The past week has been packed full. It started last tuesday with a visist in the evening to to the Golden Temple. It is relatively new temple and has beautiful gardens and the temple itself was certainly gold- it was spectacular at night. It also helps set the mood when there are hundreds of Indians there to pray. To get to the actual temple you have to walk around a paved star shape that is 1.8km long - its quite clever really because you see the temple from all angles. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed- but trust me it was beautiful and the atmosphere was great.

The next day we got a half day off from the hospital and went out with a local, new charity - HUGS (Help us go to School) to a local village to give out chaapals- thongs. Most of the kids were from lower castes- its such an awful classification system India has but its so important to them to have a heirarchy. The schools were small and none of the kids had shoes- imagine walking around in summer in 45 degree heat on the road- ouch or getting hook worm ( a worm that gets in through your feet). So although- at times we thought there were more important things that could be done for the kids we realised it was at least a place to start for this new charity. It had a bit of weird vibe because so many photos were being taken- but I guess a s a new charity you need lots of publicity. The kids were cute- they loved the camera. Their favourite question was "what is your name" to which when you replied they just giggled. At one stage tried to get a photo with them and they all jumped back about a meter to make a circle around me because I had come near them! Then I go the camera out to show them and got swamped!!!!! After a very bumpy rickshaw ride back to Vellore we got asked about donating - which we all happy to do but it seemed they were looking for more volunteer man-power than anything else- which as we were leaving the next week we weren't able to provide.

On the friday we headed for Mamalapuram- a small, touristy coastal town in btween Chennai and Pondicherry. After changing bus numerous times (ask a bus driver in India if he's going to your desired destination and he will say yes even if he is going the most indirect route!)we got there and were immediately excited by all the shopping to be done! There were quite a few other travellers- lots of older ones too- yoga hippies that can't escape the 60's! We were offered hash within 10 minutes and a beer with lunch (not all have a lisence so you have to ask if they have it then hide the bottle under the table so the cops don't see!). Accomodation was cheap and the best part wa s the fresh seafood caught every morning. Every shop you walked past would try to get you to enter- and once in they were pretty sleazy- by the end of the weekend we were happy to wave them good-bye. The other interesting part was all the rock carvings- mamllapuram exports their carvings around the world and many of the temples in southern india were carved by one of its many sculptors. We hired bikes - yep I rode around on Indian roads- to see all the rock carvings. It was a lot of fun and I couldn't stop laughing when Belinda fell off her bike into the roadside bushes- all I could see was the top of her head poking out- lucky for her a couple of guys on moto's stopped and plucked her out. She was okay apart from the thorn scratches. At least she didn't fall into an open latrine!! The other funny thing was running into Dave- my cousins cousin- if that makes sense! The girls were dumb founded when I stopped pedalling to greet him- its a small world!

Only four days left at the hospital- and I counting down the days- I'm ready to explore the rest of this crazy country.

Jess xo