Bodhgaya (Bihar)- February 24th, 2007

Last night I spent most of the time going to the bathroom. Something I ate didn't sit well with me, so after I moved to a smaller and more comfortable place, I have been resting up and reading.
I seem to be fine this afternoon. They have been playing a lot of music in the neighborhood in celebration of a wedding. Indians love to celebrate weddings with very loud music.
The children in the street are trained to really bug tourists. They all use the same lines, and when they see you coming, several run towards you to get something. It looks like a broken record by now.

Boghgaya (Bihar) - February 23rd, 2007

The state of Bihar borders with the Himalaya in Nepal and eastern Ganges, and it's very much involved with the life of Buddha, who spent most of his life here.
This city has the most sacred of all Buddhist sites, the Mahabodhi temple. Prince Sidhartha Gautama attained enlighment and became the Buddha over 2500 years ago.
This is a small town with lots of temples Buddhist from many countries. I stayed at the Bhutan Monastery with beautiful gardens and temple. The room was fine but the bathroom sharing situation wasn't, so in the morning I moved to another place.
While visiting the Mahaboddhi Temple I met a monk from Burma who graduated in Buddhism here. He was very kind to show me the whole place and explain about the seven weeks of Enlightment the Buddha went through. I will meet him again in Varanassi in a week. I bought a book about the Essence of Dhamma" and have ben reading about the history of Buddha.
I also visited a Great Buddha Statue, over 80 meters high, unveiled by the Dalai Mama in 1989, and donated by Japan. Quite impressive!

Kolkata (West Bengal) - February 22nd, 2007

There are a lot of people from Spain here in Kolkata volunteering for Mather Theresa projects. Several are staying in this hostal, and they have been coming for years, staying months doing service. Quite admirable! Also there are a lot of Koreans in town.
I went to get a train ticket to travel tonight to Bodhgaya to do the Buddhist Circuit. It's a pilgrim's trail that follows in the footsteps of Lord Buddha.

Kolkata (West Bengal) - February 21st, 2007

The Howrah Bridge is an amazing engineering work, similar in size to Sydney Harbour Bridge. About 100,000 cars cross it daily, so it's probably the busiest in the world. It's about 450 meters over the Hooghly River.
The Edens Gardens are by a lake with an interesting Burmese pagoda from Myanmar. Next to this park is the Calcutta Cricket ground. There is always people playing that game dressed in white. On Sunday morning it's full.
The Marble Palace is a marvellous mansion, and was built by Raj Bahadur. He collected all sorts of Victorian art pieces so the palace is very enjoyable but crowded with so many statues. I had to go and get a special permit to visit this place.

Kolkata (West Bengal) - February 20th, 2007

I visited the BBD Bagh by the Old Court House. This place was the main administrative center for the British in India. Also went to see the Nehru Children's Museum. Three floors of display cases of world dolls plus displays very colorful telling the story of the Indu epics, the Ramayana and the Mabhabarata.
In the afternoon I was supposed to go to the volunteer job but I felt exhausted before getting there. The high level of pollution in the streets and traffic noises besides the poverty and beggers constantly approaching me in the way to Mother Theresa's place, was suddently too much to handle, so I decided to cancel it.
My roommates have been volunteering and told me some of the stories so it's pretty depressing and takes a lot of gutsy stomac to do this labor of love.
Later in the evening I went to a cultural center that happened to be showing that evening "Lorca", the film about the time of Civil War in Spain while the poet Lorca was encarcerated and killed. I was shocked to see how many people they killed without a valid reason.
I believe I was the only foreigner wtching that film amongst one hundred Indians. It's the 6th year they are offering the International Communication event thru films. While I was enquiring about, the cameraman was filming my conversation. It was important for them so see a little interest from the international side.

