http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/EveC/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from EveC en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:27:00 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:27:00 +0000 Here is part two of the catchup blog. Back to Bangalore for a couple of days which was good since I was able to get a few things sorted for my eventual move to India. Also gave me some time to reconnect with a few friends from school who were still in town. My travel companion caught up with me a few days later on our way headed down south for a bit of beach time. We had a few days to check ou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-156589.html Welcome to the first half of the catchup entries. After over one month living out of a suitcase and searching for the nearest internet cafe to check my email I am finally home in Canada living out of a suitcase and borrowing friends and familiesrsquo internet connections. So back to the beginning. February 28th was one heck of a busy day. In the morning I had a job interview with an NGO i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-153877.html Took a very nice train from Bangalore to Mysore complete with AC served meals and snacks and complementary ear plug and eye covers Not bad for a two and a half hour train ride. And Mysore itself was such a welcome change from Bangalore. The traffic is delightfully light and quiet there is no incessant honking and the air is completely breathable sans pollution. What a relief. After c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-129514.html I finally managed to drag myself away from Varkala. And it was a real drag My last night in Varkala was fabulous. I went to see the Kathakali dancers who did an amazing performance of a fable about a demon who falls in love with a mortal so she disguises herself as a beautiful girl. She proposes marriage to him but when he refuses her she turns back into a demon and he saws off her breasts. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Allepey/blog-123219.html Before I left my dear friend Farhad kept trying to subtly hint about India not really being paradise. I was blathering on about grass huts the beach and peaceful oceans. I was starting to believe him after 6 weeks in the noise and pollution of Bangalore but then I went to Kerala. More specifically I went to Varkala. I finished my exams on Friday and was on a plane Saturday afternoon to Thiruv http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Varkala/blog-121760.html Well this was definitely not your usual holiday season for me. Christmas was a nonevent here. No carols no gifts there was a rather sad looking Christmas tree or two on campus. I even asked some of the locals in the shops if Santa would come to India for their children but alas Santa Airlines does not fly to the subcontinent. It was just a regular working day and a number of the students http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-120823.html Nandi Hill is a small hill station just north of Bangalore. Even though it is close to Bangalore 60 km it still takes about 3 hours to get there. Since my friend and I missed the direct bus we had to go through the town of Chickballapur and connect to a bus going up the hill from there. It seems the best strategy at bustrainair transport locations is to latch onto a sympathetic English spe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-117692.html My new home is quite different than Montreal. First off I am living in the residence on campus which is okay but rather basic. You can see from the photo that the mattress on the bed is exactly 8 cm thick and stuffed with what feels like a mix of concrete and sawdust. But amazingly I am sleeping rather well just in the middle of the day instead of at night still have to get over the ten hour http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-109699.html The first thing to know about driving in Bangalore is not that you drive on the left hand side but the location of you horn. The horn is used in a preemptive manner. Rather than waiting for a near miss to occur as soon as another vehicle or pedestrian this does include cows is visible on the road begin honking. This should assert your dominance over all others on the road allowing you to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-109455.html The JourneyMontreal to ParisBig thanks to Cara for putting me and the cats up for the last week and Carrie and Liba for the ride to the airport And big hugs to Farhad Su Mi Cara and Shu Ching for helping me out with my last minute cat crisis. The flight to Paris was comme une garderie In other words screaming children everywhere. Thank goodness for strong tail winds that made the trip jus http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-109454.html