Chennai

I'm in Zama Longe. It's 6pm and dark and outside. The hammering of heavy rain has replaced the hammering of construction work from earlier.

We arrived here last night at about midnight, after a 15 hour train journey. It was dark and raining then too. Our taxi pulled up outside our residence and everything was locked up. A couple of guys were hanging around outside and shouted to us when I tried to open the gates. One of them pressed the buzzer for us and got an electric shock from the exposed wires. Our taxi driver called for us on his mobile and an old man in a grubby vest came down to let us in.



Our room is one of many concrete cells, about 6ft by 4ft. It's grubby and dingy - Alice referred to my horror show of a mattress as "a crime scene" - but it's cheap by Chennai standards and we're only here briefly.

"CSI Chennai" has a ring to it, no?

We got up late this morning and went for a masala dosa. We then spent the rest of the day walking round looking for a coffee shop that didn't exist. Hot and sweaty, we retired to our cell. Chennai is big, busy and dirty. I wouldn't recommend it as a tourist destination but I confess we've not really explored that much - perhaps we're in the wrong bit. It's about as far removed from the lush tranquility of Kerala as I can imagine.

We're off to brave the rain for some dinner soon and then we've a morning flight to the Andamans. I'm looking forward to that beach.