Kolkata (West Bengal) - February 19th, 2007

Last night I met Christopher, a guy from France, so we decided to spend the day doing sightseeing. He has been in Kolkata already about 10 times, so was glad to be my guide.
We took the metro which surprised me at being so clean. No one throws anything on the floor or they will be penalized (only in the Metro!), and went to visit the Kali Temple in Kalighat from which the name of Kolkata comes from.
Inside, there is a pavilion where goats are ritually killed to honor the goddess Kali (Shiva's first wife). Every day they do these secrifices and later prepare meals with the goat meat for the homeless and poor. We visited the Maidan, a very big park about 3 kms., with statues, gardens and fountains, great place to scape from the city smog. At the south end of this part is the Victoria Memorial, a classic Victoriana building in white marble, with many statues of personalities in the history of Briths India.
One interesting factor is: during the Rag days the average Kolkata family had 110 servants. Nearby is the beautiful St. John's Church.
Then, we went to visit the tomb of Mother Theresa. She was the living image of human sacrifice, borned in Serbia, was sent to India as a nun on 1939. Her coffin lies in the Motherhouse, 20 minutes walk from the hostal. The inscription in her marble tomstone reads: "love one another as I have loved you".
I stayed for a volunteer meeting, and about 15 people were there to sign up for different helping jobs. I signed up to helpo hanicappted children in the afternoon.

Kolkata (West Bengal) - February 18th, 2007

Kolkata is just west of Bangladesh, in West Bengal. South of Kolkata is Sunderbans, in the massive Ganges delta, the largest mangrove forest and highest concentration of tigers.
The British established a trading post in Kolkata in 1698.
The image many people has of Kolkata is of human suffering. But, even though there is a lot of poverty here, the modern city is not at all what we picture.
There are lots of colonial architecture and historic temples, art centers, and museums, botanical gardens and air conditioned malls.
Locally, Kolkata is considered the intellectual and cultural capital of the nation. Since Independence, the communist party is strong here, and often they have strikes for new policies from Delhi's government.
On the last few centuries the British created a miniature version of London on the banks of the river. The Indians who served the Rag lived in cramped and overcrowded shantitowns, miles along the banks of the river.
Sudder Street is where most budget accomodations are, and also many professional beggers because the tourists concentrate here. Some beggers set camp on the side walks, doing cooking, schooling, and bathroom, all in the sidewalk, few meters from the important Indian Museum.
My roommates are a lady from Madrid, one from New York and one from Switzland.

Konark, Bhubaneswar (Orissa) - February17th, 2007

I decided to travel tonight in train to Kolkata, so I spent all day in a tour to various places. In the way to Konark, we stopped by Chandrabhaga Beach, much cleaner and quieter than Puri.
Konark has the majestic Sun Temple, an India signature building like the Taj Mahal.
Very beautiful area containing the various temples. The Sun Temple was built to celebrate the military victory over the muslims.
There ia s fortress like wall built around the whole complex but it's possible to walk all around the flat top of this wall and admire the full Sun Temple area.
The emple looks like a cosmic chariot of the son god, Surya. The seven horses represent the seven days of the week, and the 24 stone car wheels around represent the 24 hours of the day.
Many of the wall carvings are erotic style. They sell booklets of many of these Kamasutra images on the premises.
Bhubaneswar is the capital of Orissa. We visited several temples. Mukteswar Mandir is one of the most decovative ones with a mixture of Buddist, Jain and Hindu styles.
Afterwards, we visited the Khandagivi Caves, two hills with cut rock shelters for Jain ascetics in 1st centiry BC.
There are lots of monkeys in this area and they like to be fed peanuts and bananas by people.
One of the rocks is carved as: a tiger mouth, the serpent cave, carvings of elephants, Queen's palace cave. This is the largest one.
Last, visited the Nandankaman Zoo with many white tigers, Asiatic lions, rhynos, crocodriles, etc.

Puri (Orissa) - February 16th, 2007

I got a tour day to visit Chilica Lake, Asia's largest blackish lagoon. In the moonsoon season becomes almost twice as large. This shallow lake is separated from the Bay of Bengal by a 60 km. long sand bar.
There are a lot of migratory birds here from as far as Siberia and Iran. Unfortunately, the private fishermen do a lot of commercial prawn farming, and the nets they use threat this important wetland, even big turtles. I saw three death turtles on the beach.
Part of the problem is they run a lot of boat tours on weekends to see the dolphins. Few years ago a cyclon brought into the lake dolphins that were swimming nearby. At first, the fishermen were killing the dolphins because they didn't know they are mammals and do not attach people. Then, the government found out and decided to make a good business out of it.
I saw a few dolphins, actually only their nose and tail, since this lake is pretty shallow. The unfortunate dolphins do not have enough depth to flip on the water as they would naturally like to do when they play and exercise or show off to nearbyers.

