Hotel Annamalai Tiruchirappalli

... are Brahma, the creater, and Shiva, the destroyer.) The temple had expanded many times over the years and gates were built depending on the style of the current ruling power, so there were I think seven gates to go through. There was one gate that was made without any paint that was done to show Muslim dominance while they were ruling. We started getting inside a few and I noticed that there were a ...

... 8217; (wrought iron walls allowing some air to pass thro’), where happy pilgrims show absolutely no concern about the length of wait, any pushing, claustrophobia or discomfort! Small children and babies all seem to behave and are carried, wile others quietly follow thro’ with parents. This is no trial for any of them: rather an exciting wait and run up to see their Lord Venkateshwara.

Various customs surround the visits, in terms of hygiene, dress ...

... until the bus did!! Needless to say, it was absolutely hopeless and I ended up moving and watching the day appear from the dark!!

I waited until the reasonable hour of 8am and then took a rickshaw to local guesthouses to try to get a room, a shower and a sleep. But to no avail. Just like Madurai, the rooms were costly and the town just didn’t seem to warrant paying that kind of money for what I wanted to see there. So I settled for a rickshaw tour, with my backpack in tow ...

... underneath then you drag one on top of the other and wallah! you have a mattress that's 4cm instead of 2cm thick. It's hot as hell here and a dirty, noisy, sprawling city. We had bought Mono Loco a new outfit in the temple in Madurai that was a gold chest plate and turban hat so he didn't really want to take it off and i folded and let him sleep in it. He really misses his other mum because i don't let him eat candy because it's not sattvic (pure ...

... med det var, og de sagde at de ville give dem det senere, saa det er vi noed til at tro paa. De virkede ogsaa reelle nok. Vi fik lov at tage nogle af boernene op - de var saaa soede :) Der var ogsaa smaa babyer paa seks mdr som ikke kunne andet end ligge i deres smaa vugger. Dt var en kaempe stor oplevelse. Virkelig. Og vi kan koere lettede og glade derfra. Paa vejen tilbage til kontoret koeber de en saribluse til mig og de giver ...

... wenn man erst am vorherigen Tag gelesen hat, das diese immer wieder auf Festivals ausrasten und in die Menge laufen. Man haette sich auch gegen eine Spende vom Elefanten den Kopf streicheln lassen koennen, was angeblich Glueck bringt. Aber man weiss ja nie, ob der Gute nicht gerade eine Lebenskrise hat und genau in dem Moment die Entscheidung faellt Amok zu laufen!! Von oben hatte man dann einen super Blick ueber die Stadt und konnte auch schon ...

... around Madurai we were prepared to leave, their big draw was under construction and we got tired of avoiding cow **** in the streets. I just read that one cow puts more CO2 in the environment than a car that drives 3000 miles and that is per day. Apparently, they belch methane, which is 31 times stronger than car emissions, as part of their eating process. We hopped on an overnight train for Verkala beach, a nine hour ride that cost 2 bucks for a sleeper. I ...

... as awesome roars could be heard near the camp.



There is a thin line between excitement and anxiety and at that moment, we had tangibly crossed it. Pity. It somewhat marred our enjoyment of the night sky, a sight to behold with millions of stars sparkling like diamonds and the Milky Way clearly visible in the absence of any light pollution.



Eventually we reached the rest house. The caretaker and some ...

... simmer on a houseboat in kerala: After catching up sleep, and booking our onward tickets to Thailand, we continued our journey to Kerala, land of backwaters and coconut palms. I had been looking forward to kerala from the moment I started my journey in the Netherlands, and I was not ...

... degrees C we were dripping by this time! During the climb up and down we encountered young lads who tried to shake our hands and kept pushing past us laughing. We also met some beautiful women (one of whom, when I said how beautiful she was, exclaimed that she had black skin and my fairer skin was more beautiful - I told her that her skin was lovely - there is a feeling here that the fairer the skin i.e. North India the better and there are skin creams on sale ...