Blogs from Trivandrum, Kerala, India, Asia

The legendary sage Vilvamangalathu Swamiyar was a great devotee of Vishnu. After several years of meditation, Lord Vishnu appeared in front of him as a small boy. The sage loved the child immensely and requested him to stay with him in the hermitage forever. The child agreed but mentioned that if the hermit failed to treat him with respect, the child would vanish. One day, when the sage was in deep meditation, the child by mistake tainted the idol which was kept for puja. The sage was enraged and punished the child. But since his condition was broken, the child vanished telling the hermit that if he wanted to see him again, he had to search for him in Ananthankaadu. The sage then started moving in the direction the child vanished, fasted and searched for days ... read more

Incredible India, we have arrived. After more or less 22 months of travelling we finally arrived in the one country we were almost sure about to visit, even without any planning. We have been in India a few times before and we have such fond memories making it hard to return without high expectations. As we fly in from hot Bahrain, where we have spent only one full day and night, arriving in the evening in cold smoggy Delhi is a little bit of a test. But as soon as we step out of the taxi at Connaught Place, check in to a familiar hotel, recognise the surrounding restaurants and have a late dinner of spicy Indian delicacies and even an Indian Gin & Tonic, we immediately feel at home and at ease. We ride with ... read more

The long cherished and just accomplished trip to the “God’s Own Country” was fast reaching the finishing line. The weeklong trip to this great state flanked by Arabian Sea on the West and majestic towering Ghats on the East was truly rejuvenating and reinvigorating. Our Kerala sojourn revolved around palm-fringed shores of bewitching backwaters and pristine beaches. The tight network of bottle green lagoons, estuaries and; deltas of perennial rivers and canals, where sky and water segue seamlessly in a slivery haze. The rolling misty green hills draped in lush greenery, sprawling tea estates and spice gardens, the fresh mountain air, away from the hustle and bustle of the routine city life, allowed us to reinvent the finest moments of our lives. This trip gave us some insight into the Parshuram Kshetra on the Western Coast ... read more

Sunday, February 18, 2013 Trivandrum We have finished a week of work. It's been a week of ups and downs. I went to a local clinic about my cough and the doctor gave me a diagnosis of, "wheezing bronchitis." He fixed me up with numerous unnamed medications, including an injection of some sort and told me to rest for 3 days. So the first few days of work were missed by me due to illness (mine and Jane's) and activities related to efforts to locate Jane's missing suitcase. Six days after arriving here and after our second trip to the airport, Jane was finally reunited with her bag, which apparently, never left Amritsar until the airline began looking for it. We now know why so many locals advised us, "Never fly Air India." The agent who ... read more

Hello everyone! As I write this I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Trivandrum, the capital of the Kerala region of India, and it's so hot I think I might melt! We started our stint in Southern India with a quick flight from Delhi to Bangalore on the 14th March with 'Spicejet' (thankfully it did turn out to be a real airline!). Bangalore, or Bengaluru, though still a bustling Indian metropolis, is nowhere near as dirty, crowded or characterful as Delhi. It is also very much a city on the 'up', with huge billboards advertising expensive jewellery for the modern career woman and swanky new apartment blocks that promise not just a home but a whole lifestyle package. Building work is going on everywhere and a new overpass and metro network are under construction. Bangalore also ... read more