Heritage Inn Coimbatore

... across in my life. <br><br>The next day, the driver Aravindan from Kannan Tours &amp; Travels Pvt Ltd took us for a local trip of coimbatore. He took us to Isha Yoga centre where they had a dhyanalingam installed and also to a waterfall nearby Kovai Kutrallam. From there we visited Perur temple and Marudhamalai Murugan temple. Came back to Jenny's for a wonderful dinner and rest in the comfy room.<br><br>Will be starting off to ooty tomorrow

... their guns on unruly passengers than the elephant.<br><br>Finally he decided to move, and stood by the side of the track as we moved off. We arrived in the village of Mettupalayam more or less on time, and then took our onward train to Coimbatore an hour later, unfortunately having to stand for the 45 minute journey, but at least it made it easier to get off as we were near the door.<br><br>In Coimbatore we ...

We spent 2.5 weeks in Podanur, near Coimbatore , volunteering with Families for Children (FFC). FFC is a private, not for profit organization, operating homes in Bangladesh and India for destitute women and children. FFC was founded by in 1971 by Sandra Simpson from Montreal. If you are interested in learning more about FFC, you can check out their website at http://www.familiesforchildren.ca/. Rajiv and I spent the first couple of ...

... Something to look forward to. My room is a deluxe room...which I would say was a very fancy backpackers room and not in the league of hotels rooms...but I knew that coming here...the antiques are really old wooden furniture not so much prized possessions, the room is big, as you can see in the picture and has brilliant views over the mountains and valleys. My bed is a king size and there is plenty of warm donnas' and comfy pillows, a TV- which I don't intend to turn on, a fireplace ...

... was visited quite fast. The idea to visit the Nagarhole National Park 130km away was a fake! It wasn't allowed to enter the Park even to the entrancebuilding by motorcycle! Instead I made a own safari through a nearby Coffee-Plantation. The drive lead me across the first area of Tea-Plantations and to mountains leading over a passroad going 2300m over sealevel. A beautiful drive and landscape! Night in Pollachi.

... tour with Jim and Jerry, the British family and Shaikur and his cousin. (of course at the front of the boat, in our privileged seating spots). George decided to stay in bed to fight off the fever he has. The tour is uneventful, only one wild peeg. Get back to the lodge and have breakfast with George. We decide to stay on the island as long as possible and arrange for our driver to meet us at the main jetty at 1:30 to take us to Munnar. We sit in the sun and read, watch the birds and the ...

... Batman! This place is huge, and about as ridiculously ornate as you can get. The Maharaja must have loved living here during the time (there hasn't been one living there for about 40 years). It is also the Dasara Festival right now, so every evening the palace is lit up and is a spectacular site that people from all over India come to see. The Maharaha will be here Oct 2 to greet the people and the festival is in his honor. Very big deal here. Everything has 50 foot ceilings ...

... who was even more helpful than a travel agent and helped us to find a cheap driver and layed out the possible courses. We decided to take the Mattupetty Dam/Top Point course which seemed the most interesting one. This course includes the following stops: Photo Point: which is probably the worst point imaginable in the entire course for taking a picture, but ricksaw, jeep and bus drivers still insist on making a stop ...

... off, I had guava for the first time ever last week and it's delicious. While this isn't particularly interesting, I still marvel that you can stop on the side of the street, and buy fruits that we consider so 'exotic' back home (including but not limited to jackfruit, guava, papaya, coconut, and some weird things I've never heard of) for about 5 rupees (48 rupees to a dollar, give or take). Last Friday, IHP took us to a small resort-ish area called "Banyan Country" for an afternoon ...

... south towards the south of India, and Madurai, which is not just home to one of the most spectacular temples in the south, but is also one of the hottest places in India. I'd been pretty happy the way my body had reacted to the food so far. There'd been no sign of the dreaded "Delhi Belly" which is supposed to affect westerners at first after eating proper Indian food, but as we travelled farther and farther south, I started to feel rumblings down below ...