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Published: January 18th 2006
we have now officially had our first over night train experience in India, which was more like trying to sleep though the '89 cali earthquake in a tin 50 person dormatory... no joke.
however, the second class sleepers with the ability to lay down on plastic covered ply wood beds was a step up from enduring a long, bumpy local bus ride. the newest annoyance to add to our list has to be the vendors who stroll up and down the isles or windows of the train screaming "kuff-ee-kuff-ee-kuff-ee-kuff-ee" or even better "chi-chi-chi" relentlessly. but we get small thrills hearing each verndor's crazy individual version of the sing-songy sales pitch.
if you ever plan to travel in india, ear plugs and an eye mask are a must if you want any decent rest. also, we were told to request the upper burst bc we would feel safer with our things, but hands down ask for the middle burst so you won't have to wipe layers of greasy dust off of it.
Mamallapuram is a quickly (tourist) developing sea port on the east coast, 50 km south of Chennai. it is a small town with many ruins w/in walking
distance, and a number of other random things to do like watch snake charmers, get massages, and eat the fresh catch of the day.
we were so excited that we arrived just in time for the annual dance festival, but it was cancelled last minute due to the death of the prime minister of Jordan.
we took another lovely overnight train ride and found ourselves on an island in the gulf of mannar which is connected to the mainland (Mandapam) by rail. the Indiria Gandhi bridge is considered such an engineering wonder that we were shaken awake at 5:45 am by excited Indian women and children that quickly ran back to the windows. they intensly watched as the train seemed to magically fly over the sea on its own smaller bridge that ran parallel to this "wonder." jess groaned and rolled over in "bed" and stacy who was already laying awake pretended to be thankful for their "consideration." the report: no offense, but the thin black outline was not impressive. and sadly it is not just because we grew up next door to the the golden gate, bay, and san rafael bridges. it was long though, so that
was cool...?
the city we stayed in was called Rameswaram, and it was filled with Indian tourists making pilgrimages to the Ramanathaswamy Temple. the captions explain more about this place... sorry we are THAT lazy! we were there for only two days bc there is not much else to see or do besides hit up the beaches, but we got our fair share of r and r while in goa! plus, all the women swim fully clothed... and if we dare slip into our suits it would be like an non-stop photoshoot. it was bad enough in goa, which is the most liberal state in all of India! we now feel so sorry for celebrities, however we still miss our US weekly! so brittany spears is getting a divorce? and we heard from someone that katie holmes is pregnant with tom's baby... is this true?!
xoxo S & J
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ablondon
Adam Blake London
Helllooo ladies
Sooo, your pictures are still amazing. What's the deal with the chickens? and the showering dudes? love you adam ps stacy. I really like your hair. i wish i could have dreads...so jealous...super funky. keep them for a while i wanna see them