Paul is having his afternoon nap

so it will just be me Sophie writing this entry. However Sophie will still be referring to herself as Sophie due to her importance generally. To explain that, we have been writing the posts jointly and we didn't know how else to do it.. We could have just put 'I' but then who would have known who we were referring
 to, hmmm? That would have been disastrous! We were jsut thinking of you really.

We are now in Agra, where the most fascinating site is apparently not the Taj Mahal 
but me on a bicycle. Everyone has to talk to me about it - my favourite is when people (yes lots of them) on motorbikes slow down alognside me  and yell 'you are cycling?', just to check the big girl on a bike isn't some hallucination, almost causing about ten accidents in the process. People have also saluted me (?!), tried to run me off the road in a comedy style which I didn't find that hilarious, shake my hand, yelled abuse, praise.....
Anyway enough about me, we visited the Taj Mahal last night at sunset and this morning at sunrise - it really is as beautiful as everyone says - so perfect it doesn't look real and it changes colour all the time. Paul took some great photos, including of fractals for Ryan who probably has never seen this but nevermind, which should appear here soon - so lovers of the waistcoat, and there are quite a few of you sadly, will have to wait. (I think it may be a slight anti-climax in the end). The wearer himself has now arisen so love to all......

Pauls Frank Spencer Moment

We have now arrived in Amritsar - luckily in Pauls case as he was attempting to remove our luggage from the roof of the bus when it drove off, with Paul shouting at Sophie who was trotting after it at her usual speed. However, the bus only went to the other end of the station and not to Chandigarh which only added to the hilarity for the people watching.
Apart from that we had a go at Tibetan cooking in Dharamsala and produced some very deformed dumplings but they tasted good. We also saw a Tibetan cultural show which was good at first but kindof waned after the twentieth 'group dance'. The whole thing was enlivened by the happiest man in the world who maintained a beatific expression of joy through a 'wardrobe malfunction', some truly remarkable is-he-joking solo singing, a toddler crawling around the stage, people attempting to leave mid way through and even when almost everyone had left and he was the only person on the dance floor following the bit where everyone had to dance (except Paul who sat with some monks saying that if they weren't going to, neither was he - to be fair most people including Sophie just bobbed up and down on the spot - except two people who tried to recreate the costumes with their jumpers and leapt around the room excitedly - even they only stayed for one sang though, not like happy man who we assume had to be dragged away kicking and screaming, actually no he would probably still have smiled).
We liked Dharamsala but it was a bit small and touristy, mainly people on spiritual retreats having jam sessions and philosophising about Buddhism - we are now in Amritsar which is a bustling place. We went to the Golden Temple this morning which is very beautiful, relaxing, welcoming, friendly - we loved it basically! It has free food and drink for everyone, amazing singing of the Sikh Holy Book which takes 48 hours and pilgrims washing themselves in the lake, most of whom are very friendly and in one case, a bit too friendly - a man who insisted on hurrying us from one end to the other taking photos every two seconds, including of him, and who tried to be a tour guide despite not speaking a word of English, until we lost him (we think to another lucky group).
Tomorrow we are catching an overnight train to Agra - there were only upper bunks left and we know from China this is likely to be a 'hilarious' experience for Sophie who will probably get stuck halfway up. Wish us luck!

Back from the Wilderness

As you can see we have resolved the photos issue having realised we have a memory card...doh! Don't we look great?! The photos are of a Buddhist shrine on the Kunzum La pass 4550m up, Delhi's mosque and traffic and us! This one was taken when we were walking through the Spiti valley which is 4000m above sea level and meant Sophie went even slower than usual. As you can see it was very beautiful and remote with lots of tiny villages. We realised how remote following our ten hour journey on the 'Bus of Terror' which involved a lot of mountain passes, mostly on narrow rock roads many of them disintegrating and a lot of UNNECESSARY OVERTAKING. Any attempts to reassure ourselves the bus did this every day without any problems were undermined by the roadsigns which included 'Sinking area - caution' (shortly after the left back wheel had come off the road above a 200m drop), 'Alert today - Alive tomorrow', 'If you're married, divorce speed' (what if you're not married?) and, our favourite, 'Life is short, don't make it shorter'. The fear reached comedy levels when we noticed the bus driver had written 'Oh god, save me' followed by his numberplate to ensure god saved the correct bus. Thankfully we have finished all of those journeys and will be avoiding them at all costs in the future. The journey was worth it though - Spiti is a magical place and we stayed in a really nice old Tibetan style house with some very friendly people, ate a lot of momo (which are meat dumplings) and enjoyed some spectacular views on our walks. We are now back in Manali and are off to Daramsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, tomorrow via Mandi which will give Paul a chance to sing his favourite Barry Manilow song a few more times (NOT the Westlife version, obviously).
Also thanks to Latch for his devotion ;-) We have now changed the comments so anyone can post, if anyone is still reading this given our complete lack of effort. Love to all........

Delhi, Shimla and Manali

Paul and Sophie's Big Trip

We have been trying to update this but there were obstacles such as power cuts and paulie having forgotten the cable for uploading pictures - so you'll just have to enjoy the wedding photo for a year....... So far we have had an excellent time and all of the ridiculous stories told to us by various doommongers have proved to be total rubbish. Delhi was chaotic and energetic - we initially went for a walk in the wrong direction and concluded Delhi consisted of a very peaceful suburb....a walk the next day in the rush hour of Old Delhi definitely changed our minds - we will never complain about London traffic again after witnessing a 100m stand off between two sets of oncoming traffic including taxis, cow drawn carriages and a large number of people carrying long iron poles. The Mosque was beautiful - wish we could show it to you! We then caught a very small train to Shimla through beautiful mountain scenery. Sophie got stuck next to a guy who was very interesting and friendly initially but then spent about two hours moaning about various aspects of his life, India and the world in general. Still he did give both of us sweets so we shouldn't complain. Shimla is a big town for Indian tourists and was a very relaxing place to spend a few days. Paul also managed to pick up a very stylish woollen waistcoat which Sophie loves and in no way finds hilarious or embarrassing. We then endured a ten hour bus journey up to Manali during which Paulie heroically managed not to be sick despite having his head out of the window in preapration for almost the entire trip. We are now staying in a fantastic hotel with amazing views in Manali, which is a bit of a traveller trap and looking forward (!) to a twelve hour bus journey starting at 5 in the morning to Kibber which the highest settlement in the world with electricity and a road. Not sure it will have Internet so you may have to wait a while for another fascinating post...

We havent left yet

so we have nothing to say.