{Please pardon the revisionist history - editing old posts to include photos - I thought it made for easier reading}

Despite the weather, I've got a good shot of the lake here at Kodaikannal. At 30°F cooler than anywhere I've been in the last six weeks, this could be my favorite place in India. Maybe in all of Asia. It just seems so much more managable when I'm not concerned about heat stroke or getting hit by an autorickshaw (not that there aren't motorbikes and Land Rovers and cows weaving around the roads - there's just no autorickshaws).

My plan is seven cities in the next month [Madurai, Kanyakumari, Trivandrum, Varkala (not really a city stop, I'm visiting for the beach), Kochi, Bangalore, Hampi] then a nice leisurely week or so in Goa. I think I have a mild concussion from the six hour bus trip from Trichy so I'm looking forward to doing much of this trip by train. (The buses aren't as bad as you'd think by looking at them, just... bouncy. And you get really dirty sitting by the window). It's a bit rushed but this schedule gets me to Delhi by the start of April should I wish to move my flights up or hide from the growing heat in the North or Northeast. I'm really trying to like India and I think moving around helps. Finding something to eat besides curry and biryani would help too - I'm such a chicken when it comes to food.

Maybe I'll give up autorickshaws for Lent... or beef - that would be way easier.

Well... today I'm in Thanjavur (Thanjore). Lonely Planet describes this city as easy going which makes me seriously concerned about cities described as hectic or chaotic. But if you've got the chance to see a world heritage listed temple (Brihadishwara Temple, or "The Big Temple" as it is locally known) I feel you ought to do it. To the left is my best picture of the day - doesn't really show you the grounds or much of the temple itself but it does give a sense of the place.

Mamallapuram was an improvement on Chennai in that, because of the large tourist population and much smaller size, it was easier to find safe looking restuarants and to navigate by foot. Of course, with tourists comes souvenir shops and hawkers and beggars. It's not a place where you forget you are in India. Especially if you try to sit at the beach. Nothing really prepares you for that much unwanted attention, at least nothing I've ever been through. But you can have a few good minutes here and there - especially if you sit below the overhang of the beach where you're harder to spot.

In the French quarter of Pondy, the 'rues' are cleaner and wider than typical and many of the buildings are in good repair and prettily painted. From the veranda of my hotel (on Bharathi Park), you could almost think you are in New Orleans - then the traffic would flare up in all its honking and revving glory putting you right back on the sub-continent. I probably would have grown to like the place (it had street signs!) but I couldn't find a good place to stay so I moved on...

...to Chidambarum. The attraction here is the Nataraja temple, erected around 1300. This is where a good photo would really help - I just can't describe this type of structure, there's nothing else like it. It's the sort of building people write books about. The city surrounds the temple, which is an active place of worship, giving every would-be guide the opportunity to say that faith is central to life in the city. And my hotel was nice - the first place I've stayed where the water and electricity routinely worked. It was even clean(-ish).

Five jiggly hours later I arrived by bus in Thanjore. Tomorrow I leave for Trichy then I head for the hills. I may still leave early but I am at least planning to stay through March. Hope you are getting on well back home - stay safe.

Left is the view from my room - it's especially pretty right around sunset when the sun falls behind the buildings and the sky goes pink-orange. So India isn't all bad. I've largely given up on walking anywhere as the poverty and traffic are terrifying and my map is lousy. But I've found a few restaurants I can tolerate and am pretty quick at setting up my mozzy net at night (my room lacks window screens).

Saturday I visited the Government Museum despite the inflated foreigner rate. If you convert to dollars it's on par with most US museums - though we do usually have air con. The buildings themselves are quite beautiful and (like most of the collection) have a strong left over from the British era feel. Mostly it was nice to spend a day walking around somewhere quiet and safe. No matter how many times I refuse, people around the GH keep offering me drugs and Rs 30 tours of the city.

Tomorrow I attempt to make my way south toward Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram for those of you with last year's map of the world). I say "attempt" because I need to find the bus station, find the correct bus and find a place to stay once I'm there. I guess the worst case scenario is continuing on to Puducherry (Pondicherry - or Pondy) straight off - but I would hate to miss communing with my fellow backpackers. Besides, four hours in a bus can take a lot out of a person - especially if it's standing room only. I'll let you know if I chicken out and stay in Chennai another week.

Happy Birthday Andrea!!!!!

