BACK ON THE MAINLAND. CHENNAI.

A street snap. The best street stall in the world. Where you can buy a slice of watermelon as big as me for R10. A mall. Chennai by night in the back of a rickshaw. The cheapest breakfast in India, R30. Chalk drawings. Snapped while sipping chai on the street.

After three weeks of island life I was really looking forward to heading back to the hustle and bustle of the mainland and exploring more of India. We arrived in Chennai after an early morning flight from Port Belair, and found our way to the backpacker hub of Triplicane - where hotels and guesthouses line the little alleyways, street vendors are everywhere, and lassi and juice shops spring open at the crack of dawn. We got one of the best rooms we had in India in Chennai - R450 for a big clean room with windows, a TV, a bathroom with a nice shower, a comfortable bed and unlimited wi-fi for an extra R30. It was a bargain, and we spent the first few hours in Chennai admiring our room.

Once we were settled in (in backpacker slang this means you've washed, brushed your teeth, and changed your underpants) we headed out for a look around the city. On our walk I found the best street stall in the world that sold watermelon by the slice for R10 - and the slices were as big as me. Fresh fruit is often hard to come by in India, so I was over the moon to find this little stall and refresh with a giant slice of melon. There should be stalls like these in Adelaide!

We were halfway through our trip at this stage and we still had so much that we wanted to see and do - that flight home was looming into view at an alarming rate. I wasn't even sure that I wanted to be on it. Time felt like it had dragged, and flown, at the same time. You start to lose your sense of time when you're backpacking. You wake up without an alarm, eat breakfast at lunch time, skip lunch and stop at a street stall for somosa's instead, and go to bed when you're tired. You forget what the date is, and what day it is, but hopefully you'll remember that you've got a train tomorrow, and you're only reminded that it's Easter when your Instagram feed is clogged with chocolate and hot cross buns.

Rebecca.