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To India and Beyond
Greetings everyone and happy new year!
Had a great Christmas and New Year on the Andaman Islands. The place is absolutely beautiful - white sand, palm trees and turquoise sea - wonderful.
We took the two day ferry back to Chennai on 12th January and then left for Madurai on the 16th. So, we're here at the moment.
Went to see bull running at a village outside Madurai yesterday, all in aid of the festival of Pongal (harvest festival), it was very entertaining. Basically, they fill the high street up with a huge crowd of hyper young men and run a bull through the middle of them. If the bull is caught, the captor gets a prize (cooking utensils or a piece of furniture), if not then the bull's owner gets the prize. It all looked pretty dangerous, don't think it would be allowed in England! I guess it's a bit like the bull run in Spain. Anyhow it was a good day - apart from getting my bottom groped four times.
Madurai is a wonderful city, full of interesting things, brilliant shops and really friendly, helpful people. If I had to live in an Indian city, it'd probably be this one.
We're off to see the huge Meenakshi temple this evening. We can see it (and hear it) from the roof terrace of our hotel, looks fantastic but very busy, especially over Pongal. Harvest festival is pretty important in this region because Tamil Nadu is a very rural area.
Thinking of heading off to the hills for a couple of days, to a place called Kodaikanal. The 3-hour bus ride is supposed to be absolutely breath-taking, but it'll be pretty chilly up there at the moment, a cool 12-14 degrees - brrrrrr!!!!!!
That's all for now folks. Hope you're all well.
See you.
Kate x
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