good morning

India was amazing, such a country of contrasts.High end luxury in the hotels we stayed at, but step outside the grounds and there is dire poverty. Dehli is like a huge building site with so much contruction going on, and everywhere there are people peddling their wares from stalls, shop fronts or just a blanket on the ground.Cows, pigs and dogs amble up and down completely ignoring the madcap traffic and there is the incessant sound of horns being blown. No one seems to observe any rules when driving and infact most traffic that is going in one direction can suddenly have vechiles coming in the other direction, there are bikes, camel carts and elephants all using the same roads as huge lorries and cars. I bought many mementoes of my trip and the markets are a wonderous experience. Out in the more rural areas it is like a time warp with women doing the washing at the river banks, grinding corn and chillies between huge stones, they also squat and shape cow dung into frisbie shapes which are then set out to dry in the sun for use later as material for fires. Some scenes are almost biblical, palm trees, camels, oxen and little huts built from straw or sticks, the women dressed in brightly coloured saris and their washing spread over bushes to dry. It is a magical place. But it is changing and our tour guide says if you went back in 15 years lots of what we saw will be gone for ever. I am so glad i went i will never forget it.

Re the sciatica. There are some videos on YouTube showing stretching exercises for relief of sciatica. I have done some myself and they are helpful.
Glad you had a wonderful holiday. India is a country I would love to visit, but I doubt I ever will.

I have never travelled really. Not out of the country anyway. I don't even have a passport. It sounds strange in this day and age I suppose but there never seemed to be any need when I was growing up and I just never thought about it. None of us did. There are 5 in our family and I think only two of them ever had passports. It just wasn't thought about then before the rise of the package holiday and things. I used to have some lovely holidays with my parents though. I remember one in canvey Island once and it got flooded which apparently does happen from time to time and we were walking around in the streets in water, which, might not be good to an adult person but when you're a child you see things diff and love it. I remember kicking up the water in my wellys. I remember one other as well in Winchelsea where I sat on the sea wall and I looked across and there was nothing except one "Esso" sign shining. I still remember that now. Memories eh?

Sounds like a wonderful trip but what a pity it was marred by back pain. What was the most interesting thing/place you saw? What were the hotels like? Did you buy any mementos (mementoes?!)