Sunday 13th April

Madurai

In Madras we met up with Gerard Samuel and George Koshy at the CSI place where we stayed when we first arrived. We didn't recognise Gerard at first, but he didn't know us either so there was no embarrassment. George Koshy, although we saw him only briefly, came across as quite an amazing person and when you talk to him he looks at you as if you are the only person in the universe. I expressed my desire to buy a drum¹ and Gerard took us off in a company car. I'm quite worried about the weight and carrying it on the plane, but I'm sure I'll get away with it! If it's still there when we go back that is - there didn't seem any point in lugging it all the way down here.

The Rock Fort at Trichy isn't a fort at all, it's a temple stuck on top of an eighty metre rock that was fortified by the King because he saw what a good fort it could be. The views from the top are spectacular and after the four-hundred steps we were glad to be able to rest and enjoy them. There's no rain any more, so it is HOT. At the nearby temple - the biggest in India - we burned our feet on the hot stone roof. This temple (Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple), dedicated to Vishnu consists of seven rectangular walls inside one another leading to the Sanctum Sanctorum. Round the outermost walls are shops, houses and restaurants making the temple part of the town. It has twenty-one towers and countless shrines to various Gods. But, when it all comes down to it it is more of the same.

And that's it, finished. The Greatest Adventure Of Our Lives (so far) has become glorious memory. It was really great and I'm so glad to have done it. To be honest, by Madras we were pretty sick of the whole thing and I think it was probably just the right length really. The thing that stands out is the fact that nothing was stolen and we got through with the absolute minimum of fuss.²

We were completely independent from everyone and the next step is is of course, to do it alone. I don't feel any different, but I think it has probably helped to get us into the right frame of mind for going home again. We won't be so culture-shocked now, we've seen Wimpys and Levis shops in the cities. I've been stocking up on things that I can use in England, rather than all the impractical thin clothes we've been wearing in Ramnad! This may be a bad thing, perhaps we've lost all the cultural education we got so painstakingly before.