The trip is over but the memories are many. I spent the last few hours on the subcontinent in Mumbai with my guide, Amin. Anyone vaguely interested in Mumbai (Bombay) should check out this novel http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2004-11-17-shantaram_x.htm and also use the services of Amin who loves the city to take you on a memorable tour -- check Amin out at: www.snehatravels.in . Heres some pictures of the travellers, the faces and inanimates that will stay in the memory bank for a long time. Here is an excerpt from Jan's diary re: the trip (I could not be as eloquent): "I [View Full Entry]

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Finally reached Chennai where I visited the Christian Missions Charitable Trust which runs a school for kids from the slums and an orphanage. Also,visited the tomb of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas) who brought Christianity to Madras in 52 AD and viewed the world's largest Banyan tree. Since Jan has a wonderful way with words here is her diary entry for her last few days in India: "I left off with our afternoon in Pondicherry. Hugh and I went shopping -- I for a new pair of sandals that would make blisters in a different place than the ones I brought, and [View Full Entry]

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Pondicherry and Mamallapuram. Setting up for spending the weekend in Chennai. Since I am word-deficient, here is what Jan had to say: I'm woefully behind at this, but it's been a jam packed trip. We were still in Madurai when I sent my last. Forgot to mention we were all blessed by the temple elephant there. For Rs. 10, she rests the end of her trunk on the top of your head, sometimes patting and sometimes slightly rocking. We had many encounters and conversations with pilgrims and tourists alike. Will add specific comments to photos when I get that together. John [View Full Entry]

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From Ooty on the "toy train" (narrow gauge stream train) and headed down to the plains to Mettupalayam, Coimbatore and finally a 7 hr day liner on the Indian Train network to Madurai. In Madurai we tripped around the palace of 1000 pillars (actually 986) and this incredible bunch of temples in Madurai -- http://www.exotiqueindia.com/tourist-destinations-in-india/madurai-tourism.html. There were thousands of pilgrims in town chanting, praying and providing gifts to their gods. From there we headed to Rameshwaram http://www.tamilnadu-tourism.com/tamilnadu-cities/rameshwaram-tourism.html [View Full Entry]

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William, Hugh, Jan and Bone have been in Ooty -- a hill station -- for 2 days. We are all taking the famous steam train on the narrow gauge tracks down to the plains this afternoon. Here are some photos from our time in Ooty: [View Full Entry]

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we hired a driver to take William and bone to Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu from Kochi in Kerala. We need to be in Coimbatore to pickup Jan (friend of Williams from Albuquerque who should be in great shape since that trip takes 55 hours via Atlanta, Paris and Chennai) and Hugh (from Singapore via Chennai) before we head up into the Nigiri hills town of Ooty. Heres a flowery tourism description of Coimbatore but it appears to me to be a spawling, noisy, indian city -- http://www.touristplacesinindia.com/coimbatore/about-coimbatore.html All the pix below are from the 5 hr trip up [View Full Entry]

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Town built by the Portuguese after Vasco de Gama made his 1st visit to start the sea-based spice routes. Vasco lived and died in Kochi. [View Full Entry]

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Heading up the west coast of Kerala state on the west coast of India through the famous backwaters. Here are some pix taken on that 3 day trip north with journey completion in Kochi. [View Full Entry]

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After 27 hrs on planes we arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) at 03:30 AM and met our driver, Amin, who gave us an amazing tour of Mumbai. A city with a population somewhere between 15 and 20 million on an island about the size of Montreal Island. As soon as you arrive in Bombay you notice the smell of the city. Here is an excerpt from a book called Shantaram where the authour, Gregory David Roberts, describes that smell that I cannot describe any better than this: "The first thing I noticed about Bombay, on that first day, was the smell of [View Full Entry]

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Keith & Bone flew to TRV and headed to the beach to meet up with Bill James. (more dialog to come) [View Full Entry]

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