Beach party

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Hi again

Well I'v ended up with an hour to kill this evening so I thought I would add another blog already.

After I last updated I headed back to the hotel and then we all went for dinner at a local resturant. Then we had a few drinks, and a few more, then the bar shut so about four of us and one random person we had met went on an alcohol hunt, in the end we found one bar that would serve us but we couldn't drink there. So Alex did some dodgy backroom deal with them and we headed down to the beach where we met some more random people having a camp fire. So we all hung out there just chatting for a few hours which was pretty cool.

First thing in the morning I met Charlie down the beach to watch the sunrise. It was a bit cloudy so it wasn't that spectacular but it was still quite pretty. Then at 7.30 we headed off to the train station to catch our eight hour rain to Madurai. I had forgotton how fasinating the stations are in India, just how you see people from all walks of life I could have spent most of the day just sitting their and watching. I got some street food at the station then talked for about the first half of the journey then when people went to get some sleep watched the world go by for the second half, which was actually pretty cool.

We got to Madurai about 5 (after the obligatory delay). sorted ourselves out then haded for dinner on the roof of a resturant. Madurai is a bit of a noisy town and seems more like I remember Dehli then anywhere else but still not quite as crowded or polluted.

This morning we went to see Madurai temple which has five massive pillars with carvings and all painted bright colours. However once every twelve years the towers get painted and disapeer behing scafolding and banana leaves which happens to be now. (How lucky we are) The inside however was still spectacular, with lovely painted roofs and statues.

6 fo us then went to lunch where I had a brilliant Thali which is a mixture of different curries. We then went to the Gandhi museum. We got four of us on an auto rickshaw there with me sharing the drivers seat. The museum itslf was a lot of writing about Indias history and the life of Gandhi. It was quite harsh (probably fairly) on the British and how they treated the Indians during their occupation of India. We got a cycle rickshaw back (we had 2 in each rickshaw this time) and I did feel really bad for the driver even brought him so water at the end of the trip as he did a really good job in the 30' heat.

And that pretty much brings you upto date.

Bye

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