Courtyard By Marriott Chennai Chennai (Madras)

... to India...


chaos, confusion, contradiction, urine, deffacation, dirt, dust, mud, phlegm, spitting, hoicking. Cats, dogs, cows, goats, cars, buses, donkeys, bicylcles, motorbikes, rickshaws, old men & children making a two lane road into a six lane highay. Car horns, whistles, hunger, greed. Business suites, destitutes, beggars and touts. Touts, more than you could imagine "you take ...

... to this, but I had to find some new trousers (India had wrecked mine) and a wedding present. It was a grueling time (with the exception of a brilliant sweet & sour chicken meal at a Chinese eatery within the food hall!). I eventually came away with a good gift and two pairs of trousers that they shortened for free in one hour (really professionally!).

The following day was my last in India and I was really downhearted to be leaving. Despite all the ...

... town. Finally I reached Colombo in the bus stand at about 4:30 pm, knowing I would have to take a local bus to the airport, and that would take at least an hour or more. So, still cutting it close, but maybe not missing my flight. "Plan B" naturally begins to take shape in one's mind on such occasions. "if I miss this plane, I most certainly miss the plane to Goa, so that opens out my possibilities, really. . " James and Andy from the guesthouse had a plan for the ...

... The carvings were constructed in the 7th Century. It is a beach front town and although the tsunami had done considerable damage to it, it has been completely rebuilt. We visited the nice Shore temple and the gorgeously carved Five Rathas and wondered around the town.

... interesting sport. I intend to look up why it is called Cricket. It isn't anything like the insect. Not in any way. There's no hopping around, no getting put on a hook to fish for trout, no annoying whining noises. But it is surprisingly a lot like baseball. You have a ball that's roughly the same size and weight as a baseball, but it's made of two perfect halves rather than the design of the baseball. Instead of pitching you bowl. The 'pitch' is what you call the ...

... bisschen zu detaili**t, darueb** zu schreiben ist voellig aussichtslos wie ich wied** einmal bem**ke. Pointing a fing** to the moon, ein Zen Sprichwort. Probi**en wirs so: - Was ich inzwischen nicht gel**nt habe: -- Ueb** dem Boden schweben. -- Om zu reziti**en und dabei goettliche Exstase zu **leben. -- Das kosmische Bewusstsein fragen wann d** naechste Zug nach Madurai faehrt. -- Zu wissen wie es meinem Astralko**p** heute geht. - Was ich inzwischen gel**nt habe ...

... fade much in muggy, ill-ventilated concrete hotel rooms... Last night must have been one of the most miserable nights on record. As I lay frustrated and cursing in bed in the middle of the night, I checked the temperature. Just above 90 degrees. Again, the presence of the mosquitoes burdens me greatly. And these mosquitoes are the Godzilla of mosquitoes. Damn near the size of giant flies to small birds. I am covered partially with Deet insect ...

Today was a day that went by very quickly. We said goodbye to Neerja and Madhu, went to the bus station and boarded our luxury bus (Maharadja style or something similar). Meanwhile a policeman tried to steal my camera (pretending he was only testing me...if you know what I mean) and we were getting ready for 9 hours of cross-state travel from Bangalore to Chennai with only 2 scheduled ...

... around the city of Chennai for the day. It was nice. The cab was air conditioned. Eva had been to India before so she knew of some good places to go. Our first stop was to Nalli which is a local store that sells Indian clothing. It was huge. It has four levels, and 400 employees working in the building. I had a pair of dress pants tailored for me, and they only cost $16.00. The customer service in the store was excellent. I had a clerk helping me the entire time that I was in the ...

... this inconvenience the authorities agreed with the protesters and promptly had the ancient statue taken out and moved to another (modern) temple. Problem solved.

Set back from the town are a few rocky outcrops with incredible carvings and temples chipped out of them. We wandered around this eerie landscape but were soon 'touted' on a small plateau and hounded endlessly. Our own particular tout said he was called Peter and followed us around saying things like "Step this ...