Narn

So an update on our adventures... I've been doing work most of the week and visiting research partners. I went to a private hospital on Tuesday. I've never ever seen so many patients in one place. They were lined up against walls, all the chairs were full. The hospital was very clean and very organised which they would have to be with that many people coming and going. I also went to an engineering college. I had to give a lecture and it was until I got there that I found out it was in front of 120 staff and students. They seemed to like it and it all went well. We had lunch at the college. I was a bit confused at first because one of the professors and I got sat by ourselves at ... read more

Well, now we've got to Kanyakumari. Narn's got a few days off work now which is nice and well timed to have a look at this area. We're right at the southern tip of the country here, where the arabian, bengal and indian oceans/seas all meet. Its a nice town, and the people are very friendly. After getting off the train at Trivandrum, we were picked by a friend and we took a car down to here - its around 80km in total and took about 2 hours. It was a bit strange because you are driving through populated areas the entire trip (barring around 10km), but the shops and houses only go a little way away from the road and then its into the palm trees. Its really nice to see the palms around here ... read more

I'll be typing this one today (Richy) so you'd better all enjoy it cause its going to be awesome. Well, saw the Taj Mahal today. What an amazing place that is! The drive was a bit long, took 2.5 times as long to travel the same distance as you would in oz, but that's what you get over here. But before we get to that, an update on Narn's presentation and the conference. Narn's presentation went really well and she also has another university interested in doing collaborative research with the team. Now back to our adventure; we pulled up on the way to get something to eat for breakfast, around 1.5km over the border (into the next state - Rajastan?) at a nice place that had good food - it was obviously geared to tourists ... read more

Have had my first experience of the above title. All good now though. Had the conference dinner last night and I think the food was a bit too oily. The desert was fantastic. It was like deep fried balls of batter with maple syrup soaked through them. I could get very very fat on those. Too rich to eat them though. Conference started yesterday with keynote address. There are other females attending about 5 indian women, there are probably about 50 people all up. If we have time today we are going to try and go to a shopping center and check that out. Apparently there's a rather large one down the road that is 2 kilometers long. That's if we interpreted what our taxi driver was saying the other day. It's our wedding anniversary today, ... read more

So after a ridiculous long time on planes, too much airoplane food, and no sleep we are in New Delhi. Oh so glad that we had arranged a private pickup from the airport. It was like nothing we had ever seen. We walked out and their are people everywhere. The first thing we did was buy water. Never been so glad to see my name on a piece of cardboard. The crowds are amazing and the heat it feels like you are sticking your head in a kettle to breathe. There are lanes on the roads but noone uses them. It's the honk and move method of driving. Our driver was very efficient at that. The only thing he slowed down for was a couple of braham bulls on the highway. Richie wishes that we could ... read more