Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 36

Hi All, Thank you once again for all of your fabulous messages and notes. I'm sorry for being out of touch. We've been out in small towns and villages and the internet connections are either non-existant or unreliable...or are so slow I can't even believe it (a British guy and I were lamenting a connection that hardly worked at "an internet cafe" at the hill station the other night). To those of you who have sent messages, I'm sorry you haven't seen them posted right away, I have to accept them to have them show up on the website, and I haven't had a fast enough connection that I can do that. So, tonight I have an opportunity to get online at a decent connection, but I have an audience (my host father is standing here ... read more

Hi Everyone. Sorry to have been out of touch. I wrote a blog entry a couple of days ago, but the computer failed and I lost it. I didn't have the time to recreate it, and we haven't had access to a computer since. We're out in the rural areas of the country right now. I think that I'm just about fully recovered from whatever I had, but I'm not sure that my stomach, intestines or poo will ever be the same again! I fully indulged in all the local fare from the beginning, which I think was a mistake...I'm being more careful now...lighter on the spice and such...hopefully I'll heal all the way soon. (However, our hosts seem a tad offended that I'm not fully indulging in their food...but I've got to take care of ... read more

wow, we have made it to the very tip of india! Kanyakumari seems like it should be a sleepy little beach town, but instead it is bustling with activity because of its popularity with pilgrims. many Hindus make their way down here to visit the Kumari Amman Temple and to bathe in the oceans. yes, we said oceans... because Kanyakumari is the point where three oceans merge together: the Bay of Bengal, the India Ocean, and the Arabian Sea. supposedly, sometime in april, one can see both the sunset and the moonrise over the ocean simultaneously - we might just have to stay longer to see that! we visited the temple which is actually quite small and nothing special (we were not allowed to take pictures, and it is surrounded by really tall walls to protect ... read more

(read my other blog first) okay, so i do want to say what's really great so you aren't thinking that everything stinks. My trip really is still amazing, but thanks for letting me vent...because i've been struggling a bit over the last day or so. today we visited two really great manufacturing plants. the first was a gold jewelry manufacturer...and we saw the whole process...from raw material to gold bars to end product. i bought some fabulous tradtional indian earrings that i really love...thanks to deb who helped me pick great ones. this plant also manfactuers titan watches...which they say are terrific...all the rich people wear them anyway! We're going to look at them tomorrow. They manfacture the thinnest watch in the world--among other things. The other plant does bio-genetic cloning...and it was sooo cool. Because ... read more

Woke up around 7:30am and I was told we were in an area called “Warangal”. Small hills and paddy fields everywhere; surrounding looked very dry. After brushing my teeth, yes I had to do “something” which I have not done in an Indian train or for that matter a train anywhere in the world…. now my ass is rated for Indian trains as well…hahahahah (alright will spare the details)…during the process however I did loose my toothbrush which was in my denim front pocket….don’t ask me how, you got to be a gymnast to obtain the Indian train rating… I had 2 “Masala Wade” (INR10/= for both) with “Sambal” for breakfast and I think my system was getting acclimatized to Indian food; I had to go again…alright that’s enough about my system issues… The train reached ... read more