Sp Grand Days Hotel Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

... icarus (medicine songs). Ommm.... We were told we could take part in a mantra initiation ceremony where you could choose the Hindu deity whose attributes you were most attracted to and the swami would give you a mantra and ignite it (make it active, give it power) so you could use it in meditation. They also presented you with a spiritual name. We like all the deities, Lord Shiva, Ganesha, Saraswati, Laksmi, Vishnu...... how could i choose, they'll all so ...

After calling the whole spectrum of hotels that were in the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet, I decided to just take a taxi from the airport to the bus station and look for a hotel. To my great surprise/relief, the first place I stumbled across was the one that I had wanted to stay in -- but the phone wasn't working -- and as a result found myself with a nice room for something like 182 rupee.

... beer, though you might have to set the beer bottle on the floor and keep it off the table, or drink beer out of a tea pot and a huge tea cup like here at Krishnatheeram. 2008.11.25 Varkala I found a wonderful Ladakh/Kashmir place for jewelry. I got 9 gift pendants (well, one might be for me), then returned to the store to show Ed and ended up getting strings of peridot and ruby necklaces and the garnet ring I liked ...

... AC so we were prepared for the worst. It actually was quite pleasant compared to the bus rides even though it took me some time to get used to the prison-like bars on the windows which made me feel pretty claustrophobic..but once I noticed that all doors can be and will be opened randomly during transit I felt fine (hence the people hanging off the trains image you might have seen). Anyway, our private 2-bed berth was pretty ...

... Well, the poor chap had just come back from a particularly traumatic trip to Europe. We can't understand how he could afford it, why he made it and even less, why he made it in the winter. Paying six Euro for a coffee and a bit of cake which would normally cost him ten cents had shocked him, below zero temperatures chilled him to the bone and shopping for food damaged his wallet severely. All I want to ...

... were lovely, friendly, appreciative of my part. They also were quite complimentary! Our rehearsal session went fine, then we got on set and I thought I could zip through it all in one go.. but the director suggesting cutting the filming in three parts. I found it confusing that they had us go out of order in the scenes. Separates the professional actor from the rest of us I guess! They can churn up emotions and turn things on and off.. someone like ...

... Keralan food and relaxation in perfect surroundings. We had a couple of visits to Kovalam and Lighthouse Beach, where we had spent some time 12 years ago, now sadly changed with the introduction of the package holiday! We still found a few` old haunts and the bit of beach we had swum in was very much the same with local Indians walking with ...

... town of Kumily. Being the first two on the bus we took the front seat (to try to minimize motion sickness - H) and quickly found that it was a good choice. The bus filled up from the back door (the front door was nailed shut) at every stop, of which there were about 40 of along the way. It was packed by the time we reached Kumily and as such we were obligated to share our "3 seater" - which was really only a "2 seater", with many locals that came on an off the bus. It was ...

3/10/06 It was hard to travel the 82 km to get here - would you believe it took 3 buses! 1st was 2 hours, followed by 1.15 hours and then a 10 minute journey all that followed by a rikshaw ride. The rikshaw guy was good though and after i walked away from his original offer of 85 for the ride he dropped it down imediatly to 25 and guided me to the door. Its a nice place but i ...

As I was watching King Kong king-hit a T-Rex and tear apart the Civic Theatre last night, and this morning, watching Shane Bond do something similar to the West Indian middle order, I had a few wistful thoughts of home, and so, before I go any further, I just want to say hi to all of you in NZ - hope everyone is well, and know I that miss you guys. Well, right now, I'm in Varkala, in Kerala, and yep, I'm back on the beach (my tan is fantastic now!). This is my penultimate stop ...