The Park Hotel - Chennai Chennai (Madras)

... mention that cows are sacred in India. They have it made!!! They just roam around the streets and the cars make their way around them. So we are swerving around cows, people, cars, and the bicycle rickshaws. (little Indian men trying to pull people in a carriage behind their bicycle). We finally make it to the train station and there are rats all over the tracks and birds all overhead. If I wasn’t already dirty enough from walking around India for the entire day in ...

... I had to choose. It was so difficult, the sensible versus the impulsive!!! My head won.<br><br>Hyderabad, along with Bangalore, is the centre of India&#8217;s IT industry with 'Cyderabad&#8217; generating great wealth and materialism. Over the other side of town and the focus of my visit, was the old Muslim quarter, where the powerful Qutb Shahi &amp; Asaf Jahi dynasties ruled with Muslim might. There are centuries-old mosques, Islamic monuments and beautiful ...

... balances precariously oin a rock hill and people love to sit under it in the shade and have the photo taken. People were having picnics with the goats here and also monkeys were running rampant around the park. I'd had enough of the heat and of Mammalapuram. On the way back to the accommodation i found a really good leather sandal maker sitting in a tiny shop working away. I bought a pair of the comfortable shoes from him for 250rupees, a bargain ...

... me, though Barrett enjoyed looking at the ancient swords. By this time, it was pretty crazy hot, and we were walking around. I also didn't get to see much of Kapaleeswarar because by this time, Barrett had fallen asleep on the bus from heat exhaustion (he was running up and down a ramp at Ft.St.George). My biggest complaints about these organized trips is that there's no individual time built in, and ...

... starters, there were wild monkeys wandering around. Like the goats and cows they were eating the garbage that seems to be everywhere. But the temple was simply a fascinating place. It was large, and unlike many places non-Hindus were allowed inside. I couldn't go into the inner sanctum, but at least I could go to the corridors that surrounded it. I saw a tree that believers say is 3,500 years old; it bears different fruit for different Gods and is in a small courtyard off ...

... forgotten how to use my brain, this place is incredibly chilled, it is off season so very quiet, but the locals are very friendly, and there are actually still a number of Rickshaw Runners about, so the party has just moved up the coast 100km. I haven't really been doing an awful lot, strolling around the shops, even the vendors aren't that bothered about making sales due to it being off season, so they are happy just to ...

... t want a repeat of the no money recieved transaction, I pulled most of my money out of the travelex card. The thing that i wanted to avoid the most i was doing. I was carrying a lot of money on my person. I had to be extra careful! There were a couple of days that I gave the money to Ramya's farther to mind. It relieved some of the stress I was feeling. After withdrawing money, Ramya's father called up some places about the ...

... out by......199Rs which is about four euro. ah yes - budget management excellence lives on :-) and thats about it really for now even though ive not told you very much about anything. mallabalapuram is very chilled out and we've upgraded to a nicer room with a HOT SHOWER and 2 individual beds (which is quite a treat!). and stormi (my roomie) and i have decided that we're going to stay on here an extra night and just spend the one night in chennai as by all ...

I have this strange prejudice that Indian railtravel will be hectic, chaotic and incompehensible... But the Deutsche Bahn is already preparing me a little bit for India. Their train system is also complicated, with lots of different price classes, reduction cards, cards that allow you reductions when you travel with a friend. For example, you could buy a train ticket valid for 3 people that is actually cheaper ...

... on SAS in 2004 and stayed with Krishnan on the homestay and was still in touch. His name was Gus, and he ended up staying with us that night and then flying home to Seattle the next day as his study in India was over. We didn't stop at the farm at this point, although we did stop on the way home, so I'll explain that in a little bit. The drive was long, and we stopped at a gas station at one point and they bought us snacks and drinks to have. They also got us these long skinny green ...