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Saturday morning legged it from Seashore Residency and ended up in Elite Hotel on the main high street which is much much nicer. They had FOUR towels laid out on the bed without us even asking. And plenty of natural light. And no psycho bloke at the desk. Wandered to Mantancherry on the other side of the island to Fort Cochin where I could have spent an absolute fortune. So many shops selling gorgeous jewellery, pashminas, cushion covers, ornaments you don’t need etc etc....

Left Chennai at 10:45pm and arrived in Kochi at 11:30am Friday. The atmosphere here is completely different. The station was calm. Not too many people. And we found a Pizza Hut. Very sad but after our experiences of pizza in Havelock we needed it. Went to the Women Changing India photography exhibition in Kochi which Matt had spotted in a photography magazine. It was interesting to see how things are changing here....

Flight from Port Blair to Chennai was faultless. Kingfisher airlines were excellent. The flight was on time. The bus at Chennai from the plane to the terminal had armchairs & sofas to sit on. I am not kidding. Here I am trying to take a photo of both of us sat in one of the armchairs quickly before anyone sees me and arrests me for breaching airport security. This was embarrassingly the best one out of four attempts!...

Sun is shining yay! Spent most of Monday on our lovely little bit of secluded beach. Matt in the hammock hiding from the sun and me in as much sun as poss. Had bar-b-q fish again for dinner at Pellicon. This time we had the biggest chunk of tuna fillet I’ve ever seen and a delicious Silverfish marinated in tandoori sauce. Delish. Tuesday we decided to get up for sunrise. Alarm set for 5am, we dragged ourselves out at 5....

Happy 1st Anniversary to John & Kelly Wass! Can’t believe it’s been a whole year since your wedding. Time has flown. Miss you guys lots! Our last day of diving today. It rained all night long heaviest we’d heard and was still raining at 6am when the alarm went off. But by the time we boarded Hammerhead the blue sky was winning and Matt has his first sunburn of the Andaman Islands....

8am I woke up looked out the window saw blue sky and was like a small child on Christmas morning jumping around over-excitedly. Sunbathing here we come! I rushed over to order to brekkie whilst Matt dragged himself sleepily out of bed and into the shower. Just as he came out of the hut the black clouds swallowed up the blue and the rains descended. And it’s rained and rained and rained and rained....

Happy Anniversary to Steve & Anne-Marie! It’s bonfire night in the UK and you’d be forgiven for thinking they have the same tradition over here as kids are running round with sparklers and setting off fireworks and the loudest firecrackers I’ve ever heard giving this old woman many mini heart attacks. It’s the Diwali festival of lights today. Such a shame it’s hardly stopped raining. We have been in the hut most of the day....

For the past week we have been in the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea on the tropical Havelock Island. We landed in Port Blair on South Andaman Thursday afternoon and jumped in a taxi 15 mins before the last ferry was due to leave for Havelock. We were under no illusion that we’d get that ferry when we landed. But the information desk woman at the airport plus the taxi driver assured us we could make it....

Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta although may still be known as Calcutta as many people still say they’re from Bombay even though its now Mumbai – must check this out) was a pleasant surprise for a large city. We arrived late Tuesday night as our train took 2hrs longer than it needed to. Somehow Uli, the German trainee architect who is studying in Vienna, had wangled us a lift to our hotel with a lovely Kolkatan couple whose driver met them at the station in their new Jeep wagon thing that had room for a family of 10 and still had the bubble wrap on the spare wheel....

Last day in Darjeeling and weather today is lovely. Khangchendzonga is clearly visible on above the skyline. It’s beautiful. We stopped at our regular egg roll lady and acquired two on the way to Observatory Hill North East of centre to sit and admire the view of the mountain. Not quite as impressive a view as the one from Sandakphu but still not bad. Stopped for tea tasting where the guy let us smell about 20 different samples of tea which he warmed in his palms first to release the aroma....