Chittoor Palace Kochi

... found anyone he was happy with. He took himself off to the wailing wall in Jerusalem and wrote in a letter that he wanted a wife and what he was looking for, to leave in the wall for god. I pushed him what he asked for in a ‘European wife’ and I could only get out of him ‘children’, although when I suggested ‘statuesque with a more liberated view on sexual relations’ he may have been catholic but not catholic enough to ...

... out of a few great restaurants and tea rooms, we went to a cultural centre one evening to experience a Kathakali performance, which was, like nothing else. An hour before it began we were allowed to sit and watch the cast of 3 or four men paint on their detailed and colourful make-up. A bright red face meant you were baddy (demon) and a bright green, the heroe. Yellow/skin colour meant you were a Brahmin or civilian. We were given a lengthy ...

... on the wall and a history of Kochi. In the evening we chilled out, went to Calm Cafe and had a 'Special brew' served in a teapot, which was a bottle of Kingfisher as drinking is frowned upon in some places. On another day we booked a trip to the Kerala backwaters taking a house boat in the morning and a little canoe in the afternoon. It was very chilled out, we decided to go with the green option of having a gondala style driver just drifting slowly down the river. It ...

... cross-eyed? Are there dating agencies for people who are cross-eyed? If their were it might be called 'Cross Dates', or 'Star Crossed Lovers' - 'Find love staring at the bridge of each others nose'. P.S, about 30 mins ago I watched one of the family take a switch (thin wooden stick) from behind a picture frame and b************ out of a kid about 2 years old. The unmistakable sound of flesh being whipped sent shivers down my spine - and screams from the kids mouth.

... India there are little Hindu temples along major highways and local alley-ways and in people's homes and everywhere else you turn. What's interesting is that they have "Hindu-ized" Christianity. So throughout Goa and so far, in Kerela, there are little Christian "temples" set up along the highways, and alleyways, and homes, etc. All of the statues of Christ and ...

... t want one in every place we stay (gotta keep it real), but now and then, especially when we're somewhere for 3-4 nights it's a real boon to stay in with some nibbles and experience the escapism that only Friends can provide. I'd like to say we use the opportunity to catch up on Indian current affairs and world news, but in reality we search for HBO and find a moooveeee. Recently we have seen Back to the Future (top ten greatest ...

... group ever to find some ambiguous located dance. Oh, but first the older Canadian woman wanted us to stop at the fish stall to pick up her new friend. WE assumed he would be 60 or so, nope, about 20. So, here we had the driver of a huge SUV (very rare here), Ridwan from Bangladesh mid 30s front seat, Canadian couple my parents age and other Canadian woman in middle, and the 20 year old thrown in back with me. GRRRREEEAAAT! Here I spend my days finding body and mind space from ...

... goats than cats and dogs. It's much more my image of British India than anywhere else. Probably because it's so tranquil and without the chaos of most cities. Monday, being Divali was a(nother) holiday and swarms of locals were out in their 'Sunday' best promenading on the promenade and everywhere useful was closed. More gringos here than anywhere else I've been in India this trip - at least 4 dozen at the ...

... the night in the jungle. My feet are muddy and bloody. It's impossible to keep the leeches off. Luckily they do not actually cause any pain but are just nasty, medieval and, well yes, want to drink your blood. Completely exhausted we reach the ridge. Soon thereafter we hear hear the oh so sweet sounds of civilization - a dog barking. We have come across a small tribal community - neat mud homes sit low to the ground, thatched roofs protruding a few feet beyond the outer walls and ...

... as we wrote in our first entry from Delhi,"India is hard work but it's worth it." It's hard to summarize our time in India but we'll do our best. What We've Done We've traveled from Delhi to Kochi by plane, train, boat; bus and car; we've eaten as many different types of Indian food as we could including the Mughali food of the North and the spicy food native to the South; we've run the range of emotions from rage, disappointment, disbelief, amusement to joy and beyond on a daily ...