Puri (Orissa) - February 15th, 2007

Today I visited Ragharajpur, an artist's village about 15 kms. north from here. Many of the houses are adorned with murals and paintings, and all the artists are selling their goods infront of their little homes all line up next to each others.
This place is well known for the type of work called pattachitra. They use a cotton loth coated with a mixture of gum and chalk and then polished. They mark on animals, flowers, gods and demons, and brighten them up with various colors.
I walked by the seashore but, again, the waves were very high, and a good part of the beach is being used as a bathroom by the fishermen and poor people in that vecinity, so this is the finale as far as beaches on the northeast side of Bengal Bay and of India a well.

Puri (Orissa) - February 14th, 2007

Many people make a stop in Puri, the tourists for the ocean and the Hindus to visit the Jagannath Mandir temple, since non-HIndus are not allowed to visit it.
In the 1970's many hippies were here in their way to South East Asia, but now is just to relax for a few days.
I met Tony, an Indian fisherman at the train station so we had diner this evening. He insisted that I have to visit his town 2 hours south by the sea, a lot more peaceful and better beaches.

Hyderabad (Andra Pradesh) - February 13th, 2007

I left my backpack at the train station this morning because I am travelling tonight to Puri, a beach town in the state of Orissa. So I spent the day visiting the Golconda Fort. A very impressive one built on a grnite hill 120 meters high. The vies of Hyderabad from the top were excellent.
The tombs of Qutb Shahi Kings are very graceful domes on nice gardens about 1 and a half kilometers from the fort. Both places very interesting and took a lot of walk.
I got a ride back to town in time to catch my train.

Hyderabad (Andra Pradesh) - February 12th, 2007

I got a late start today and went to visit the museum, the state and the health one. One important fact in this last one was the statistics that every 1 second and a half a child is born in India.
I made the comment about the overpopulation and not sufficient awareness in family planning, and they asked me to enter my comments in their guest book.
The Birla Mandir temple is a beautiful building on top of a rock hill, made of Rajasthani white marble, and from above the views of the city are great as well as the big lake Hussain Sagar.
I was in my way to visit this big lake but I got stuck in the internet cafe too long uploading the photos, and it was dark when I left the building.

Hyderabad (Andrah Pradesh) - February 11th, 2007

This state of Andhra Pradesh is 95% Hindu, but here in the capital there is a big majority of Islam population and lots of beautiful mosques. This city was once the seat of the Vijayanagar empire. Today, the west side of this state together with Bangalore, are the seat of software empire in India.
Today I visited the old town with lots of muslim people and bazars. The Charminar is the main landmark. These four towers were built in 1591 to commemorate the end of a devastating epidemic.
The Mecca Masjid is next to the Charminar. One of the world's largest mosques, to fit 10,00 people inside. They used some bricks made with soil from Mecca, from this derives its name.

Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh) _ February 10th, 2007

I was doing yoga until 2 or 3 in the morning because I was charged with energy and couldn't sleep.
During breakfast I met Nel, a very nice lady from Holland and we had a very long exchange while we visited the rocky mountains in the premises of the Ashram.
Later, we went to the temple and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to be selected together with a small group of people and stay inside the small temple with Sai Baba while students were singing spiritual songs. I left to the bus station in the evening with a great sense of accomplishment.

Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh) - February 9th, 2007

I am planning to stay here only two nights, to be able to see Sai Baba and experience that for myself. Many times a year this city attrack more than 50,000 people because of Sai Baba. He is supposed to be the main gury in India. In November 2000 he celebrated his 75 birthday and over a mollion people showed up.
Today I visited the main temple and saw him being driven inside the stage thru ramps and then being assisted into his wheelchair. He is a very small and fragile looking man at 82 years old, still wearing a big afro hair and orange tunic. He just went inside the small meditation temple and half hour later they drove him away.
It was actually hard to see him with thousands of people sitting on the floor of the huge main temple. I was hoping to hear a speech, but I realized that most people just want to see him and feel his presence.

Puttaparti (Andhra Pradesh) - February 8th, 2007

This is where the Ashram of Sri Sathya Sai Baba is located. Called Prasanthi Nilayam which means "Abode of Highest Peace). It is almost bigger than the city of Puttaparthi itself. It was mentioned by same travellers so I decided to go and check it out.
Most people stay at the Ashram, it's the cheapest place to stay so far, something like .50 cent or 25 rupies per day. The whole place is very pleasant, various accomodations buildings, overseas visitors and indians are in different locations and also they have very different type of accomodation. I stayed with seven other ladies from Europe, very pleasant. They all come to stay here for long periods of time.

