Day 11

Another sad day today as we left our second jungle home and headed back towards Delhi. No-one wanted to leave, not even our guide, nor our driver, who had become good mates with the lodge boys. It was the first time this place had been used by our travel company - in fact it only opened last January, so was a bit of a journey into the unknown for everyone - but a HUGE success.

So, all a bit subdued, we headed back along the bumpy, dusty river bed and headed into Rishikesh for a look at this peculiar town. Made famous in the UK by the Beatles visit here, it seems to have become a magnet for 'enlightenment seekers' from across the world. You want to learn any type of yoga or massage, then Rishikesh is your place, and every building, wall or lamp-post proclaims it. There were more foreign tourists here than any other place we have been to and dreadlocks, piercings and bare feet abound. I found it quite fascinating, but not everyone in the family agreed!!! There were also some huge and quite ornate temples here and an iron suspension bridge, connecting the two sides of town (which span the Ganges) built be the British when the old wooden one was washed away in a flood. We crossed the bridge a couple of times (too wobbly for Mia's liking) and had a good look round the market stalls selling a huge array of hippy clothes, but even Ellie came away pretty much empty handed.

After a few hours and suitably enlightened, we drove back to Haridwar to catch the evening train back to Delhi. I was well and truly 'had' by Narindrar (our guide) as we watched hundreds of people trying to cram themselves and all their huge number of belongings into the sleeper cars of a train before ours, when he told me we should expect that sort of scrum on our train too, as it was the end of Diwali. Suffice to say I was not happy - until he confessed to winding me up!! In the event, ours was a fabulous 'seater' train - with better seats and more leg-room than the plane and we were plied with food and drink for practically the whole journey. All trains should be like this.

And finally, about 11pm we arrived back in Delhi, to the same hotel we started off at 2 weeks ago. Tomorrow is the last day with our guide, then we break free on our own for a few days before heading home. Mixed feelings in our group about whether we are ready to go home yet, but on balance we are all happy to have a few more days, but won't now have either the luxury of a guide to sort everything out for us, nor a hectic sight-seeing schedule. It will be interesting.

We are not sure what internet access will be like in the next place, so don't worry if we are a bit quiet - we'll keep you posted when we can. Nxxx