Welcome to India

So a mere three hour flight and I am in Chennai, the fourth largest city in India (at the time my guide book was written). Having only been on the ground a few hours (long enough to find a place to stay - Paradise GH, and have dinner), I can't say I've formed much of an opinion on the place yet. Quite a bit dirtier than Bangkok but people seem to mind the lanes on the highway, though when you get to an intersection... well... the Lord hates a coward. I'm sure there are rules, they just don't seem to have anything to do with the traffic lights. Lots of the signs are in English, Hindi and what I think is Tamil (b/c Chennai is in the state Tamil Nadu, not because I have any knowledge of the language). I'll post some photos soon - just wanted to let everyone know I'm back on solid earth.

One Night in Bangkok...

... Okay, it will be more like five nights in Bangkok. But one would be enough. Actually, I'm not hating it here as much as I did the first time. The traveller's ghetto of about Khao San Road is everything you would expect from a traveller's ghetto (hippie clothes, people wondering around with giant backpacks, bars the serve beer at eight AM) but it's pretty quiet after midnight and there's good (if pricey) food to be had. I'm hoping Bangkok will ease the transition to Chennai but I really doubt it. I just keep telling myself I can bail out to Australia or move up my flight to Israel if the subcontinent gets to be too much. The first world is a swipe of my Visa card away.

This video (if it works) is a sweep of Suan Luang where I spent the bulk of the last week doing ...nothing. It's more of a sitting and watching the ocean place than a go see the sights place or a scuba- and sky-diving place. I miss my bungalow.

I realize this isn't the best picture, so I'll explain. Tonight, after three buses and a dash across six lanes of Thai express way, I am in Hua Hin (with every other tourist on the planet - this is Thailand's Cancun). The picture to the left is the view from my dinner table. I looked at the German places, and the Swiss places, and tons of Italian places (it's way to hot for pizza) and, in the end, decided on squid curry on a jetty over the Gulf of Thailand. And a Chang beer about the size of my lower leg. I dedicate this meal (which cost more than my room, not that that is saying much) to my dad - for his love of seafood, spicy food, and restaurants without menus in English.

To recap, I did not in fact make it to Sangkhlaburi to buy textiles from refugees and orphans. I feel bad about it, but I couldn't find a place to stay so I walked through Hellfire Pass and spent the night in a rafthouse. Hopefully, there's a Women for Weaving outlet in Bangkok. Saturday (back in Kanchanaburi) I visited the JEATH museum (Japan, Australia & America, England, Thailand, and Holland). If you ever find yourself in Kanchanaburi, I recommend seeing all three major museums (JEATH, Thai-Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass - I skipped the one by the bridge itself so I can't say either way). While they cover the same material, they do so in very different ways. JEATH, housed in a model POW bamboo hut, is like a cross next to the highway - a (mostly) spontaneous memorial to the horror that occurred here. The stated purpose of the museum is to remind people of how terrible war is so that we stop doing it. The focus is on the torture and disease suffered by the soldiers (and the hired Asian laborers, lacking doctors and military training they died in droves - the rough estimate is 90,000). The late, great Sir E.E. "Weary" Dunlop also features heavily (and deservedly), having saved innumerable lives as a camp doctor and for harboring no ill-will toward the Japanese after the war. If he's not in line for sainthood, he should be. Both TBRM and Hellfire Pass (right) are far more technologically "slick" but nothing really prepares you for walking down to the pass and realizing sick men on starvation rations cut through this solid rock by hand. The area itself is just beautiful - apparently even more so during the building of the railway before all the teak was removed. Not exactly the most cheerful few days, but am I grateful I had the opportunity to come here and see this place for myself. Even with the tour buses and the trinket stalls, it was startling and raw.

Hope you all are enjoying the new year. The remains of Buddhas (right) reside at Wat Ratcha Burana in Ayutthaya. The walls surrounding the main prang of both this and Wat Maha That are lined with (mostly headless) statues. Between the Burmese and treasure hunters there's not much left of old Ayutthaya but it was definitely worth the three foot jump off the train (they're platform is ...short).

I have just arrived in Kanchanaburi via minibus (thus skipping Bangkok!). After stumbling into a decent looking guesthouse, I walked over to the Thai-Burma Railway museum which presents a surprisingly steady take on the building of the railway. (Much of their material came from Japanese and Dutch sources, neither of whom seem distraught over the POW slave-labor "thing.") Friday I catch the Death railway to Nam Tok followed by a bus to the Hellfire Pass and (hopefully) another bus to Sangkhlaburi. Let no one say I don't know how to ring in the New Year.