Bangalore (So. Karnataka) - February 7th, 2007

I went to visit the fort and Tipu Sultan Palace near the City Market. From there, I went to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, which is a 96 hectare park with a lot of red flowers and century old trees. There is a glasshouse like the London's Crystal Palace., and a watchtower on top of a rock with a very wide base and the surface looks like washed out rock formations. Probably some water falling activity from the lake or underground long time ago.
The Cubbon Park is like Central Park in New York, 120 hectares, but the traffic runs thru it. Visited there the government museum, the aquarium and the Art Gallery. In the way out, the Vidhana Soudha, which is a colossal building of Dravidian style. It was built by convicts in 1954 and the Secretariat and State Legistature is there now.
I went by the Bangalore Palace which looks like the Windsor Castle, with granite turrets, towers and all. The Wodeyar rajas of Mysore live there and the guards wear red caps like in England.

Bangalore (So. Karnataka) - February 6th, 2007

The train ride for about 5 hours inland from Chennai was totally packed. This is the first time I didn't have a reservation, and I was sorry I didn't. Another lesson for the next train ride.
I came here because this city is in the way to the Sai Baba Ashram town, and I want to go and visit it. Also, because Bangalore is the high-tec big city in India, considered one of the countries most progressive city.
There is a nice anecdote about how the city got its name. An old woman served a ddish of boiled beans to a lost Hoysala king. He named the placed later "town of boiled beans".
In the afternoon, I went to a big market in Shivangy Nagar and when I got out of the bus, there was a huge and beautiful Cathedral of Our Lady of Good Health, so I went in to pay a visit.
The only person in this Youth Hostal is an Indian lady, but she is a little extrange. She tells me I have to put chains on my luggage. It reminded me of Gary and his chainned luggage in Bangkok.

Chennai (Tamil Nadur) - February 5th, 2007

This morning I went to breakfast with two of the ladies, and aftewards we all had different agendas for the day. I went to buy the train ticket to Bangalore so I go in the morning because there is a wedding celebration here and the hostal is reserved for party people, so we have to vacate the room.
I went to visit the Vivekananda Museum, which used to be the Ice House when at first the ships used to bring big blocks of ice from North America and store it in this oval-shapped building. The museum there has a lot of displays and photographs of the 'wondering monk'. This swammigi stayed here in 1897 at the time he returned from Chicago, New York and Pasadena, Calif., and preached to respect and accept all religions.
After that, I walked to the seashore of Marina Beach. The sand was unbearably hot, just to have to walk from the boulevard to the water. They have some nice and very modern monuments and memorials along the Marina Beach blvd, which is a 13-kilometer sandy stretch. This beach was the scene of devastation after the 2004 tsunami; most of the fishing shanties along the area were inundated.

Chennai (Tamil Nadur) - February 4th, 2007

This city was renamed in 1997. The old name used to be Maras, and in the Moonsoon season the streets get washd away. It's a very highly polluted town.
At the hostel where I stayed there were 3 other ladies sharing the room, Bernardette from France, Shahira from canada and Annalies from Holland. All very pleasant and interesting.
I ended up in St. Thomas Cathedral, south of Marina Beach and visited the tumb and relics of the saint. Also visited the Music Academy and Luz Church with a very nice neighbourhood.
When I took the local bus this morning from the Central Bus Station to the Hotel location, it was rush hour and some gypsy ladies pushed me inside the bus, and I banged my arm on the iron bars, and in the middle of all that commotion, they managed to steal my wallet. I am glad I didn't hav the credit cards or passport inside it. It's the first time they steel from me in India, so it was upsetting and a lesson to be more careful.

Mamallapuran (Tamil Nadur) - February 3rd, 2007

I spent all morning exploring the temples, mandapams and rock carvings around Mamallapuram. Another famous one is "Five Rathas", rok ut temples that looks like chariots. Only 1/3 km. from the sea, they were hidden in the sand until the British excavate them 200 years ago.
There is also a relief carving on the face of a huge rock with images of animals, deities and others. It measures 30 mts. by 12 mts. Krishna's Butter Ball is a huge boulder balaned on a narrow base. The light house is amongst all these temples and boulders. Photography is forbiden from here for seurity reasons (there is a nuclear power station a few kilometers south). In the afternoon I took a long walk to Ideal Beach, 4 kms. north of town, and walked down the coast shore passing thru several beaches, ending up on Sea Shore Temple beach where the fishermen were getting their nets ready for sea.
There was only one person swimming during all that time, and he was pretty far away from the shore. I was concerned about him sine they said that there are undercurrent waters in those beaches of the Bay of Bengal.

