First 2 weeks - India, Tamil Nadu

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First two weeks: After a rapid exit from Chennai airport at 1am via taxi, along a cow-strewn East Coast road we arrived in the beach resort of Mamallapuram where we gathered ourselves, our bikes, started adjusting to curry and met a future beatboxing and Bollywood star of India called Kathki who had enough belief in himself for all India. We saw a really old temple.

After 5 days, with our bikes assembled and our nerves sufficiently set, we set off South towards Puducherry with an overnight stop at an idyllic house boat. We had aimed to leave early morning but things being the way they are, we left at 12pm. Sadly the house boat turned out to be a boat house without anywhere to eat nor sleep so we ventured on a further 50km at speed, in an attempt to avoid cycling in the dark, which we had vowed not to do ever (or at least very rarely), with a packet of biscuits and 3 small bananas.

We cycled fast, yet it was not enough and low and behold we were cycling as the light dimmed to reach our first couchsurfer host, one day earlier than planned without knowing his address. Fortunately white folk are thin on the ground North of Puducherry and some locals knew the brother’s number and we eventually got to his house at 10pm.

We stayed in ‘Eternity’, an extension of the hippy village known as Auroville, where international communities coexist to create a better world. We swam in a marble-lined fresh water swimming pool every morning and listened to a frog chorus every night. This was great for 3 days until a cyclone hit and then we had to listen to it for a further 3 nights. Eventually it passed and we moved on to Chidambaram where we stayed in a grotty hole and saw a lovely temple with a fire ceremony.

Mayiladuthurai was our next stop, where gods were washed in the river at a special festival. Jude blessed himself in the river and Yvi got blessed by an elephant. Our Indian mobile which had taken 3 days to organise (due to security concerns around terrorism) also got blessed in the river. Not such a smart phone any more but holy nonetheless. We saw a small temple and got interviewed on state TV which was hilarious and awkward as local boys got pushed out of shot (by Yvi) to keep us in frame. For dinner we ate Navaratma Khurma which was laced with cashew nuts – Jude survived, despite his Homerton Hospital blood test scientifically proving he has a nut allergy.

Our feeling like local stars was heightened on our journey to Thanjavore, where we currently reside, when we found ourselves with a small following of 2 mopeds and an auto rickshaw, asking if we wanted photos with them (this is on top of the usual 100 hi-byes we do every day). En route, we treated ourselves to a lunchtime super strong beer in the seedy underworld of legitimate drinking in Tamil Nadu and repeated this later this some Londoners we met at our hotel in an even dingier bar.

Tomorrow we put our sore, sorry arses on a train to Madurai, apparently there’s a really nice temple there.

PS our bells and horn are invaluable in Indian traffic and the Kindle and selfie stick are getting plenty of abuse.



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