Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 40

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Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai January 29th 2005

well hello from tiruvannamalai :) it has been a week and half since i have last written- so i have a bit to catch you all up on so here goes... keith and i bid a fond farewell to hyderabad and took the overnight train to bangalore. i am of the opinion that overnight travel is best done on a train. many people say some of the deluxe buses are great- but after my overnight bus from mcleod ganj to kurukshetra i don't think i will ever do another overnight bus again! the trains have bathrooms and drive on a straight track- versus all over the road- and there are beds that lie horizontally. very key for a good night's sleep i think. but another thing that is key- peace and quiet- is something that is ... read more

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai December 19th 2004

So much has been happening over these last couple of weeks. Junior matron was very ill for a few days and had to go into hospital. This meant that Laura and I were left alone with the juniors. So on top of our usual duties we had to give thirty three children two baths a day, get them up for school at 5.50AM, get them dressed, hair combed, face powdered and get them to study for three hours after school. We took it in turns to sleep with them. I lost my patience with a few of them after a while but on the whole it was really enjoyable, particularly on a few occasions when I woke up in the middle of the night to find I was surrounded by children curled up fast asleep. Thankfully ... read more
Top: Deboral and Isaac at school xmas function. Bottom: The juniors at our fare well party.

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai December 6th 2004

Hi! This past week has been complete chaos in school! We have been making costumes, props, practicing a puppet show with the middle boys, a wind and snowflake dance with the senior girls and worst of all trying to get 1st and 2nd st to behave for long enough to do rehearsals for jack and the beanstalk. I almost ended up killing a little boy named Allan, who decided that because he was jack he had the right to start attacking all the other children!!! Well anyway we had the xmas function on sunday and most of 1st and 2nd standard forgot their lines and just stood there looking petrified. It could of been worse I suppose, but not much. On the bright side though Alex bought Laura and I saris as a thank you for ... read more

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai November 24th 2004

Hi! We didn’t actually end up seeing much of the diwali celebrations (they just seem to burst crackers anyway) but we did have a great time. Kerela is so beautiful! We did quite a lot of shopping in the markets in Cochin, a very laid back touristy town, and I loved the Chinese fishing nets. Periyar was just amazing. To get there we had a four hour bus journey along a very narrow, winding mountain road and the view of the mist spiraling off the green mountain tops and the endless tea plantations was just the kind of thing I’ve always wanted to see. When we got into the actual reserve we went on boat ride around the lake and then a three hour trek through the forest. We didn’t see any tigers but we did ... read more
Middle girls traditional south Indian dance
Clinton, Marcus and David

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai November 7th 2004

Hullo! Wow so good to hear from you poonam! Yes that is the correct way of leaving messages so tell me more plz!!! What’s it like having lectures? Is it hard disciplining your self to do all the work? and what do you do when you’re not in lectures? Not spending too much time in that shop of yours I hope. Also what are these new friends of yours like??? Okay I'll let you answer those first. I love India!!! There’s always so much to do and there’s so many different cultures here. We are going to kerela for diwali, to cochin for three days and then periyar nature reserve for two more. I'm really looking forward to it. We leave on Wednesday evening and will travel over night on a train, which should be interesting. ... read more

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai October 29th 2004

Hi. Glad to hear you're okay in college and yes all the children are very well behaved, we have a couple of hyper ones but if you give them some stickers they usualy stay quiet. Its really much more fun then I thought it would be. One of the things we do is having the children individualy read to us from their story books. When we get the books out they get so excited and beg to be the first one to read (quite different from the reading we had to do in AS year). The monsoon is well underway here and we've already had a couple of fanastic storms where the thunder is so loud it leaves a ringing in your ears. The roads are pretty much constantly flooded and you really do not want ... read more
Pallavan rock carving
Celebrations
Taking ganesh to the beach

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai October 13th 2004

Hello! One month in India today! Some how I feel like I've been here longer. India's so full of noise, smell, and general madness that it is almost impossible to think of any where else and you begin to feel like you've been here all along. Its good to hear from you all. Katie - How are you getting on with the people in college? Is it very different from sixform? Also for those of you in uni whats it like being a student?? You all must be having soooo much fun!Have you come across any particularly odd lecturers? The new term is in full swing here and we have started both our art classes and reading groups. It feels really odd controlling a class of 30 children and sitting at the teachers table for dinner. ... read more

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai September 19th 2004

Well I've been in India for a few days now and although some of my first impressions where of shock and disgust at the way some people lived I'm now quite used to it all. Laura who will be volunteering with me got here a few hours before me. She's rarther quiet and says she doesn't want to travel much but I think she'll change her mind once she's been here a bit. Alex who works for the orphanage and is looking after us arranged for us to stay in a YWCA for a few days so that we could get used to India. I think we really needed that due to the weather, food and everything. Yesterday we moved into the orphanage and the room wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be. ... read more

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai September 7th 2001

2001………..6wks-2nd CYCLING TRIP-2,200kms IN SOUTHERN INDIA Today’s The Day! Finally after many months of thinking and talking about what must be one of the most researched and planned trips to the mysterious Indian Subcontintinent it’s actually going to happen. I’ve communicated into the ether of cyberspace to people in far off lands and got the lowdown on what to see, what not to see, what smells and tastes to see or more so to avoid, the charms of the people or the scams to be aware of. I begin my adventure by arriving in Bangalore, one of the smaller cities of India- a mere 5.2 million people. Bombay, which no longer exists as it is called Mumbai, is 15 million. I haven’t organized anywhere to stay on my arrival at 1.15am. With pushbike boxed and under ... read more
Colourful Dindigal
Dindigal Doorway
Beedies Anyone?

Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai January 16th 2001

The only buses to Kochi are overnighters, and they're actually somewhat comfortable. Then we took the next bus to Alleppey where the hotels just weren't satisfactory. Imagine that! So instead of staying, we collapsed onto a backwater ferry boat and did nothing but watch the scenery pass for 8 wonderful hours. Beautiful! Peaceful! But what to do next? We gritted our teeth and went to see what the very southern tip of the subcontinent, Kanniyakumari, had to offer. Answer: not a lot for Westerners. We knew that a place as spiritually important as this would be a big pilgrimage site, therefor luring thousands of Indian tourists and kitsch vendors. Imagine our double surprise to find that the holiday of Pongal was upon us! It did look like a good time if you were part of the ... read more
Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Sadhus
Skanda, God of War, Sri Meenakshi Temple, Madurai




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