We arrived at the bus station in Pondycherry and it went a little something like this: 'Madam- bus to Chennai?' 'No sir, Tiruvannamalai' 'Chennai?' 'No sir, Tiruvannamalai' 'You going to Chennai?' 'NO...we..want...a...bus...to...Tir-u-vanna-mal-ai' 'Oh, this is the bus to Tiruvannamalai madam' 'We know... thank you sir!' Having watched the landscape change from coast, through paddy fields to dry desert-like scrub we finally rocked up, two sceptics in the holy town of Tiruvannamalai. Shadowed by the mountain Arunachala, where a number of holy folk went to live in isolation in caves to find 'enlightenment', leaving a legacy of numerous ashrams and guru addicted followers! We met with a friend of Joelle's, Laxman, who kindly offered us his kitchen floor for the week, so we headed off around the mountain to his idyllic hideout in the sticks- which brought
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