http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Steve-Truman/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Steve Truman en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:25:05 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:25:05 +0000 Oh dear I remembered to take my camera with me on Friday and took loads of good photos. BUt when I got home I couldn't find a way to transfer them to the computer. The photos all showed up on the screen of my camera but when I connnected it to the computer it couldn't see them and the same thing happened when I tried using the card reader. It seems to be a problem with the card because when http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Kensington/blog-456787.html This was a very pleasant walk City of London to City of Westminster. Most of it lay south of the river through areas I hadn't visited before.I arrived at Bank Station at about half past twelve in the afternoon and because of visiting museums and churches along the way it was quite dark before I reached Westminster. Unfortunately I hadn't taken my camera with me so I had to use my iPhone. And http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Westminster/blog-456372.html The drive frron Thanjavur to Chennai was a long run about seven hours only broken by a stop at the Swaminatha Temple in Swaminalai.Swaminatha is another name for Murugan the son of Shiva and the temple featured many images of the Shiva family. There were several large paintings I think they must either date from the Nayak period or else be more recent. One showed Ganesh actually riding on hi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-438666.html I am now in Thanjavur which was previously called Tanjore The town is famous for a very decorative style of artwork and for a very large temple erected by Rajaraja the Chola king who was so good they named him twice.As we drove out of Madurai we went past a painted temple elephant being led along the side of the road. This seemed like a good omen. Further along just about as we were passing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Thanjavur/blog-438066.html We set off for Madurai early in the morning maybe even before ten o'clock. We drove through unremarkable country at first and I started to occasionally nod off. There was level ground on either side largely bare with a few trees. As we drove on I started to see odd eructations of rock like giant pimples dotting the landscape. They were on our left side as we drove and formed a chain graduall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Madurai/blog-437555.html Ooty is quite unlike any other Indian town that I have visited. I think the reason for this is that it was from its origin a European town. Its founder John Sullivan I am staying in a hotel named after him Sullivan's Court bought up all the land dirt cheap of course roughly the same terms as when Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan and from the beginning European style houses were erecte http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Ooty/blog-436741.html We left the hotel at about ten o'clock and drove off towards Mysore. However we did not leave Bangalore until nearly eleven. The traffic and traffic management systems in the city really are awful.I noticed a fried chicken shop called Kentacky Chicken Corner which I thought was probably a good name. Further on there was a temple with a giant green eagle over its doorway. I saw an attractive http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Ooty/blog-435704.html The city previously known as Bangalore has now been restored to its original Kannada name of Bengaluru. Unfortunately this name cannot easily be abbreviated as copyright on Bengal has already been taken.The city's name is said to have arisen when Veera Ballala II a local king during the twelth century was lost and had a dinner of boiled beans cooked for him by a peasant woman. He therefore n http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-435421.html My car turned up at the hotel at 9.30 sharp and we set off to Bangalore by way of Kanchipuram or Kanchi as the locals rather predictably call it. Thinking about it maybe it's not really an abbreviation. Perhaps it's just like calling London Town London. Puram just means a small town after all.As we drove through and out of Mamallapuram I saw more temples on both sides of the road. I j http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-435206.html I moved on rather reluctantly from Puducherry to Mamalappuram. Noone seems to have bothered to abbreviate this name possibly because it is itself a slightly shorter version of Mahabalipuram which is its other current name Nothing to do with Mahabali or Bali the demon king tricked by the dwarf whose annual return to earth is celebrated every year in Kerala. The obvious abbreviation is Mam http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Mamallapuram/blog-434039.html I left Trichy to go to Pondicherry by car. This city is now officially known as Puducherry but that only cuts the name down by one letter so the old diminutive of Pondy is still in use and sounds much nicer I think. The French name is also very slightly shorter as they spell it Pondichery with only one r. But any advantage this may give them is lost because they use an acute accent over http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Pondicherry/blog-433258.html OK they're not really Cheese Temples. But they are Rock Fort Temples and that's close enough for me.The two principal temples are on a great rock that's in the centre of the old town of Trichy. All the rest of the town is completely flat and then out of nowhere there's a massive 300 foot high rock. The first temple about half way up the rock is dedicated to Shiva and the other right at th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-432287.html I have been staying at the Old Harbour Hotel in Fort Kochi. It is as the name suggests close to the old harbour and when I go down that way the first things that catch my eyes are the giant Chinese Fishing Nets which stand by the side of the sea. Kochi or Cochin as it used to be spelled has been the centre for traders coming to India for millenia. The Chinese first came here many years ago http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kochi-/blog-431570.html I can remember that all my schoolbooks still showed Goa as Portuguese when I was at school they hadn't caught up with the 1961 Indian takeover. I'm staying in Fontainhas one of the oldest parts of Panjim which is the capital of Goa State and it still seems quite European in appearance. It is sometimes known as Goa's Latin Quarter. Most of the food is Indian in style but with lots of influen http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/Panaji/blog-429143.html As I left Mumbai I saw a sign reading Silent city better city Say no to honking. Mumbai is in fact relatively quiet as far as honking in Indian cities goes. Hyderabad is a whole lot worse. I noticed a shop here called Paradise Horns which adveritsed itself as selling and repairing horns for four three and two wheelers. I'm sure it must do a lot of business.I am beginning to think th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Andhra-Pradesh/Hyderabad/Banjara-Hills/blog-427612.html So far as I have travelled in India I have noted the evoution of the tuk tuks or auto rickshaws which seem to bevome more evolved the further south you go. But in Mumbai they seem to have died out. I have seen no auto rickshaws here nor even a cycle rickshaw. Instead they have taxis that use meters and what appears to be an efficient bus service and rail service.In fact I have now discovere http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-425306.html After leaving Udaipur I went to Amritsar in the North West of the country near the border with Pakistan. My hotel was very close to the famous Golden Temple in fact you could hear the chanting of the proests from my room.The Golden Temple is very different from most Indian temples there is great ostentation obviously with the roof and much of the walls of the main temple area being covered http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-425001.html The bus journey was quite a long one from ten at night till five in the morning. We were in the sleeping compartments which you have to reach by climbing little metal ladders from the seats. Most of us were in doubles and I was sharing with Wes. He is an expert at sleeping and went to sleep soon so I did not have too bad a time. Some of the others found the journey really wearying.When we arr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Udaipur/blog-417745.html The train journey from Delh to Jodhpur was overnight leaving at night and arriving about 9 in the morning. We travelled in the three tier sleeper class without air conditioning and it was a pleasant journey and most of us slept well. I had a bottom berth as I though I might have to go to the toilet a few times in the night but in fact I only had to go once.The others are all much younger than http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-416768.html I am now back in Delhi again. My train journey from Benares to Lucknow was quite similar to the one from Agra to Benares although there were no power outages. I couldn't see much out of the windows but it was interesting to see that the cows wander onto and across the train lines just as they do the roads. Lucknow is a much more pleasant city to visit than are either Agra or Benares. It has http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-415342.html