Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 21

Back to the future (or ahead to the past?) Here's the last one, as I prepare myself for returning to civilization (should I put quotes or not?). In the last month I could not update the site as I struggled with some sort of bacteria which I contracted probably along the way, while eating something on the street or, more likely, drinking tap water....I guess this is how things happen, a small one-time concession, a slight exception to the rule of care turns into a BIG MISTAKE with loads of consequences. In my case, it was one night where I woke up in my guest house room at 3am with an incredible thirst. As I did not have bottled water, i decided not to use my super url=http://www.rei.com/pwr/product-reviews/Camping-Hiking/Filters-and-Purifiers/Portable-Water-Filters/MSR/p/695265-MSR-MiniWorks-EX-Filter.html water purifier (which saved me several times) and ... read more

Hey again! So to catch everyone up, I'm going to lump Pondicherry and Madurai blogs together. After arriving in Pondicherry, we dropped our bags and then decided to explore the town a little. Pondicherry is a former French colony and still retains some of the culture. Even the streets are named "Rue ___"! Pondy is a really nice, relaxed seaside town. The whole place is easily walk-able and generally has a nice atmosphere. It's also a center for yoga and spiritual study and a major producer of homemade paper products. In our wanderings we found a little antique shop that was packed full of treasures. I found a beautiful ceramic Ganesh (god with an elephant’s head) sculpture and a few other smaller trinkets. Burt found a really neat chess set. Our second day started with a ... read more

Alrighty, so we're definitely off to an interesting start here. Our flight from Singapore was delayed about 45 minutes due to some technical difficulties. Luckily we had booked a hotel with airport pick-up service, so it wasn't a problem when we arrived around 11:30PM. Unluckily, our hotel was pretty crummy and way overpriced. We woke up the next morning wondering if we were crazy for doing this. But we sucked it up and got moving. We caught a rickshaw to our new hotel, a place called the Paradise Guest House. The ride was certainly eye-opening! Our driver whipped us around corners, squeezed through tiny gaps between cars, and nearly ran down a few pedestrians. Cows, motorbikes, cars, work carts, bicycles, and pedestrians all on one tiny road, and all making some kind of noise. I wasn't ... read more

Just a quick note to everyone to let you know that we made it here safely. Today's our first full day in India, so we're going to go explore. Will write and post pics soon! Lots of love, lyss... read more

So, today was the first day of our AFP. We started off the morning as a large group at Madras University. A couple of people spoke about the university and specifically about the Gandhi Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at the university. The English was a bit rough, as was the microphone, so I didn’t hear as much as I would have liked about the program. The highlight of the morning was definitely the cookies and chai tea they passed out. Mom, it was the best chai I’ve ever had…you need to book a ticket to India just to have a cup of tea. In the afternoon my small group headed out on a tour of Chennai. We learned that the town has a population 7.2 million, which makes it the 4th largest city in ... read more