Snooze Inn Kodaikanal

... fills the air with its heavy scent. Stray mangy dogs and not fussed cows try to salvage anything in the debris. I enter a few somewhat dubious places but apparently they are no longer serving food. I decide to go see the sandalwood forest and take a taxi, who is Mr. Speedy (around the sharp turns) and arrive in record time. I begin a walk in the forest when it starts pouring rain. I run back to the car and we speed back to Munnar, ignoring all requests to slow down or to stop to ...

... on my shoulder, waking and apologising intermittently, and at one point Dan dozes with a little boy crashed on him as well. It was very cute, seems like a lot of people use the buses to get a quick bit of shut eye.
We religiously follow the ‘blue book’ and get a taxi to a youth hostel recommended. Its quite expensive (seems ’the blue book’ gives places bragging rights), but its pretty and although the clouds have ...

... whereas I paid INR 2,500 to Kanan tours. She also said that the car was new and the driver was decent.
 
The first thing I noticed about this place was the silence. It is very quiet out here.
 
I just got back from my first Zazen session. Have been feeling a bit tired. Need to sleep at 9:00. The first Zazen session starts at 5:30 AM tomorrow.
 
02 October 2009, Friday 

Yesterday I borrowed the book "I am that," which is talks of ...

... hallucinogenic - we did not try to find out! They are reportedly very popular with the young Israeli population at Vattakanal. These particular pine forests were eerie as most of the cones and needles had dried out and the pine needles - leafs? - coated the forest floor and branches in an eerie shade of grey white. Very ghostly. I wouldnt like to wander here alone! We aslo saw bison herds twice on the road to Mannavanur, and several brightly ...

... the middle seat in the back row. You know, the back row that has the most cramped seats that do not recline. Now, I am far from a whiner and can tolerate a lot while traveling; more than most, I have come to find. But I knew the roads are winding and bumpy, and this was a nine hour journey, if we were lucky. I sat between two begrudged couples, my shoulders uncomfortably hunkered inward, as my space rivals on either side had already felt entitled to their ground ...

... are right in that the furlough in Germany overall has been to long and we acknowledge that it was not easy what we expected from them shifting home so many times, living out of a suitcase, having left the known surroundings, friends, and even as trivial things as books and toys behind at Kodi. But now they are happy and rediscovering all their spaces and places, cherishing their very own toys plus the few additions from our time in Germany. Even Myra's English is coming back as she ...

... pigs and dear, not to mention a hornbill. Well worth getting up early. Leaving Kumily we got on a bus driven by Micheal Shumacker down through the mountain roads, flanked by tea plantations to Kottayam and then by train to Trivandrum, then all eight of us squeezed into an Abassador (Know in NZ as a 1963 Morris Oxford, but still produced new in this country). We headed 30 minutes south. To Kovalam. Back to the west coast, back to the beach, back to the monsoon.....

... wäss**n vorüb**gehend einstellen. Dafür ist d** Strom mal wied** Mangelware und nicht imm** zu haben. Myra hat sich bei mir angesteckt und kämpft mit dick** Erkältung und Fieb**. Die letzte Nacht war dementsprechend unruhig. Auch uns** Tagesplan scheint nicht mehr ganz ideal zu sein und so w**de ich wohl bald wied** umstellen müssen um den Bedürfnissen d** kleinen Maus g**echt zu w**den. Alles and**e an Arbeit muss dann irgendwie auch wied** angepasst und ...

... A. anging, ist diese doch nicht ganz mit Deutschland v**gleichbar. Die zweite Woche hatte Lars ein paar Tage Zeit für uns, was ich sehr genossen habe. Die restliche Wochenbettzeit war manchmal etwas schwi**ig, denn Nachsorge und Hebammen gibt es hi** in Indien halt nicht. Schön war die grosse Anteilnahme von Familie, Freunden und Bekannten. In dies** Situation hat sich mal wied** die gute Gemeinschaft an d** Kodaikanal Int**national School gezeigt, und auch die zahlreichen P ...

... w**den gegen bare Münze in unzähligen kleinen und größ**en Antiquitätengeschäften gehandelt. Eine and**e Reise hat uns üb**s v**läng**te Wochenende nach Pondich**ry und Tranquebar geführt; beides ehemalige Kolonialstädte am Golf von Bengal; Pondich**ry einst französisch und Tranquebar dänisch. Heute ist Pondich**ry imm** noch ein beeindruckendes kleines Städtchen, das seine ungebrochene Attraktivität zum einen d** französische Lebensart v**dankt, die sich in den kleinen und ...