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Sorry for not writing for so long. The internet here is dog slow and I just don't have the patience to wait for page refreshes when I can spend the time drinking chai and talking with people. Anyways, Jodhpur is awesome. I found the most peaceful spot in India today when I took off at sunrise for a walk around the fort. Our homestay - Heaven Guest House in in the center of town so it's not a long hike out of here to the top of the fort. I wanted to head up there and check out the sunrise. By now I'm pretty accustomed to wandering the curvy streets of this town. It's really neat here. Old streets with sandstone mesh window coverings. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the streets so it ... read more

Heading out today to Cochin. Gonna check out the old Jew town, there's a really old synagogue there I want to see. Apparantly some jews came here back during the time of Babylon when they were taken into slavery. Now there's only about 10 familys left. I feel better now. Hooray. Had a big meal yesterday of shrimp masala. Yum Gonna do a plug for where we stayed: Pozhiyoram Beach Resort. You can google it. Had some nice cottages on the beach here. Food was decent, but not as good as Kaits Homestay which was just heavenly. The beach was nice. Gotta run, driver is here. Don... read more

Well, we've landed in Paradise. Kerala is awesome. Best food on earth, beautiful country. I want to retire here. Left Kumily on Jan 3rd to go down to Alleppey. Stopped at a tea plantation and saw the tea factory. Pretty neat stuff. Gave an old crippled begger woman Rs. 100. Good karma eh? Aroma of the tea was amazing. Unfortunately they use tons of wood to roast the tea, hopefully they're not cutting down virgin forests for this. That's my tree hugger speach. The drive from Kumily and the cardomon hills to the coast is amazing. Starts with tea plantations everywhere. Then the hills get real steep and we begin the decent. Sheer cliffs, terraced gardens everywhere. Crazy roads. Stopped at a local restaurant that the driver picked. We ate "meals" again. Cost to stuff our ... read more

We're in Kodaikanal now, this is a hill station about 7500ft high in the Western Ghat mountains of South India. It's 9:30 pm. Got here last night. I'm at an internet cafe, not too many folks in here now. The eternal sound of Indian traffic is happening outside with the horn chatter. It's quite a change being up here vs. down in Chennai or Madurai. Lot cooler here. Quite comfortable. Great fruits like oranges, jack fruit, star fruits, green mangos with lime and chilli (yum), they even have corn here coated with chilli and lime, but it's not impressive. We're all sticking with the food of deep south India which is far and away some of the best food i've ever eaten. Today is the first time we decided to go non-vegitarian. Had some delicious chicken ... read more

Austin - So far India is awesome. The food is great, and the people are very nice. If you don't look out you will get overfed. Be cautious, avoid meet unless assured that it is ok to eat. Stick to being vegetarian and drinking unopened bottled water. Chi, or "tea" in south India, as well as coffee is great and for the most part ok. There are lots of mosquitoes, so bring lots of bug spray, and make sure you are up to date on malaria meds. Be careful with taxi drivers, they will try to get you to buy stuff from people and may change prices around. In Chennai, i recommend Mohan, his phone # is 9941-2218-82. He is nice, a good driver and trustworthy. India is a great place so far. ... read more