mehndi

A lovely design, which took a couple of weeks to fade, but it won't be there for upcoming job interviews!

Krishna discovers timotei

Hare Krishna

Evening aarti in Rishikesh

Bathing in the very east flowing ganges

Huge crowds in Haridwar for the aarti

Flower selling for the evening aarti

Henna tattoo

Sunset strolling

The beach here is clean and lovely, with 31 degree water. But there are some unusual hazards.. Cricket, cows and lots of pits left by stray dogs who dig holes to get to cooler sand and escape the heat.

Sunset

Just had a fun climbing contest up this tree against an indian lady in a green sari. She won of course, with far more style and elegance than i came close to.

Chilling out by our hut

LP study

Planning the next month with our well thumbed lonely planet.

Setting up toddy pots

Toddy is fermented coconut tree sap. We had some in Kerala, but i think it might be an acquired taste.

Fishing-4

Everyone's mucking in for the final haul, there was a lot of excitement as a few bigger fish were able to jump the net and escape at the last minute. Now there's a huge crowd around the net as they all try and buy the best.

Fishing-3

After about an hour and a half of pulling from 2 teams of men, the net starts emerging. For about the 1st 50 metres that comes out, I've only seen 3 sardines and a plastic bag. I hope it ends up more fruitful than this.

Fishing-2

Dragging the nets in from the ocean.

Fishing-1

Preparing and mending the nets..

Re-enacting IPL T20 on the beach

The cricket finishes next week, with the onset of the monsoon. I have loved the cricket, but i think Caroline will be pleased to get me back in the evenings!

How to tell..

If you're on a palm lined beach in india or thailand

In Panaji

There must be some elaborate wedding going on.. There are stunt planes overhead, drawing love hearts and spiking arrows through them.

Victoria terminus

Our fav building in Mumbai

Dhavarti slum

The taxi to the airport took up past this part of town. Millions of people live like this in Mumbai

Pista falooda

Bhel puri on Chowpatty beach

Back in Mumbai

Chowpatty beach and marine drive stretching out below

Another train pic

Dropping 2000m from Ooty pine topped mountains to lush jungle

The toy train..

A couple of posts on this theme

At the bottom

After the 4 hr toy train ride from Ooty

Walk in the woods

Part of a long leg ache inducing walk near Ooty

Health and safety at work

Tea factory

Wilt, shred, bake, sieve, boil, drink. All very simple

Delay on the line

On the single track toy train to Ooty

Jackfruit stand

On the road to Connor