Dec 5, 2011 - Coimbature

Time is moving on and we have a train to catch. A brief visit to the foot of the Fort Mount and a quick snack before going to the station. Our local agent reappears, disappears and returns with our seat numbers. The carriage is 6 seats across, recliners, and we collapse into our allocated ones. The journey is long and largely a mystery. Windows so dark, no public announcements you could be anywhere. Fortunately I had ascertained our destination was a terminus, so just sit and wait and wait and.... Around us a sort of village life erupted,...

Dec 5, 2011 - Trichy

A nice late breakfast ensued after nice showers using solar heated water. Signing out was a joy, my debit card returned to life and small victory, they didn't charge us for useless wifi. We head of to Tiruchirappalli or Trichy as it is commonly known. A easy journey until the outskirts of Trichy where we encounter the mother of all traffic jams. A confrontation with a petrol tanker unnerved us all. Our driver giving us our first demonstration of Indian road rage, nothing more than a meaningful glare, slam of door and slow departure in...

Dec 4, 2011 - Chennai

Up early to pack, pay the bill and have breakfast before 8 am train from Chennai Egmore Station. However a rather ineffectual front desk manager manages to block my debit card. Hotel Accord rapidly becomes Hotel Discord as I seriously lose my cool, his incompetence costs me £6 in changing some of our dollars to pay the bill. Perhaps it was the fact he was trying to deal with me, the phone, an errant mosquito and an Indian businessman all at the same time, sure as heck he knows the error of his ways now. We breakfast and leave with driver...

Dec 4, 2011 - Thanjavur

Again an Agent meets us with a driver and due to the lost time we meet with our guide and go straight to the 'Big Temple' Brihadeshwara. Since Agra we have seen a succession of impressive beautiful temples, at almost all we have been told, wait till you get to Thanjavur. Considered by some to be one of the most impressive, built by Rajaraja, king of kings, in 1011. Rajaraja was a mighty king ruling large chunks of South East Asia as well as South India. The huge temple is build on alluvial soil close to the river, not the best foundation...

Dec 3, 2011 - Mamallapuram

Again a fairly early start and a hearty breakfast before we leave at 7.30 am. This time we head to the office of our guide Aquila. From the windows of their conference room we listen and watch as an important lady politician returns to her house next door. The road has ten foot rosettes at each end, adorned with her face, and her gateway has an archway of flowers. Listen, because a drum corps is in full clatter, we record some to play back to our young family drum maestro. After the lady is safely back in the house I walk down to photo the...

Dec 2, 2011 - Chennai

Today we have series of trails covering the whole day, included is breakfast and lunch! We cover our backs with a light breakfast in the hotel, our first paper dosa of the trip. Car at 0745 hrs and off to meet our lady guide Akila at the Hindu Temple at Mylapure. We get a goody bag and a briefing before handing in our shoes to the temple minder of shoes. Apparently he is nervous because he lost a 4000 rupee pair of shoes recently. A quick calculation and I realise mine are worth 5000 rupees! Bare foot we head into the temple. People...

Nov 30, 2011 - Last day of November .......

Cant believe its going to be December tomorrow, I have been here for 2 months, its amazing how the time goes by without you noticing sometimes. I know its getting colder in UK but I am glad you are not suffering at home like last years snow at this time. Its still hot here but not as much because we have had more rain over the weekend and the last few days, this does not help my washing situation. I now have a wee pile built up and might be forced to do some tonight. Tired today because next door is building a house (now completed) and...

Nov 28, 2011 - Weekend

Hello a quieter few days than I have had over the last week which was ok, just chilled out at the weekend and nothing really to report. Read a couple of books, did some washing and went into the market/town and got caught in the rain on Saturday afternoon, really heavy so the man I buy my water from let me shelter until it had calmed down a bit which was good. Its funny how you end up going to the same wee shops and if you don't they really notice and question where you have been lol. My fruit stall man saw me at another fruit stall with...

Nov 24, 2011 - Out to dinner

Forgot to mention in the Sunday bit that I met the priest, Father Steven, and today he rang up and invited me for dinner tonight, he was inviting some other 'foreign' people that are also in chetpet. So off I went for dinner and it turned out he had a German man living with him for pastoral experience and there was also another two German girls from the hospital up the road. Cant remember if I have said already but there is a hospital that was originally set up by two German sisters to treat leprosy and now it is more of a general hospital...

Nov 24, 2011 - Monday/Tuesday

Off to school this morning and the children have mid term tests this week so every morning there is a lot of organizing and getting them all set with there clipboards and test sheets. The tests are every morning this week and school as usual in the afternoon. While they were meant to be sleeping after lunch, but some don't I was sitting with some of the wee bit older children and they come and talk to you, they all say to me 'how are you' and then I say fine and ask how they are (its cute cause they are so precise about saying it in...

Nov 24, 2011 - Sunday

Hello - up early this morning to go to church with Eleceea (one of the teachers) I get the feeling church is there equivalent of going out (not the drinking bit) but the social occasion with all the family, after mass we met up with another 3 people from school and I saw some of the children there too. Nancy (another teacher) then invited me to her house so we went there for some juice and biscuits which was good and it was her brothers birthday so a couple of his friends were there and we had some sweeties. Back to the flat and did some...

Nov 24, 2011 - Road Journey

Masilamani and I went to Chennai today to meet with a man from Macmillan Publishers about some books for the school. Not just today but traveling on the roads in general a little incite, what can I say about the indian roads and drivers, well you know how men don't ask for directions as a rule, indian men and directions is a whole new level, they do ask directions (5 times) but choose to ignore them are do their own thing anyway. And the only difference between single and dual roads is the surface it appears they all do what they want...