Ok so the good news is that it has stopped raining, but the bad news is that you will have to wait a bit longer before I return... It's official, we have an extra 2 weeks in India!!

After a week of rain in Kerala I had severe SAD, so the only way to cure this was to extend our trip & follow the Sun to Goa! Well, via Pondicherry as we had already booked the train to the East Coast which is where we were meant to be leaving from... so we are now doing a 48 hour round trip from Chennai to Goa for an extra 2 weeks of sun!

Needless to say, Vish is a little concerned about all these train journeys, especially since we are on a reduced budget. We took our first Sleeper Class journey (a lower class than we have previoulsy travelled) which Vish was highly disturbed by... a crazy guy called Roy befriended him & was kissing Vish's feet & hands! It was hysterical - the guy was obsessed with him & when it was his stop he wrote down his telephone number & tried to give Vish a 500 rupee note! We're not quite sure what he was meant to do with it! (and I thought it was me that would get all the attention!) It was all a bit queer as folk meets east is east.

I actually preferred the Sleeper Class as it was much more happening & we met loads of nice people who shared their food with us! We even had one young guy from a hockey team sleeping on the floor of our compartment as all the teams equipment was being stored in his allocated bed! Jess gave him her Yoga matt so he didnt have to sleep on newspaper, I cant imagine boys doing that in England!

For the last few days we've been hanging out in Pondicherry, a charming old French town on the Tamil Nadu coast. We're staying right on the seafront on the Promenade, which gets really busy of an evening & has a buzzy carnival atmosphere, with families out walking, brass bands & street vendors! The town has a very European feel about it; we've been feasting on Coffee & Croissants and Jess & I have been cycling everywhere, as the roads are slightly less manic than the rest of India! It's so cute - all the police wear French uniforms (complete with elbow length gloves!) and everyone speaks Francais so people say 'Bonjour' to us instead of the usual 'Hello'!

I could definately spend a lot more time here, so its just as well that we have a few bonus weeks, as I'm not quite ready to leave this amazing India just yet, but then again I probably never will be!