We were up and waiting in the reception of our hotel for 7.30am this morning! Ready and willing for our day trip to Pondicherry. Unfortunately, Sarah was feeling very much under the weather, with a mother of a stomach ache and feeling generally achy and pathetic! After sleeping most our the bus journey (which set off an hour late!) she was feeling better and continued to get better throughout the day.

Our first stop, on our slightly disappointing day trip, was Auroville a sort of conservation centre with a gigantic meditation centre (that looked much like a massive gold golf ball with a bit of scaffolding on the top!). As cleaver as the trip organisers were, they had taken us on the only day that the meditation centre was closed to the public! After a few goofy photos with the 'Golf Ball' we headed back to the bus for our next port of call, in Pondicherry itself.

We were dropped off in the centre of Pondicherry and 'ordered' to have some lunch, although we were that hungry! Laura had a mixed meal of rice, chapati, poppadom, chicken curry and some other unidentifiable things and just neutral veg rice for Sarah's poorly tum!

We got off the bus at Shri Ashram a Yoga Centre, where people prayed in front of a gorgeous smelling aray of bedding flowers! (We don't know why! - Maybe we should have done some more research!?!) From here we lost the rest of the group, or should I say the tour guides left without us/ told us to meet back at the bus, when they were actaully going to the museum! - Good job we didn't want to go! So, we wondered upto the sea front and managed to locate them again at the monument of Gandhi! Cue photos with Gandhi and his upturned flipflop! With the damp weather we felt we could have been at any small town seaside resourt in Blighty! We had just enough time to wonder around the tacky markets and grab some pineapple chunks before heading to another temple, via the Botantical Gardens, where we saw a elephant, wearing pretty anklets, excepting donations of passer-bys and tapping them on the head in thanks!

It was then time to get back onto the coach for a very loud and long journey back to Chennai. - The guides decided to put on an old Bollywood film with constant ear-bleeding music full blast!! We could hardly hear Laura's MP3 player!

We were dropped off close to our hotel and flopped onto our bed for an early night in front of crap tellie programmes!