We arrived in Chennai in style....on a bus with reclining seats - 50 rupees extra well spent! We got hunted down by a dodgy rickshaw driver trying to charge 600 rupees for a 5K ride! Luckily we found a cheaper deal, but obviously were still charged double the Indian rate!

Got to the hotel to find a squishy bed - at last! And even though the toilet was Indian style - it was the first we had seen where the ceramic surround was actually white! Got up early the next day on a mission to find a plain breakfast and met a rickshaw driver named Suresh along the way. He spoke really good English and decided to be our guide for the day - at least we did not need to map read! First stop was a Temple (shocker) which had some awsome colourful paintings and a stable full of cows and goats. Suresh asked for all our families names and blessed all of them. Next stop was St. Thomas Cathedral was was nice (and white) but not quite Vatican standard which they tried to claim. Apparently the founder of Christianity in India was buried here and we visited the tomb.

Deb drove the rickshaw along the beach!! Sarah thought it best to sit in the back and hold on tight. Still not quite sure of the controls but they can go pretty fast for a tin can on wheels!

Cheap travel all day because we agreed to do some shopping....well window shopping. We were taken to the most amazing jewellery shop and tried on sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds....the most sparkly items in the shop! We told them we will be back in 10 years when we can actually afford lots of gems! Also found a Marks and Spencer in a posh shopping mall (note to self: never take Primark underwear travelling!) We bought some silk, but it was from the Government Emporium so the driver did not get any commission..this meant a hairy ride all the way home!

Spent the evening being very quiet and not drawing any attention to ourselves as we watched India vs England in a rooftop restaurant. The Indians are crazy about cricket! The match ended up being a draw so no hard feelings.

India Stress moment no.1. The one where we tried to fix Deb's camera. Utterly stupid - cannot be achieved in India! Spent the most part of the day driving across six lanes of traffic in a broken rickshaw trying to find the service centre. Service centre found....do not service. Plebs. Ended up shouting at the manager and lecturing him about good customer service before resorting in buying a new (overpriced) camera. Rant over :) Crying has now turned into laughter!

While we thought the camera was being fixed, we visited the High Court of Tamil Nadu. There were literally thousands of people there and a Lawyer for each of them - all dressed in robes. We met a mediation lawyer who allowed us to sit in on one of her cases which was really interesting. The trials are all conducted in English which was useful! Strange how a conclusion is actually made since the sideways head nod (maybe / perhaps / I don't really know) was used at every opportuinity!

A few days of western food and antibiotics has set us up for our onward journey to the Nilgiri Hills.