Sunday, 8th December

Yesterday we embarked on our epic journey to Rameswaram at seven in the morning! Arun hired a car, which cost Rs800 for the day. As soon as we reached the three-kilometre bridge to the island it started raining and didn't stop until we were back on the bridge going home. It stayed sunny in Ramnad! We visited most of the hundreds of temples and watched the mad Hindu devotees washing in the sea, in the rain.

At the huge Ramalingeswara temple¹ we made ourselves unpopular by refusing to have red ash smeared on our foreheads before we entered the Inner Sanctum, which got us the privilege of being closely watched for the rest of our time there. Before anyone else can enter, they have to be drenched from each of the twenty-two holy wells, so the place was full of wet people running about, having a great time. Being a seaside town, there are a lot of boxes with shells stuck on them and the usual crowd of mad people trying to sell you things.

It was a lazy afternoon, we came back at lunchtime and went shopping down the bazaar, which is a great experience. Lots of vegetables in the house... I went to the choir rehearsal an hour-and-a-half late and needn't have bothered because I was so ill I couldn't go to the service anyway! C. and Nic went and left me to the mercies of visits from small children. They kept me entertained with songs and dances and Tamil until someone's mum came to take them away.

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After everyone got back, I was visited by a gorgeous teacher² who said that the choir wasn't the same without me and I really had to fight not to give her a big hug! C. saw her as she was leaving and said, will you marry me? but she didn't hear, which is probably just as well. Another teacher came round a bit later and said they were fine.³ I thought they would be, after all, I joined them, not they me. She also offered to help us with our food, and I said that we really needed someone to tell us what spices to use, so we can be authentic... Nic is going back to Madurai tomorrow and she has lent us Rs1000 to get us by until we can get to the bank on the Fifteenth. I have got lots to write, but I'm feeling very ill so I'll do it tomorrow...