Hotel Vasantham Coimbatore

... rental companies in coimbatore and found very good reviews about them too. So we decided to email them on the mail id provided in their website and got a response pronto. They were reasonable and sounded very professional so we decided to hire the minivan from them and they suggested that we be put up in the jenny club and do a local sightseeing trip for a day. Jenny club again was such revelation. It is one of the best clubs that i have ...

... in there. We went back to the Raja and asked for our money back, which they finally and reluctantly gave, and we moved into the Ruby Palace, had a nice meal at a vegetarian restaurant, and had a good night's sleep.<br><br>We are now spending the day in Coimbatore, relaxing while we wait for our overnight train to Trivandrum in the far south. My next blog will be from there in a day or two. Hope all well with you.

... moving into my room, I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping on my cot. It was very overwhelming being there and all I wanted to do was talk to my family, but I had no internet and no phone, so I was out of luck. Many of the girls kept knocking on my door to introduce themselves to me but their names were so different and long that I did not remember any of them. After that, I just slept until the next day.<br>

... The staring was quite bad. But not as bad as today!! My god, yesterday town was dead but today it is buzzing, and I am STILL THE ONLY FOREIGNER HERE it is so weird! Everyone is staring at me which makes me smile awkwardly as it is so weird. A few people have chatted to me and have been friendly recommending I go to this church and that temple etc. spoke to a few guys in a stainless steel shop (I forgot to mention I'm from a stainless steel city) who were quite cool ...

... very busy here, everyone going somewhere. We're a bit shocked at all these people around us again, but they are for the most part very friendly and kids wave at us. Just before the Reserve gates, we see a sign for a French Bakery. So we follow the arrows down a little lane and find the French Bakery hut. He has 4 baguettes (sort of) one loaf of brown bread and, bingo, one banana cake. We decide to take a piece back to our veranda with us (smuggling it past Sabu) and walk back to the ...

... Palace of a Maharaja. After coffee and snacks, we wandered a bit before finding refuge in an internet cafe (fast quality internet is few and far between, so we relish these opportunities to stay in touch and update the blog). Tomorrow we head to Madikeri to stay on an organic tea plantation where we will do some hiking, bird-watching, tea making and relaxing. For every hard day of travel here in India, we are fortunate to have an exponential number of days that are eye ...

... photos. Martin sneaked his camera in but there were too many security guards to risk it. Some of the guards would ask us "what country?" One such chap on hearing our answer proceeded to tell us in his best English, about the mosaic floor tiles all being ...

Sunday 5th February 2006 After a great deal of thought I decided to move on today. Ooty may have its faults but the place had started to grow on me. I rose late, packed and caught a bus to Coimbatore. It cost me 55 rupees because I had to purchase a seat for my backpack as well. The 90 odd kilometres took around three hours to cover. For two of those hours we were descending steeply through hairpin curves. The scenery was as ...

... and we even had a chubby brown cow tied outside our house. All I could think of was houses in the UK, and how they paint the doors different colours so you can differentiate between them. When giving directions to my house in the village, all I could think of was "take a right off the main dirt road onto the smaller dirt road, the house is down on your right-- look for the brown cow." All jokes aside however, the hospitality displayed by the villagers was overwhelming ...

... moved. He started to perform a ritual, going through us one at a time and making various offerings, then he got to me. I did my best to match exactly what the person in front of me did, bowing my head to accept a wreath, taking some herbs, dipping my finger in ash and rubbing it on my forehead. But I'm naturally left handed. This was probably about the worst time possible to discover the Indian rule of "Always use your right hand". I was accepting a ...