Summer Migrations Kodaikanal

We had a great drive up into the mountains. The drive up was curvy and we stopped a few times to look at rubber trees, spice plants, and waterfalls.

The Dew Drops Home stay is quiet and the temp has cooled down into the 80s. There are occasional rains, but nothing sustained. The result is a misty mountain experience. The guest house is located at above 5000 ft elevation. Barb and I ...

... beautiful birds and wild flowers. When we got off the bus, thankful that we our driver had negotiated the hairpin turns and sheer drops, we saw an asphalt path winding its way up the mountain. Visitors are not allowed to stray from that path. We also immediately saw a tahr placidly munching grass alongside the path. It seems that they have become tame and no longer fear man. As we walked the path up to its end (about 30 minutes) we saw lots of ...

... Saturday, 9:45 AM 

After starting off well today I haven't been meditating properly. In the morning session I got attached to thoughts and went into day dreaming.
 
7:45 PM 

In the evening also I did not meditate properly. Eventually I decided to go back to basics. In the previous session I did the breath counting technique. This worked well. I also found that it takes approximately one minute to finish the ten counts. 
 
Today afternoon I ...

... it was in Tamil, so we could legitimately claim not to be able to read it, not that anyone asked! An enjoyable walk was to Dolphins Nose via TV tower, La Salette church, Pambar shola, Pambar falls and Vattakanal. The hillside was in full bloom with the deep purple Melastoma Malabathricum, and remnants of Nilgiri Strobilanthes Kuntiana - Kurinji pooh. Pretty views of pear orchards and deep valleys regaled on our left. The walk from Vattakanal to ...

... Ooty was about 7000 or so feet high, Kodaikanal slightly less. That means that to get to said hillstations, you have to weave, wind, shift gears, slam on brakes for oncoming larger traffic, drive on (and sometimes off) shoulders, flash lights, and of course, honking is compulsory. There are no abided by rules of the road for overtaking (passing) except that generally the larger vehicle has the "right of way" (i.e. bigger vehicles don't stop and expect ...

Hello again everybody Ive been recieving a few posts in my travelpod's guestbook. If any more of you wish to post comments, questions and even suggestions as too how i can improve the entries, please do so. Yesterday on the way home from some shopping we saw a huge number of people crowding together in downtown Kotagiri. Being curious we looked itout and saw that a film was being recorded. The scenes we saw were all ...

We took a train to Dindigul and arrived at the bus station just as a bus was setting off, so we threw our bags on and climbed on board. It was packed as all buses are in India but we managed to get a seat. As we leave another dirty dusty city behind we are looking forward to a cooler climate and fresh mountain air. The bus stops at Kodia Road bus station for 30 minutes and if you are heading for Kodikanal then I wouldn't suggest trying to get on ...

... zu v**danken ist. Trotzdem hat eine Familie d** KIS die im Somm** nach Hause, d.h. Japan fliegen wollten, haben ihren Flug abgesagt. Die indischen Behörden sind mit Sich**heit we***** besorgt. Eine Kollegien von Lars war g**ade in Hong Kong, weil sie dort ab August eine neue Stelle antritt, das Einreisen nach Indien war für sie kein Problem, all**dings hat die KIS sie **st einmal zu ein** Woche Quarantäne zu Hause v**donn**t. Mag sein, dass die Chancen ...

... Dezemb** gewagt, eine Woche an den Strand nach K**ala zu fahren. Es war gut einen "Break" zu haben und etwas Me**esluft zu schnupp**n und abends in einem d** vielen kleinen Strandrestaurants bei K**zenschein aufs Me** zu sehen. All**dings war es auch sehr anstrengend. Das lag we***** an Myra, die sich gut gehalten hat, sond**n mehr an d** un**warteten Hitze und d** doch recht anstrengenden und unkomfortablen Anreise p** Taxi und Nachtzug (nicht zu v**gleichen mit deutschen ...

... die Geschenke ausbreiten, Mitbringsel aus Deutschland. Auch uns** Freund Joachim, ein Deutsch**, d** hi** in Indien seine Doktorarbeit schreibt, ist üb** die Fei**tage bei uns zu Gast. Und so haben wir ein volles Haus und v**bringen die Zeit mit spielen. Uns** Favorit: Siedl** von Catan. Ab** natürlich ist die Weihnachtszeit auch stets eine arbeitsreiche Zeit für einen Pastoren und so gab es bei all** Gemütlichkeit doch auch die ein od** and**e Weihnachtsfei** und den einen od** and**en ...