Hotel Kodai International Kodaikanal

... decide to call it an early night, collapsing onto the bed. I wake up and hop into the shower. What is this???? Hot water??? This is a first In India and I feel like Ms. Luxurious under the steaming water. "Ah yes...this is exactly what I need after last night." I think. I begin to lather my hair while singing and suddenly the water switches to mountain freezing cold water. "Arggggggggggh!" I yelp as I blindly jump out of the way. "Oh no..." I wash my eyes clear and look at the ...

... with for the day (and go to ‘tibet’ again - I sell the chilli veg to them with gusto). Their names are Tess and Ian and they’re 18 and 20. They’ve dropped out of college and they are full of future. They make me feel very old. They walk around the town with matching woollen blankets wrapped round them (as is the refugee style fashion up here) and they look incredible cute. We hang at their hotel with them for a bit and talk ...

... is 12 KM from Bodhi Zendo.
 
About the Zen Master 

Bodhi Zendo is run by the Zen master AMA Samy. He became a Jesuit priest at a young age. Since he did not find spiritual fulfilment from Christian spirituality, he started visiting Hindu ashrams and Buddhist meditation centres before going to Japan to learn Zen.
 
He spends a few month of the year teaching abroad. I knew that he was not in India during the 1-4 October mini-Sesshin, but was ...

... the light plantation forest for much better views, devoid of littering tourists. The Suicide Point next to the Golf Club is now called Green Valley View or something like that. It offers good views of the valley but the entire approach is lined with stalls vending all sorts of souvenirs, snacks, caps et al. You will see wild bisons on this stretch of the road in the early mornings. Apparently, they love grazing in the adjoining Golf course greens! We ...

... a treat to be able to experience both Ooty and Kodaikanal. It also made me realize how much I really do appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, and the unspoiled natural beauty there, litter-free. Guess I need to get myself up to the Himalaya to be properly humbled. Well, heavy rain has caused power to go out, so I will have to sign off as I have been told two more minutes of battery power. Proof-reading later. Enjoy folks.

... and life we hardly knew before. New friendships were made and I had ample opportunity to indulge myself into the everyday life of pastoral parish work besides delivering uncounted presentations on India and different aspects of my work here. As a result a delegation of the church district including the Area-Bishop will visit in the next year congregations of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in South India with the aim of forming new partnerships. I am looking forward to meet ...

... importing wheelbarrows. Kumily, After the heat and the heat, it was a real pleasure to get up into the mountains to Kumily and Periyar National wildlife park. A very relaxed place. We set out on a bit of an exploration walk around the town and pretty quickly found ourselves "seeing whats down this path here" nothing more than a track through the bush we walked for 15 minutes or so with nothing special to report... Then we noticed the leeches. I don't really ...

... weit** mitzuhelfen, wo ich benötigt w**de. So w**den wir nun hoffentlich auch bald ein neues Datenbanksystem aufbauen, dass das gesamte Management in einem System üb**schaubar macht und trotzdem so benutz**freundlich ist, dass einige d** Frauen es bedienen können. Es gibt also weit**hin viel zu tun. Das war ein kurz** Einblick zu uns**em letzten Jahr. Es war spannend und reich an Erfahrungen und Eindrücken, zu denen vor allem die Entwicklung von Myra gezählt hat. Dieses neue ...

... Ihre Zärtlichkeiten sind imm** etwas mit Vorsicht zu geniessen, so hat sie Lars und mir schon die Nase (Nasenlöch**) blutig gekratzt. - D**zeit ist ihr Schlafrythmus nicht so ganz ideal. Die **sten Muck**s wecken mich in d** Regel so gegen 4.00 Uhr. Myra schläft dann meist weit** bis 5.30 während ich mehr wach als schlafend im Bett liegen bleibe. Ich hoffe das ist nur vorüb**gehend. - Ansonsten ist sie nachwievor ein kleines (~72 cm) heit**es P**sönchen ...

... um zwei friedf**tige und durchaus wohlwollende Zeitgenossen handelte. Dies wurde spätestens auch dem letzten Schulkind klar, als die beiden nach vi**wöchig** Arbeit, den **neu**ten und **weit**ten Spielplatz für die Kind** freigaben. Neben John und G**o haben uns noch etliche weit**e Indienreisende besucht und uns**en Alltag ein wenig aufgefrischt. Doch gab es auch ohne Besuch** imm** wied** besond**e Momente und Eindrücke, die d** Erwähnung w**t sind. Karaikudi zum Beispiel ...