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After a weekend's break from travelling I went to Pondicherry and Mamallapuram with Tom K, Jo, Sooz, Tom and Rob. We were meant to be getting the bus from Bangalore on Saturday morning to Pondicherry, as there were no overnight buses.

We arrived for our bus at 8.30am but it turned out our ticket was for the day before! The travel agents had told us Saturday 23 of March which didn’t exist. Being lax students and travellers we didn't think to check. So we got on another bus, which was cheaper but had no air-conditioning which turned out not to be too much of a problem.

The next morning we got up early to beat the heat and hired three automatic motorbikes. The boys were volunteered to drive as they had the most experience. Luckily the boys were all good drivers and after the man renting the bike had told them 'be careful', 'drive slow’ and ‘use left brake or else you will tip over' we went to explore Mamallapuram.

The town has been classified a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is said that the area was a school for young sculptors. The different rock carving and sculptures may have been examples of different styles of architecture.

The next day we got the early bus to Pondicherry, which is about three hours away. Being there is like being somewhere in Europe as far as the scenery and architecture is concerned. Lots of road names are French as are many of the people; the town used to be a French colony. We spent most of the day eating delicious food and relaxing on the rocky beach. We also took a trip to the nearby township of Auroville. The aim is to build the city in the shape of a galaxy. People live, work and are educated here with strict ideals. Auroville is not based on a specific religion and emphasizes living in harmony with nature.

We got the bus back on Monday night and apparently our transportation bad luck continued when it had to stop for two hours because a train had broken down on the line we were meant to be crossing. I didn't notice though as I was sound asleep the whole way.

As this was Tom C's last week at Rave, we went out for a special lunch with the rest of the staff on Friday. It was really fun but also sad saying goodbye to everyone. I've had such a great time working there despite the power cuts, which happen at least once a day! The fifth anniversary issue should be out soon featuring some of my writing and I had good fun that day writing my 'top 10 tips for packing light' for the travel issue coming up in May.

We got the overnight train on Friday night, which took about 13 hours. I slept really well but Rob didn't, as he is tall and didn't really fit on his bed. He was also joined by a couple of people who sat on it at about four in the morning!

When we arrived in Cochin, or Kochi, we had to get a ferry over to Fort Cochin where we were staying. Cochin is made up of islands and we had to get a ferry across to Fort Cochin where we were staying. At the crossing we found the Ken Livingstone cafe! It was basically a stall selling fruit and drinks and the guy who ran it was a massive Ken Livingstone fan.

When we had found a place to stay in Fort Cochin we took walk down to the sea to look at the Chinese fishing nets, which are one of the biggest attractions there. We even had a go at pulling the nets in, although the fisherman told me they no longer fish properly there as there are no fish left, so they keep the nets there for tourists like us to play on. There was loads of fresh fish around though which must have been caught further out to sea.

It was so relaxing and peaceful being out on the water. We started on a houseboat, which we went around the islands on and we got out at one point to see a factory where they take calcium from mussels and learnt about the plants in the area such as cashew nut. We also tried the fruit form the cashew nut, which I would not recommend as it, dries out your mouth. We had an Indian lunch back on the houseboat then got back in the van and went to meet canoes for the next part of our tour. We went on in groups of about eight people. There was people from all over on the tour with us including Hong Kong, Germany and Bangalore. We went through villages on the canals and saw lots of wildlife including snakes and a Kingfisher.

Monday was even hotter than Sunday. Aina and Sooz realised in the morning they had to rush over to the main part of the city to get a bus to Munnar, which was their next stop in Kerala. So that meant I had to say a sad and hurried good bye to Aina, my room mate, who I won't see again now during this trip. I'm going to miss her; we've shared a room since the beginning, but hopefully I will be able to take a trip to Norway at some point or she can come over to England and we can meet up again.

The driver said he would take us round air conditioned shops for free then to the ferry for free too if we would do this for him, so as we had nothing else to do for an hour we said yes. He was very happy, we were cooler, everyone was a winner – apart from maybe the shops we had to pretend to be interested in. We then went over to the city to get our train back to Bangalore.

On Tuesday I had a day off to sort out some of my stuff and get ready for my new internship at Radio Indigo, a music station in the city. I'm really excited about starting but I know my time in India will go even quicker now I'm doing something new again. I only have less than two weeks left!