The Travancore Heritage Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

... to the lady.<br><br>It seemed that as long as you were with her, she was all that mattered, she was the only person in your life.<br><br>That was soooooooo beautiful. I was moved by the way you seemed to be so fully present with her.<br><br>And when you turned to us, we seemed the only ones that mattered. No reference to the past.<br><br>That was an impressive demonstration of a skill that i would like to have. To be present with people.<br><br>Thank you<br>grateful hug<br>m

... has been frustrating to say the least. The guilty party seems to be a delicious (damn your delicious poisons!) piece of Tandori fish. The little fella has given me crippling stomach pains and (strangely) blinding headaches to boot. Anywhoo, this was bound to happen and hopefully it's the last I'll see of illness for a little while. As I started to feel a little better I decided a spot of pampering could do the trick. And first up on my list was a save ...

... to knock you off your feet if you're not careful but it's beautiful. We ventured into Varkala town today which is a short rickshaw ride away and posted a parcel back home. My new Art sandles may look very funky and everything but they were cutting my feet to shreds and had to go a buy a pair of trusted Crocs! So a parcel, all lovingly stitched at the tailors, is winging it's way home to Richard as I write. So this'll do us then for a few more days.

... a disinterested prognosis of a chest infection I was prescribed a daily injection and a cocktail of tablets. From there another stop-off for blood tests and then after paying for the drugs from the hospital pharmacy, I brought my newly purchased syringes and medication to the injection room. The hospital itself was quite old & crumbling, but seemingly very efficient. The walls of the little injection room were smeared in splashes of multi-coloured liquids which looked ...

... returned to Neyyardam. Suddenly, our driver woke me with his usual "Sir", not that he usually has to wake me of course just that he knows our names but seems incapable of using them. He had woken me to tell me I was wanted and certainly there was a grinning portly form dancing outside my window, probably tying to blag a lift; what a shock - luckily Sanjit had the sense to drive on without being told. Safe home before five and not a beer in sight.

... a moat, filled with crocodiles, that runs along the outer walls of the palace. If you were a hungry Brahmin in those times, you would most likely head for the oottupura, the dining hall. This is a 78 metre long two storied affair with twin halls that could seat upto 2000 subjects, waiting for their banana leaves to get filled up. One look at the huge Chinese jars kept ahead gives you a gastronomic idea as to the ...

And so to Trivandrum. It is bigger, noisier and dirtier than I expected, and it has a lot less beach; in fact, as far as I can tell, it is not even on the coast! For some reason (my presence I suspect) there still appears to be a monsoon here. It seems like it is the same one that rears up every time I decide to actually go anywhere. The buses in Trivandrum, and ...

... starts with a sideways head turn and a smile, but soon you're returning the headbobble with a headbobble, or maybe eventually provoking headbobble reactions yourself. and as the headbobble because part of your normal speech, you start to understand its meaning. you've cracked its code. you've been in india for 3 weeks and all you got was this stupid headbobble. in jaisalmer, we headbobbled our way through an impressive sandstone fort isolated in the ...

... for a **** head like me but no no no... 'Sir, if you want Kingfisher on the beach..you shall have one.. In a tea pot, cup & saucer... ha ha ha... Only in India, we even pretended the tea pot was hot.. oh how we laughed.. Well I thought is was funny.. Later this afternoon, we are off to book the train tickets for Cochin, we plan to stay up there for three days or so.. I'll let ...

... to do and nothing to see, not even a bloody beer! We found Coffee World it was quite a walk, on caffeine I am hooked, But that's not enough to make me stay, lets pack and run like ****. Mamallapuram; its Hampi on Sea, a fishing village not far, Let's catch a bus for the two hour drive; surely we'll come to no harm. We blagged a room right on the sea, with air con, fridge and TV, Cheap it was at half the price, I have to say it was really nice. Here I became a ...