we're here

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don' know where to start

i think it's the first time i ever had a case of the giggles when i was being driven around.
driving home last night made me find religion
it was so absurd that i just started giggling


anyways, that's my impression for the day


the boys and i made it to madras after missing our flight in munich
we got rerouted through Qatar and made it to madras only 2 hours late.

claudia and mom were another story
they spent the night in frankfurt and were more the 24 hours late

we are staying with my friends Rama and Balajis parents
they are just the most sweetest wonderful people
it's about the softest landing we can get
only problem is i'm getting fat from all the food 😉

right now the family is shopping for silk sarees and stuff, i went walking with our guide Mohan to get to this internet cafe.
It's an adventure walking the 3 blocks to get here.
probably because it's the first time i've done the indian city shuffle

wow!!! no idea what it's like till you get here.
everybody is really nice though

i did buy a cell phone, cost is $70 and i can call the USA for RS 6 = 15 cents a min.
much better then using claudias cell for $1.5 a min
anyways, mohan is getting me some minutes for my cell, then we'll make some calls tonight

we saw the ruins yesterday, Mahaballipuram (spelling?? ) pretty awesome stuff
only problem was i had about 6 hours sleep over 3 days and claudia and mom just arrived and were beat
we started in this ancient 1950's ambasador car with no AC, it broke down, then 10 min later another guy picked us up in a small japenese care for the 5 of us, but, at least it had AC

i'm about to start talking about indian driving again, but i'll go on and one into a novel

all i can say is that i've come to the conclusion that Americans are pretty much the worst drivers in the world. these guys drive with full traffic, millions of people, less then an inch from each other and .... miracles happen .... no accidents... they use their horns and have created some brand new language with it.
anyways,

i don't want to take too long, i left the family alone in the saree silk shop for about an hour now
but the shop is really cool, no presure, it's where the Madras middle class goes to shop.

only thing i don't like here is the smog, it's really bad, i can taste the smog in my mouth

i can't say enough good things about our hosts here, they've really made everything wonderful for us.

Tonight we head out on the train to Madurai. We're in downtown now so it should be easy to get to the station, plus Mohan is looking after us. Then, 1st class overnight to Madurai which should be nice.
We'll have a driver pick us up and watch our luggage when we look at the temple.

Personally, this is so much better staying with the family and seeing India via the locals.
ok, time to go,

next stop madurai and evening in Kodaikanal

Rama, Balaji, thank you sooo much, and thank your mom and dad and family again, especially Vijay

so, until tomorrow night,
good bye
Don

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Comments

[Nos Amdros]

Greetings from the west
I'm so glad you finally made it there! With all of the snow we had on Christmas the whole family was speculating whether or not you were spending the night at DIA. Hearing your need for air conditioning is a contrast to the blazing 3 degrees it was (without wind chill) up skiing at Loveland today. Best of wishes for the next leg of your trip!