Kushal Lodge Kanchipuram

The ancient Ekambareswarar or Sri<br>Ekambaranatha Swamy temple of Lord Siva<br>is one of the 5 Pancha Bootha Sthalams,<br>representing the element Earth. <br> <br><br>The main shrine is made of sand and known as a Prithvi Linga.<br><br><br><br> The temple dates from the pre Pallava<br>period in Tamil history, and has been<br ...

... for the temple with the priest and after those 2 hours of walking came back to the hotel for having some breakfast.<br><br>I realised that I need to find an ATM as I was running out of money, so wanted to do that before the midday heat and so I walked down to Gandhi road, the most busy shopping road, with lots of silk stores etc. Kanchipuram is famous for their silk business, they are said to make the best silk in India.....but I wasn't in ...

... in places like Delhi, it is still very strong in rural villages. Even in cities many still follow the caste system, as we found out from our guide in Kanchipuram who believed his children must marry in their caste. We arrived first at the Dalit Training center. We spent the morning being welcomed by the students with traditional dancing, singing, and skits. The training center includes a primary school, a school similar to high school, and also has a nursing program ...

... expanses of clear land. It's amazing. We had a disasterous rafting trip last weekend ( I don't even want to go there- let's just say it involved 10 hours in a bus for 10 minutes of rafting and more than 1000 ruppeses-- oh the price of being a foreginer), but we got to see a little more of the Indian countryside. The city is growing on me too. Last weekend, while shopping in town, we saw all these people running down the street, so we asked out driver ...

... along the coastal areas were becoming saline and, hence, unusable. If people really think that our planet can support more people, they are correct: the planet can support more people, but at a huge cost to our quality of life and the environment. Fifteen billion people anyone? The Chola Empire was known for its high quality irrigation systems and also its temples (such as the immense Brihadeeswara Temple I entered in Tanjore) and bronze sculpture. I went to the Chola ...

... the tomb becomes an island as the causeway gets completely submerged. We were very fortunate not only because it was low tide when we visited, but because we got to see the sun rise over the Bombay skyline and in the background of the tomb. The tomb is actually all open air, and although I'm not quite sure who it was built for, there is a covered casket in the middle. There are beautiful flowers and ...

... The disabled girl's family find out about this other girl and take the most obvious course of action: they burn down her house whilst she and her elderly mother are sleeping (saved of course by our hero). As a result of all this turmoil the disabled girl attempts suicide. Then the dad dies because of all the worry caused and our hero feels so guilty about the whole mess that he marries the disabled girl after all. But only after the pot-maker tells him it's ok ...

... Dave, Clint, Jim and Ngoc from UQ. Was so good to see some familiar faces! They'll all be gone by tomorrow though - because we had a week off from our elective last week we still have an extra week to go. They're all breaking up to tour India. So it's just the five of us again. Things are starting to get a little strained - but I think that's bound to happen travelling in a group of 5. I have to catch a bus back to chennai on my own next week to get my flight out ...

... for tribal communities and scheduled castes of the Kanchepuram district. Formed after the Tsunami, the organization has evolved from a sole provider of relief services into a solid partner of the community, addressing many of the needs of marginalized populations. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to spend a few weeks working together with their staff and management. (Assisted with an organizational assessment and some ideas for future planning of new initiatives.) For my own ...

... airport and take us to a hotel, saving us from having to deal with the challenge of entering a new culture and the corresponding mundane details of the cost of a taxi and what neighborhood to stay in. Our most immediate impressions of the city were the crazy high humidity (even mid-morning) and the traffic - vehicles, bicycles, people everywhere. South Africa and Namibia had been pretty tame travel destinations, and India is the opposite. We spent about a day and a half ...