There are four of our tour group who'd like to visit the Royal Enfield motorcycle factory, so given our experience of a failed visit on Saturday we're tasked with trying to arrange one for today. Clive makes a call first thing in the morning and after explaining that we went on Saturday not knowing it was a public holiday is told that if you turn up at reception this morning then we'll be given a "special tour".

We're all taken by bus into Chennai, a journey of about two hours. After doing our own thing for 2 months, it's rather strange being on a tourist bus. We want to lean out of the window and shout "Hey, we may be on a tourist bus but we're not really tourists, we're travellers, and we've been here for over two months!!" We don't though.

The bus arrives at the Government Museum, which the rest of our party are going round first. Sarah's in urgent need of a toilet and hurries off while a car to Tiruvottiyur is arranged.

Sarah - You've probably heard someone say, when they've had an accident or something's happened to them, "It all seemed to happen in slow motion..." Well I know just what they mean. I was desperate to go to the loo and we stopped at the Chennai Government museum. I tucked my sunglasses into the neck of my t-shirt and dashed to the ladies. Of course, it was a squat down affair. As I did the necessary arrangement of clothing and assumed the squatting position, I watched my sunglasses slowly drop to the wet floor, slither gracefully into the porcelain toilet and drop soundlessly into the water-filled hole. I squatted there for a while, rather stunned and considered what to do next. No way was I going to dip my hand into the water! I wondered if they'd bob up to the top again, in which case I may have braved it and got them out. But no, they remained firmly in the black depths and I had to resign myself to my loss - one pair of rather expensive Bolle sunglasses. Still it provided a great deal of amusement for the rest of the tour party...

Six of us visit the RE motorcycle factory at Tiruvottiyur. The significance of this factory is that the RE company set it up in the 1950s to supplement production in England. When the UK operation ceased the Indian factory continued production, and the basic model hasn't changed since. It's therefore possible to buy a brand new RE motorcycle built essentially to 1950s designs and they're perfect for the Indian conditions. They're also rather sought after buy motorcycle collectors in other countries.

Our tour around the plant takes about an hour and is really interesting. We're shown the engine production area including two test beds where brand-new motors are started up for the first time. Then we see the bike assembly line where the motor is put into the frame and the completed bike rolls off the end. They only have one production line which has a maximum capacity of 130 bike per day so it's very small by modern standards.

The most fascinating part of the tour is the paint shop. Here we see the petrol tanks and other painted parts receiving gold paint lining completely free-hand. It's absolutely amazing how the technician gets the lining perfect each time, and we wonder how many he got wrong before he got it right!

At the end of the tour we're all given RE T-shirts and promotional material, but no free bike.

Back at Temple Bay we make use of our experience in India to find a good restaurant outside of the hotel. The food in the hotel is OK but nothing special, and it costs about three times what you'd pay outside. We find a place called the Blue Elephant in the village, check out the menu, establish that they really do have cold beer available (i.e. no need for a bicycle!) and that it's reasonably clean. It passes on all counts so we recommend it as an alternative to the hotel, and ten of our party take up the offer. We're a little nervous at recommending any restaurant to others as we can't be absolutely certain that it will be OK, but in fact this one turns out to be pretty good and everyone congratulates us on our choice. From now on we've been appointed to the role of Assistant Tour Guides.