Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 37

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 ... read more

Hi Everyone! I only have a few minutes, but I've been promised more time and a computer to myself tomorrow night, so I promise to write more then (as long as the technology works!)...there is so much to tell! We are now in the South of India and have started our official Rotary GSE Exchange. I feel like a queen. We are staying two nights in a beautiful beach house with all the amenities and a full staff of servants. It is stunning...and certainly better than I live in the US. We saw some beautiful 1500 year old ruins today (our 65 year old historic districts pale in comparison!). And we visited a village destroyed by the tsunami and witnessed the relief efforts. The people here are amazing! So peaceful and present and generous...from the village ... read more

Tuesday morning, December 13 Yesterday was a full day kick started by a foot massage/pedicure/hot paraffin dip in the hotel spa. THAT was great. After that we took a little road trip with Anond and Pretty. This time we did away with the “driver” (who is typically hired along with a vehicle) and Anond drove us himself. We went to the Indian Institute of Technology where Praveen attended before coming to the US to work on his masters degree. It’s a huge sprawling campus that includes lots of wooded type areas within it. Spotted deer roam about freely and are quite tame. They are actually “wild” deer who just come to live there on their own. There are monkeys there too but we didn’t see them even though we looked. Praveen showed us all his old ... read more

We started the day with a huge buffet breakfast at the hotel. Among the many choices I found plenty to fill up on. I can't tell you the names of anything, nor will I take the time to describe it right now, but I can say it was enjoyable. Check out this link to our hotel, it's beautiful! The Residency Towers After breakfast our driver picked us up and Ruth and I had our first daylight view of the streets of Chennai. The one thing that surprised me most was that I was not nervous or anxious in any way as we drove through the rather chaotic streets. Anyone who knows me well will also be surprised to hear this. In fact, I have such bad traffic phobias that I brought along some (prescription) "calm-me-down-drugs" just ... read more

I don’t think I’ve written yet about the Sea Olympics that occurred before we got to India…so here’s a little bit about it. We are divided up into “seas” and each one has their own RA. There are 9 all together, including the professors/staff/adult passengers who made up the “Vitamin C.” I am in Baltic, and we didn’t have very much spirit. But those of us that did made up for everyone else. The night before the Olympics we had an opening ceremony and a talent show. I was able to put my radio editing software to good use and made the music mix for our parts in the talent show and in synchronized swimming the next day. It was tons of fun and I got to know some new people in my sea really well, ... read more