Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 7

We started late this morning, thank goodness. Breakfast was a plentiful buffet with many Indian and Western choices. I had a peppery Indian bean stew with bacon and toast, and papaya and a fingerling banana. Our tour took us first to the Kapaleeshwarar Temple. Our first experience of removing our shoes and putting on the “spare” socks we were advised to bring. We entered the temple complex, which was dominated by a huge Hindu temple tower. This is a flat-sided, sugar-loaf shape, covered with fabulous, painted carvings of the Hindu gods, particularly those related to Shiva (as this is South India). Several other smaller roofs were similarly covered with carvings. We walked the short distance to one of these, the wedding hall - basically a large veranda-type place where the weddin... read more

I realised that I have to hurry up a little bit because my friend Sepp from Kiel wants to visit me in Chennai in about 3 weeks, and if I want to fulfill my plan of going to the very South of Inida it are still 1500km. Because the days in India are quite short also the distances I make are not so big. Before India it was no problem to ride more than 100km a day. But here I havent made more than 100km in one day except the one day without luggage where I took my MP3 player. After the night at the beach in Goa I decided to make 100km again. And I made it. I was going to the Cotiago Sanctuary in the South of Goa. And it was really nice. I ... read more

During my time in northern India other travellers told me that the north and south are so different. Really, every state in India is different. They all have their own language, their own governing bodies, their own ethnic culture. This makes travel within India, even for native Indians, particularly challenging (of course it's also what makes this diverse country so fascinating!) Can you imagine if all the states in the US used a different language?? And yes, overall the north and south are also very different. It can be likened to the various regions in the US, where there are certainly different cultures between the north, south, east and west. In India, the north is known to be "real India", which from my experience means more crowded and dirtier. I found the south to be greener ... read more

Following what felt like a traumatic series of sari relates events, I thought the sari itself would stay in the bag and I would pull it out every once in a while, look at how pretty the material was, then put it back in the bag so it wouldn't crease in the wrong spot or something dire like that! Little did I know, the sisters that are staying here at Mithra had other ideas. We'd had quite a long weekend. We'd visited Kanchipuram where we completed a crash course in 'How to visit 5 temples in under 2 hours', been blessed by elephants, taken thousands of photos, eaten delicious meals, visited Keralan cultural events, eaten the best ice cream and shopped up a storm. The sisters would have no complaints of being tired or sweaty or ... read more

If a friend of mine were coming to Chennai, I would offer them all kinds of advice: When on a bus (when it comes to the crunch, a bus is sometimes the only option) make sure you wear a very supportive, preferably sports, bra. Don’t cross your legs in a skirt- you will give someone a heart attack. Don’t count on the monsoon season, when monsoon like days arrive, just be grateful. When someone says the quality of tampons and pads aren’t very good (ad tampons are impossible to find), listen to them and listen to their advice to bring shitloads (Sorry I didn’t listen Viv!). Take drama lessons- when an autorickshaw driver offers you a ridiculous price throw your hands in the air and act as if he has said something preposterous about your mother. ... read more