The Trident, Chennai Chennai (Madras)

... People come to Varanasi to be cremated and have their ashes put in the river. It was so intense. Every day they have ceremonies and you can watch as they take the body and put it in the river. They then put the body on a pile of sticks to cremate it. They then sweep the ashes into the river. It was VERY hard to watch. <br><br>I had so much fun spending time with Lindsay, Brit, and Jon. I got to hear about all the adventures they have been on and they wanted to hear ...

... also known as the Sri Venkateshwara Temple: a recent 1976 construction made of white marble from Rajasthan. Sitting on top of Kalabahad (Black Mountain), it&#8217;s 1 of 2 rocky hills in the area and overlooks the huge Hussain Sagar lake. Dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara the temple is set in pretty surrounds and has lovely carved scenes in marble. I then moved on to the stunning Salar Jung museum. Salar Jung III never married, but devoted his life to the arts ...

... gate, and it was really lovely. It was grass on the ground, and hundreds of chairs set up facing the stage. There were little tables around the outside of the lawn. One one was women doing Mehendi (Henna designs on the hands), one table for bottles of sodas with the bendy straws (bendy straws always make me happy, and I'd forgotten how much fun a bottle of orange fanta could be). ;0) There were ...

... saint then said he would bless me. I felt truly touched. Really. I'm not a follower of the religion and everywhere except the Golden Temple refused foreigners to come in. I personally think that's a bad way to propagate your religion. But here this great man wanted to give me his blessing. I was speechless. So was my friend, which was somewhat amusing because he was so nervous in answering the saint's questions. Blessing (and candy) in hand I thanked him, bowed in respect ...

I think that this blog will end up disappointing a few people, and for that I apologize. During my time in India I was always thinking in the back of my mind about what I would write once I got back on the ship. I do that in every port. But India is in a league all it's own and I'm now ok with saying that there's no possible way for me to describe what I saw ...

... fine I guess. I hadn't met him til the airport the day before. As we were eating lunch in this tiny restaurant outside the taj mahal, Eric started to have a seizure. Chairs were flying and we were all trying to grab him and get his head. There were two other foreigners in the place, Europeans I think, and they came over to help as well. It was so weird to have an emergency like this happen while in another country. When we first realized he ...

... Institutes of Technology) here in India, which are the top-ranked technical schools. The British (East India Company) landed here in the 1600s, spent a few hundred years building their empire and fortifying Fort Saint George (site of the largest British barracks in the world, we were told), and dying off at an early age - for the most part. Cornwallis was given a second chance here after his defeat at Yorktown, and came (or was sent) to make ...

... in Chennai. very nice food (for airtravel standards) and we watch Ice Age 2 and Firewall on the video. We flew over Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally India. The other advantage of flying business class is that we leave the plane quickly and the customs formalities and immigration check are performed very efficiently. We only have to wait ...

... one of five brothers. Again we didn't go inside because of the heightened charge for foreigners. Then we went to a large rock, which is balancing on a hillside (of rock) and has been there for years. By the time we got there it was down pouring, but most of us went outside anyway and got all wet, but got a picture trying to push the rock over (unsuccessfully of course). After the rock we went to lunch, which like most of the food in India was amazing. We got a large metal plate (as ...

... boven worden we overrompeld door verkopers van potjes en beeldjes van sandel- en rooswood. Dirk laat zich volledig gaan en Nicole doet de koop van de dag: 10 potjes voor 5 roepies, de rest 10 roepies voor 5 potjes! In de buurt van de tempel is het speeltijd op het schooltje, de kleutertjes zorgen voor de nodige vertederende foto'. Ook de picknickende vrouwen die verbroederen met de koeien en de apen ...