Bangkok

We fly from the Andamans to Kolkata, where we while away about 8 hours before our connection to Bangkok. Again my body clock is screwed: it's light when it shouldn't be; I'm eating when I should be sleeping. I bumble through the whole thing in a haze.

I'm snapped awake by Bangkok airport. After living in a hut on a tropical island, landing in Bangkok is like traveling to the future. Everything is impossibly high tech - enormous glass windows and moving metal walkways. It's spotless and impeccably organised. The BTS Skytrain connects directly with the airport. I'm so excited to get on that I nearly wee: the doors are automatic; it has LCD screens; diagrams on the walls depict the line you're on and update as you travel along; a nice robot lady tells you over a speaker which station you're arriving at. Come on, it's a train, IN THE SKY!

Havelock Island - Part 2

Havelock is beautiful: white sand, endless sky and brilliant blue water.

As we leave the docks, an auto driver offers to take us up to village 5 for 10rs, as long as we take a look round a couple of resorts. He's up front about getting a kickback if we end up staying at one of the places he takes us to. This seems like a good deal - our rickshaw ends up costing less than the local bus.

Havelock Island - Part 1

I'm sitting in Venom, which is not a shit club in Newbury with giant fibreglass snakes on the dance floor. It is, in fact, a first floor bar - part of a resort across the road from our accommodation at Havelock 5. Some of the villages on the island have names but all of them are conveniently numbered. Some really are villages where locals live and work. Others, like 5, are little more than a line of resorts, restaurants and scuba clubs along a stretch of beach.

Despite the incongruous dance music that strains from a tortured speaker behind the bar and its unfortunate name, Venom is actually quite a nice place. It's all stained wood and wicker furniture, open on three sides. The barmen are really nice and remember what Alice and I like to drink from our first visit. They serve awesome homemade fish fingers.

Tonight I'm here by myself. Alice is back at our resort indulging in some Wimbledon. I've escaped to catch up on some long-overdue journalling and reflect on the last few days

Port Blair

We're in the Andamans!

Port Blair feels very much like another Indian town. Alice says she's looking for something different now and whilst I understand why, I'm feeling like I'm starting to "get" India, or maybe even this whole travelling thing. I feel relaxed and optimistic.

After a bit of an explore of the Abardeen Bazaar area in which we're situated, it becomes apparent that there aren't really that many places to eat or hang out. There are lots of shops though.

Earlier, during a power cut, we wandered into a dingy underground bar, looking for somewhere to get a drink. I had flashbacks to the episode in the Alleppey booze queue but we managed not to get killed. There were no women in the place. I tried to get a vodka and lemonade for Alice and met with some initial confusion. There was no issue getting a Kingfisher strong. It looked like most of the clientele had experienced similar ease, several times.

We've found some information about the other Islands and Havelock looks to be the place to go. There is a tourist information office about twenty minutes walk away, which was full of helpful people. Nobody tried to sell us anything. We can go down to Phoenix ("phonics") jetty tomorrow and, it being low season, shouldn't have any problems buying a ticket there and getting on the ferry.

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.

Alleppey

I'm sitting in the train station in Alleppey with Alice. It's 08:10 and our train has just been delayed until 08:45. The station is probably the most pleasant I've experienced in India. Usually, they are a seething mass of bodies and, I'm sorry to say, smell of toilet. Sometimes, the edge of the platform is being used as a toilet.
Here, the air is fresh and there are few people. I can hear birds singing.

Excuses, excuses

So... it's been a while.

I'm not dead.

Tired of lugging around an ever-increasing burden of books on my back, I picked up a Kindle in a Bankok shopping centre. Free wireless is everywhere here and I've been downloading books like a loon.

First on the list was A Song of Fire and Ice, which was adapted into the TV series A Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones can be expressed as an equation thusly...