group email from India

Hi everyone, thought it was time to let you all know what we have been up to.
This is our last day in India after about 6 hectic weeks. We have seen a lot its really only scratching the surface of this country…. Its very big!!
We started in Varannasi after crossing the border from Pokhera in Nepal. Varannsi is on the banks of the Gangees River and is Indias holiest river. Varannasi is best known for the Ghnats which are steps leading down to the river which are used for every day life. Everything from washing to cremations take place at the numerous ones along the river. Here we saw a cremation take place and visited a few temples and Jacinta took a boat ride down the river at dawn which she highly recommended to see the river at its busiest time but unfortunately I was sick in bed with food poinsing. Although it’s a very interesting place to visit it wasn’t the best introduction to India thanks to the constant hasaling from shop keepers, rick shaw drivers and pretty much everyone else.
From Varannasi we then went to Agra. We saw three major sites there which was the Red Fort, The baby taj and, of course the Taj Mahal.
They were all increadible!! The Red fort was an increadibly big walled fort of Red sandstone with the residence of the king inside. All the internal structures were wonderfully ornate with inlaid white marble and beautifully calved columns everywhere.
The Baby taj was the tomb of and also increadible with symmetry and ornamentation and was a great warm up for the Taj Mahal wich is just amazing. It is massive and beautiful. Every surface is inlaid with different coloured stones making geometric patterns all over it. Inside are the two tombs of the Murgal King and Queen and surrounding that are screens of calved marbel. It was increadible!!
From here we then went to a place called Orchha. Here are the ruins of two palaces and many temples. We spent some time exploring these, trying to imagine how they must have looked in the time when they were built.
From Orchha we then headed to Kudgerho where we looked at the wonderfully preserved temples with there erotic scenes. Each temple was entirely covered with images of gods calved from the stone doing various things, usually with some very curvy women.
It was about this time that we decided that the heat was too much. We both got sick here from the heat, which had been above 40 ever since entering India, so decided to head back to the hill further north.
Our first stop, after three days traveling, was McLeod Ganj. This was originally a place for the English to go during the hot Indian surrmer but is now a place for tourists to go during the hot Indian summer. We spent around 5 days there recovering and eating some wonderful cakes!
From here we then visited the Chamba valley. This was a very nice valley with the town of Dalahouse in it. This is another place that the English set up to escape the summer and is filled with crumbling mansions and rows of delapadated terraces.
From here we worked our way back around to Manali which, again was set in a valley surrounded by the snow capped mountains of the Himilayas. Manali was really good because it had hot springs so each morning we were able to start with a wonderful hot bath in amongst all the Indians.
We then worked our way down this valley staying one night in a castle and one in a Palace before getting to Rishikeish which was our next major stop. Rishikeish is best known for being the world capital for Yoga so we made good use of this by practicing Yoga each morning.
On our way back to Deli we stopped overnight in Hardiwar which is set on the Holy Ganges river and is a pilgramage town for the Hindus population. It was quite amazing to see all the Indians bathing in the river that runs through the town and making offerings of burning boats made from leafs and flowers.
From here it was straight back to deli where we checked out a few of the sights. We saw the red fort of Deli which was great and the mosque which is the biggest in India. Yesterday we also went to a Seik temple and had a tour of Old Deli on a cycle Rick shaw.
At the moment we are waiting to head out to the airport to catch our planes to Eurpoe. We are both excited about getting to Europe which is going to be a bit of a shock after spending the last two and a half months in India and Nepal.
Hope that everything is going well back home,
Take care everyone, Chris and Jacinta