I arrived in Hanoi at about 2pm after a connecting flight from Bangkok. I changed $100 usd at the airport and quickly became a millionaire! I arrived very tired and very weak as I had been quite sick on the flight (not swine flu). I took the recommended “safe” minibus with some other tourists and fell asleep once on the bus. It was about a 45 minute journey. When I arrived in the center, and woke up, I found the driver shouting at me to get out of the bus, and that it wouldn’t travel any further, however he had clearly [View Full Entry]

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Went out for an amazing dinner with Ramki to Barbeque Nation. They have little bbq’s in the middle of the table where you get cook vegetables or meat (depending on your choice) and they gave us unlimited starters of Tikka/Fried Paneer. The main course was from the unlimited buffet which was amazing. A great way to try all the different curries at once (see pict). The deserts at this place were amazing too. There was treacle pudding type dish and unlimited ice cream!!! The next day I spent organising/posting back to uk things and went for one final meal to the [View Full Entry]

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When I woke my feet were even more swollen than before and it was difficult to put them in the shoes, but I ploughed on and went to walk around the bird sanctuary. The walking actually helped them get better. We then walked to the Mahal Hotel Palace, a very impressive old hotel fit for kings&queens. We had the cheapest thing on the menu which was plain soda water, which came with free peanuts it was so posh. When we got back to the center of town it was about 2pm and we spent 2hours burning my cd’s onto a dvd [View Full Entry]

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Sightseeing day. We took a bus up to the Chamundi Hills which overlooks the city. At the top there are a few monuments and temples including the monkey monument (see pic) . We had breakfast at the top in a small cafe - I had Bisibele Bath which was a curry creamed rice pudding and very yummy. We then walked down the 1000+ steps to the bottom of the hill. Almost on each step there was either some red paint or a little candle burning, showing that the steps had been blessed I suppose. Half way down our descent was a [View Full Entry]

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Left Ramki's early so I could get to the train station to meet Mahaddien at 8:30 am to get the train to Mysore. Unfortunately there wasn't a train until 10:30. So we went for breakfast at my favorite "Hare Krishna" cafe right outside the station ( on the right hand side if your looking for it) . We had a masala dosa ( pancake with masala potatoe curry inside) and a pineapple juice. The train took 4 hours instead of 3 :( I found out later that this was the stop/passenger train which stops at every station. We arrived at about [View Full Entry]

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We woke at 5am, the earliest so far. We had to get to Ramki's new flat to set up before the Hindu priests arrived. I dressed in my Sari and put some lovely jasmine in my hair. Ramki wore a special sheet outfit. The 4 priests arrived late but went straight to work setting up all the offerings and flowers in the middle of the room, think the picture is better than my description. They chanted, sang and prayed for about 1 hour. A relative of Ramki told me they were praying to the 9 different planets. Then the priests built [View Full Entry]

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Arrived super early on the sleeper train after only getting about 3 hours sleep. There was a man snoring sooo loudly on the train next to me I couldn't sleep very well. I got to my friends Ramki's house at about 7:30. In the morning Ramki's mum and auntie ( kind neighbour who cooks Ramki's food for him) took me to go and buy a Sari. They took me to a really posh shop which had AC, golden door handles and a guard. The poor shop assistant showed me about 50 different designs of Saris...orange ones, brown ones ,...they were all [View Full Entry]

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We left for Pondicherry at about 9ish and arrived about 12 ish. It is an old French city and has French street names and French food influences. We stayed in a beautiful Ashram (calm hotel with a 1030 curfew and yoga gardens) with views of the beach. We went for a mini thaili lunch which was good at the Coromandale. I then tried an ice cream which I thought wont effect me as I'm already ill. I really needed it as it was 37c !! We walked to the monument on the beach and then to the park. We then went [View Full Entry]

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Woke up normal time, ate then threw up breakfast...not sure why I bothered. I took at bus to Mamallpuram from the central bus station it was 2 hours journey... The road down the west coast was very odd. The whole area was still recovering from the Tsunami, so there were only new buildings everywhere and lots of open fields with no trees just grass. I checked into the first hotel/Guest house I saw ( Tina's ) which wan run by a man called Xavier, he looked/dressed like a huge fat Buddha. He really didn't care about me staying, having no customer [View Full Entry]

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So I'm not really sure how many days or nights I stayed in Chennai as my 'delhi belly' came back with a-vengence. I first stayed in the Salvation Army hostel but had to leave as my room was reserved....I then slept in the reception at the hostel as I was too ill to move. I managed to get a room at the YWCA, thankfully as every other hotel I phoned was fully booked. I then slept for quite some time more. Eventually I was kindof well enough to go sightseeing on the Friday, I went to the Fort, which was a [View Full Entry]

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