11.8.2010 - 17.8.2010

My travelling party has increased from 2 to 6 and is now 4. Lee and I were with 4 girls called Nikki and Terese, who are human, and Manali and Leh, who are puppies we adopted and de-flead and have brought with us on bus journeys and are nursing up to health. Unfortunately, last night, despite our best efforts, Manali passed away. She had a fever of some sort and for her funeral we committed her body to the Ganges (in keeping with many thousands of other Indians). Keen to not let the same thing happen to little Leh, we called out the vet who gave her some injections which will hopefully make her strong and ready for the world. I have grown rather fond of Leh; she settles to sleep on me and is just the cutest thing ever. (NB. Since writing this little Leh has died, may she rest in peace.)

We just finished a yoga class in a place called Rishikesh, the so called 'Yoga Capital of the World'. Our yoga instructor was quite simply hilarious. He was so proud of his (wrong) anatomical knowledge, like I have been in many a supervision last year. I think I stopped listening to him when he said the heart was predominantly located on the right hand side of the body, but then changed his mind to the left. Maybe he was just a bit of a joker. I'm not sure. Anyway, despite his flaws he was super flexible and made me want to take up yoga next term. However, maybe all the chanting and channelling energy bullshit will make me stay away.

After leaving Manali we went to Shimla (before coming back to the sweltering heat of the Indian plains at Rishikesh). Shimla was pretty dull. The only redeeming, interesting selling point was the fact that it was home to India's 2nd oldest church and numerous other British style buildings which essentially made the main part of the town look like Great Yarmouth or somewhere quintessentially British but overall a bit shit.

In Rishikesh we've not been up to much. There isn't actually that much to see, but it is a pretty atmospheric place and nice to just stand and look out on the cool mist creating a blanket over the Ganges. All the restaurants serve up the same traveller food, priced between 70 and 110 Rupees (1 pound to 1.60): Falafel, Gnocci, Salads, Pizzas, Burritos - I've had them all in the last couple of days. We 'broke in' to a hotel and went swimming on the rooftop pool. That was fun. And we got a tuk-tuk to drive us 15km to the nearest beer and wine shop, as it's not legal/available in holy places in India although Bhang (Marijuana) is. That was, well, desperate.

Tomorrow we head back to smelly Delhi. We managed to fire a few emails off to NGO's and have secured three days of volunteering in a public health van which travels around slums. It should be really interesting and we'll be staying with a local family so it'll be good to get a taste of some genuine Indian cuisine again and to chill with genuine yokles. Here is the website of the organisation: http://www.childsurvival-india.org/. It'll be good to be doing something productive with our time - we had planned to volunteer in the far north but as we didn't make it we're going to fill our final week in Delhi. We're gonna have a few days R&R, hopefully get some stuff tailored before flying back Wednesday. Boy has it gone quick.