So I’m back on the ship once again.  We have five days until Mauritius.  I’ve started to really love these long stretches between ports.  Our journey has passed the halfway point, so we are now officially on our way home.  I just don’t want this to end.  I’m trying my hardest to take in as much of this experience as possible before it’s all over.   I absolutely loved India.  I need to go back someday.  Six days is not enough time to see such an incredible country.  I need to spend at least a month or two there. 
        I spent the first ay in India in Chennai.  Our group of four went to the Pondy Bazaar.  It took quite a while for us to persuade our rickshaw driver to take us to the correct place.  There are expensive, air-conditioned, fancy tourist shops all over.  The rickshaw drivers have some type of deal with these stores.  The drivers get paid every time they bring in a group of tourists.  If you’re not stern enough with them they will drive you around to those shops all day.  We got some food in a shopping plaza we set up a time to meet the driver to go to the next place.  After eating we went to the bazaar and then our driver met up with us to take us back to the port.
        I was basically forced to litter I feel so badly about it.  Bailey and I had plastic cups and spoons from the gelato we had finished.  Our driver was picking us up to go to the Bazaar, but we started to go off looking for a trashcan.  He said no stop and pointed at the curb.  There was tons of other trash on the street, but that doesn’t make littering any less horrible.  Bailey and I said no, no just wait a minuet, but he insisted, and then we insisted.  Our friend who was with us told us we were being disrespectful because we had attracted quite a crowd who were all telling us to just drop our trash.  So we just put it on the curb and climbed in the rickshaw.  I wonder how long our plastic gelato cups will be kicking around the streets of Chennai.  That was extremely aggravating. 
        The Pondy Bazaar was packed with people and little stands selling all sorts of things.  I bought a bright teal shirt with embroidery on its high neckline.  I noticed a man sitting on a bucket by the sidewalk who had a cup of henna mixture, and made my way over to him.  Bailey and I both got henna tattoos.  He covered our entire hands with beautiful intricate designs, and only wanted 50 rupees for it.  That’s just over one USD.  He was overly excited when we tipped him 20 rupees.  Our rickshaw driver found us just as we were finishing up with the tattoos. 
        We had agreed at the beginning we would pay him 400 for the day.   When he dropped us off about a mile from the port he demanded more money.  The drivers are aware that a ship full of American students are coming in and out of the port, and that most will have a lot of money.  The drivers will name high prices and some get forceful trying to get all the money out of us that they can.  Our driver was insisting we owed him more money even though earlier we had clearly decided it was going to be 400.  There was one guy in our group, Kevin, so the driver was only talking to him because that’s how it always works in India.  Kevin was trying to solve the issue, but the conversation was just going around in circles.  I was getting impatient and decided to jump in and end the argument.  I just simply and firmly told the driver no you said 400, we’re paying you 400, and then started walking away.  The group walked away with me.  The driver was extremely taken back by me talking to him that way.  He knew we were from the ship and just thought he could rip us off.
        I got back on the ship and immediately met up with James, the person I would be travelling with.  The two of us jumped in a rickshaw and headed for Chennai Central Station with hopes of getting an overnight train to Cochin.  The train station was quite an experience.  I wish I had stopped to take a picture but I was too preoccupied with being lost and confused looking for the tourist booth.  The building was enormous and completely filled with smoke.  There were people sitting and sleeping all over the place, trash and stray dogs were everywhere as well.  Children and handicapped people were following us asking for money. 
        We wondered around for about an hour before we found a sign that said “tourist”.   We went up a staircase, past three sleeping stray dogs, took a left and saw a man in an empty room except for his desk and old computer.  He got us tickets on the next train to Cochin.  We were very lucky because we had just made it in time.  We went to a booth to buy food for the ride.  I got rice and pointed at some dumpling looking things to buy.  Everything was extremely spicy.  I bought a package of cookies.  They were delicious, even better than Oreos.  We had a little room on the train with two mini bunk beds and a fold up table.  James and I chose our beds and then stared reading his Lonely Planet travel guide to decide what we were doing when we got off the train.  It was 19:30 and we were expecting to be in Cochin around 06:30.   Two other men stayed in our room.  One was named Nipin, he was an engineer working on a project for NASA.  He spoke English very well and helped us plan out our time in India.  Cochin is in the state of Kerala.  I think Kerala is such a beautiful name.  Anyway, Nipin knew a lot about Kerala and gave us some great advice.  He told us we should actually get off at Alwaye, the stop before Cochin, and to head strait to Munnar.  We ended up doing just that.  His friend was also getting off at Alwaye, so he made sure we got on the right bus that would take us to Munnar.  I actually slept very well that night.  I couldn’t believe what I was doing.  I was on a train going across India, no phone, no contacts in India, no idea where I would be sleeping the next night, and basically just my passport, journal and camera with me.