Our second field trip is to the beautiful state of Kerala, a fascinating place. Its tropical location (sandwiched between mountains and beautiful beaches with little else but coconut palms and rice paddies in between) makes it one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. It was on a traditional houseboat in the backwaters here that Chas was possessed by the sun, palm trees and beautiful tropical background and hence proposed. Kerala is has been almost exclusively a communist state since India’s independence which has resulted in an amazing array of social reforms. It claims [View Full Entry]

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Two interesting things have come from having a travel blog. Firstly, I feel that we have become a google for people searching for pornography from India. We can see how many times each of our diaries have been viewed. Most have been viewed about 150 times (although numbers are dropping, so get your acts together and spread the word!), however the diary entitled 'Sex in India' has been viewed a whopping 2000 times. Hence my decision to put the word 'sex' in the title of every blog page we write from now on. Secondly, if you haven't read Steve G's [View Full Entry]

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Our trip around Karnataka (plus the other bits) Ana & Chas Fisher Chas here: Sorry about the two blogs so close together and these is one more to come. But the last week was so full of experiences that they had to be broken up and we have only had the chance to write the blogs this week. So be prepared for overdose of Chas and Ana. Also, I felt that I was hijacking the blog simply because I had internet access all day. So here is Ana telling you about our trip to Mysore on the weekend. One story [View Full Entry]

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The reasons we were in Bangalore in the first place were twofold: firstly, to attend the first national conference held by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to discuss the role of NGOs with NGOs; and, secondly, to try and find cases of custodial violence in the Karnataka High Court. We met Manny and Rohan to go to this conference (pictured, Rohan is half Tamil and Manny is quite tall and if you cannot recognise the guy on the left you should not be reading this blog). They are two wonderful British guys who came to India last year for [View Full Entry]

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Bangalore is an interesting city; due to an IT boom in the 80s that made it the second biggest software producing place in the WORLD (ANZ is moving its offices to Bangalore, Rachel informs us) it would be pretty safe to say that it is the West in the East. When I say that, I mean it has taken most of the things I dislike about the West (designer, expensive clothing, fast food, big cars) and kept only the things that piss you off about India (mostly criminal inefficiency). Having said that, after the two long days of conference, Ana [View Full Entry]

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I thought a lascivious title such as the above might bring the readers in droves. But it might be better put as 'Sexuality in India'. This is an incredibly interesting and controversial topic and I am far from qualified to speak on the matter so please do not consider the following gospel or expert opinion. I have however travelled to India 3 or 4 times now and certain aspects of their sexuality strike me every time. Let be known that: this is the opinion of one white, male, Christian, Anglo-Australian and should be treated as such! Please, I do not [View Full Entry]

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Finally, here is Ana! Well, I spent the first part of the first week in Madurai coming down with a cold, very exciting. I felt so ill on one of the evenings, that Chas looked and me and said, 'Ana, promise me, you won't die tonight'. So I didn't, obviously! But once I had got over that, I had a bit of a look around Madurai. Jordan, who is our wonderfully interesting flat mate (he works with Chas at People's Watch), suggested that I visit the Ghandi Museum. So off I went in an autorickshaw to the museum, hoping that [View Full Entry]

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This beautiful town is a hill station where many South Indians go to for their honeymoon. It is temperate and has a stunning lake surrounded by gum trees. The lake is obviously the main attraction but there is a lot of amazing hiking to be done in the surrounding mountains. Luckily for us, most of my work is on the internet and I have been given permission to spend as much time as we want up here out of the heat. This is a lovely place to visit and it is great to spend some time with my parents and [View Full Entry]

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How to drive in India: Step One: Find the biggest vehicle you can find. If it is a bus or a truck, congratulations! You are officially allowed to do whatever you want on the roads. Please ignore the following steps. If it is a bicycle or scooter, offer a small prayer to your deity of choice before embarking on step two. Step Two: Honk your horn. If you have an air horn (and many cars do), do remember to switch it on. Step Three: Start driving. Honk your horn. Please try to forget about your indicator and seat belts, most [View Full Entry]

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Our first week in Madurai has been wonderful, punctuated by meeting great people, seeing amazing sights such as the Meenakshi Temple and Ghandi Museum and eating two wonderful meals. While I have been slaving away in front of a computer for 9 hours a day, Ana has been frollicking about Madurai, seeing the sights without me. So I will leave her adventures to her next blog... but I will cheat and show just one of her photos of the Meenakshi Temple, one of the biggest and oldest in India. Madurai is one of the oldest cities in India, and was [View Full Entry]

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