Having got up at 3am to make sure we got to the airport in time (as advised by the hotel owner not just Steve's usual punctuality) we arrived in Chennai at 8.30ish and decided that we'd seen enough of the city in Mumbai and we would head straight down the coast to Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram or mabalabababram as we have been pronouncing it. Coming out of the airport we first had to negotiate all the taxi drivers who told us the only way to reach our destination was with them at a cost of 1,000+ rupees, we then had to get past the rickshaw drivers who told us the only way to get there was to get a lift with them to the bus station for 400+ rupees, finally we had to wait at bus stops, on both sides of the road, for a bus we could even fit on before reaching the bus station to enetually pick up a much quieter bus to mabalabamamraam arriving having spent a princely 58 rupees in total, that's about 80p.

We regressed into bad habits from the start of our trip in South America nad stayed at the first place we were shown without checkig out the competition. having resolved not to do that again we wandered round the fairly typical backpacker area which we'd seen a little of in S America and which is a little cliched and not our favourite type of town. That said there are some amazing temples and in particular carvings which are incredibly detailed given how old they are (very). After a walk around these temples this morning we lazed by the pool for a little while, exposing a little of the flesh we have been covering up, especially Ali, since we arrived in India. We are off to the music festival tonight before we head off in the morning after Ali has had her second yoga session after her initial one this morning. We are realising just what a huge country it is and how much there is to see and do between here and Mumbai, we're probably going to have to be pretty selective.