Hello to those who are new to the list. You may like to read the previous blogs to see whats been going on since the start. We are at the very end of our trip. So much has happened and we have had lots of time to put perspective on a lot of "stuff". So it is with some kind of renewed energy and strength that we will drag ourselves kicking and screaming back to a very uncertain reality. It is a bit like leaving one warm, balmy, cheap, suspended reality and rejoining a much colder and economically challenged one. But [View Full Entry]

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So, let me retrace my thought process. The title of the last blog refers to the unseemly amount of draft dodging young Israelis here. They are everywhere and so unfriendly. Desperately trying hard to be hippies of a sort, they seem to spend their time getting stoned, comparing dreadlocks and ignoring anyone who doesn't have dreadlocks or cheesecloth clothing. Or else they are busy telling their friends back home or elsewhere just how "amazingly cosmic, dude" , this place is. I have taken delight in making a loud buzzing sound, (like a hair shaver), whenerver they get on my nerves. This [View Full Entry]

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Having torn ourselves away from a cosy reality we boarded a 5hr train to the far flung white sandy beach of Kuddle, Gokarna. The journey was made more interesting because we met David and Sara from San Francisco. We really enjoyed talking and swapping book notes on holiday reading. So far I have read Engelby - ok The Reluctant Fundamentalist- well written quick story The Kite Flyer - not as good as A Thousand Splend Suns Mr Pip - interesting story set on a tropical Island The Outsider - a thriller beautifully written The Book Thief - narated by Death, it [View Full Entry]

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We left lovely Mysore and the cosy and safe confines of The Green Hotel and headed onwards towards Hassan. Having said goodbye to our lovely new friends Mark and Sarah from Dublin. They're traveling by motorbike for four weeks and sharing 12 Kgs luggage as opposed to our 45kgs for six. We actually said goodbye five more times as the motor bike they were on was acting up., We picked up our driver and off we went. Our first stop was to be the awesome , stunning, enormous Jain human Sculpture at Saravanabelagola (sp). It is 18M tall and stands atop [View Full Entry]

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Bangalore is a city of amazing contrasts. Side by side with multinational suit wearing office workers eating Mc Donalds for Breakfast are sack laden bullock carts, steered by lunghi wearing barefoot men. We picked up our driver from the train station. He was carrying a sign that said: " Wel. Come. Mr Willsee. Monn". That made me like him straight away. Our journey to Mysore took three and a half hours so in all we had been travelling from 9am Wednesday and got to our hotel at 1.30pm Friday! The hotel is called the Green Hotel " and the clue is [View Full Entry]

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Apologies if some of you got the email version of the last blog with the dodgy punctuation inserts. It is probably due to the terrible internet connections and ancient operating software used in the last cafe. So our second day in Kummily started with loud animal screeching noises and the additional sound of dogs barking furiously. All this was happening on the roof of our lodge style room. I naturally looked out to see what it was all about. What I saw was two monkies in busy in the process of making three!! The dogs were behind a fence, supposedly there [View Full Entry]

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While we were ready to leave the coast and do a bit of travelling, we realized that we had got too know so many people while we were in and around Varkala and Odayam. We left Varkala by train to Kottayam (sp) for an overnight stay in a 14 storey modern hotel which we booked because it had a rooftop pool. The pool was fine. Swim Swim Swim. The acoustics at dinnertime, however left a lot to be desired. We ate early in the indoor A/C dining room, purely on the basis that the tables were glass and we saw a [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year. My 2008 ended with a complete herb ally induced sneeze fest. Let me retrace the steps. This may get a bit gross. Don't read this while eating. When we were with Dr Manoj at the Auyrvedic (sp) hospital booking in our second massage, he noticed that I was sniffling a bit. I told him about my recurrent sinus problems and that being here eating wheat and dairy (unavoidable in this place) and being rolled around in the spin cycle of waves inhaling shovelfuls of sand, was not doing me much good on the "ole bunged up head feeling". [View Full Entry]

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sorry meant to add more people to distribution list before I sent last blog live. [View Full Entry]

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Christmas Day dawned on a picture perfect calm sea with the dolphins making a festive return visit. We had spent all day Christmas eve on the beach and decided that it would be good to have a rotating "day on beach and day off beach" - to try to see some stuff round about, catch up on emails, book onward accommodation and to save on the old sun damage. Even though we spend all beach days until about 4pm under the shade it is still searing hot and you almost feel your legs sizzling when you go for a swim to [View Full Entry]

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