At about 1am our last over night train headed out of Coimbatore (the junction town at the bottom of the mountains from Ooty).

10am and there we were in the ex-colony of the Surrender Monkeys. The answer to the question "Why is it so expensive?" was "Because its Pondicherry." No real reason then... I think they just got a bump in tourists after that book about a boy in a boat with a tiger who was from said town and they've have milked it ever since.

The friend we have pictured is Le Chunk, named in honour of Malc's "son". He followed us around for half an hour or so and kept us entertained :)

The "White Town" half of Pondi is a bit like a french seaside town out of season and the availability of croissants and baguettes help to make it feel different to most places we've been so far.

Our most notable experience was learning first-hand in depth from an Anglo-Pondicherrian(?) about how corrupt the state and India as a whole was. Not exactly cheery but really really intetesting to get it from the horses mouth. I won't bore you with details though...

We didnt take many photos here and spent a lot of the time on "life admin" so not much more to report, sorry to dissappoint! Full on 2 weeks at the yoga ashram coming up after this though. (Yes Brett sat cross legged and chanted "Ommmm".)