Mamallapuran (Tamil Nadur) - February 2nd, 2007

This place is about 2 hours north of Pondicherry, also on the Bay of Bengal. It's a oastal village with lots of ancient rock carvings. In the way there, the bus broke down, but luckily another one was able to rescue us and take us there.
In this little town, half of the people are tourists. I went by the beach to see the Shore Temple on the sunset light, which stands along and magestic, facing the Bay of Bengal. This one represents the final phase of the Palava art. This town is renowned center for stone carving. You will see and hear the hammer and hisel as the artisans chip away their scultures.

Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu) - February 2nd, 2007

This place is about 2 hours north from Pondicherry, also on the Bay of Bengal. It's a coastal village with lots of ancient rock carvings.
In the way there, the bus broke down, but luckily another one was able to rescue us and take us there.

Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu) - February 1st, 2007

It's already February! Time flyes -- two more months in India left.
This morning I went to visit the Botanical Gardens in the south west part of the city.
It seems like they should employ several people there to clean up the place. It 's almost felt like it was abandoned for some time.
I took the heritage walk near the seafront promenade. Definitely, a lot cleaner than the rest of the city.
Notre Dame de Anges, 2 blocks from the sea, had a warm and very peaceful feeling.

Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 31st, 2007

The International Vision by the Mother, says:
"There should be somewhere upon Earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspication, could live freely as citizens of the world..."
I visited the Aurobindo Ashram founded in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo and a French woman known as The Mother. At the main building entrance there is a tomb with both of them covered by beatuful flowers and people come to meditate.
Then, I took a ride to Auro Beach, to the northern beach where a few westerners were enjoying the sun and waves. This ocean is very ruff though, too many waves, so it's impossible to swim. There seems to be a lot of poverty in the communities near the beach areas, and the fishing villages.
The meals at the Ashram are very healthy, but after 2 days, everything repeats itself pretty much, so it's time for a little change outside.

Pondicherry - Auroville (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 30th, 2007

Today I took a tour and visited Auroville. I read a lot about this international vision place, so I was really looking forward to see what is all about, and thought the easiest way was to join the tour. After this visit, my views of this international community changed drastically.
It's about 15 kms. north of Pondicherry, and it was founded by "the Mother" and Sri Aurobindo as the project in human unity. It has now approx. 1,700 residents (2/3 are foreigners from 35 different nationalities). They inaugurated it on 1968, and assisted representatives from 124 countries who poured soil of their lands into an urn to symbolise universal oneness.
The Matrimandir is considered the soul of Auroville and it's like a giant golf ball, with out-of-space appearance. It was designed to meditate inside and that room is white marble containing a solid crystal (70 cm. diameter). I was surprised to find that in 40 years this experiment in international living where people could live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities, has only a total of 1,700 residents.
Most people who live there eat at the solar kitchen, who serves more than 400 meals daily.

Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 29th, 2007

This morning I moved to the Garden Guesthouse to stay 4 days there, one of the many guesthouse accommodations managed by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, for 50 ruppies a day, which amounts to about $1 dollar, and for about .40 cents you get a coupon for the 3 meals per day. It's a nice and clean room, almost appartment style, mine on the 3rd floor, with front and back windown and tree views. It's the perfect place to relax for a few days.

Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 28th, 2007

This was a long trip today to make it to Pondicherry, 4 buses because there was no direct connection this morning.
This city was a French colony and still retains some gallic air mixed with typical Indian culture. The local police wears read kepis (caps) and belts.
Many restaurants offer French cousine, but this city is still India.
I checked with Sri Aurobindo Ashram to stay there since their facilities and guesthouses are nice and cheap.
Many people stay in this place to study yoga and meditation. The International Guesthouse is not a boad deal tonight.
I called my mother tonight to wish her Happy Birthday!!

Nagapattinam / Velanganni (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 27th, 2007

From Tanjore I decided to travel all the way east to the Bay of Bengal near the Couvery delta, being a very fertile farming area. The Nagapattinan district here was the worst affected part of Tamil Nadu when the 2004 Tsunami struck, where 7,000 people lost their lives and thousands more were left homeless.
I visited the beach at Nagapattinam, and being Sunday, some families enjoyed strolling along the seashore. Big chunks of concrete buried in sideways...remnants of what perhaps was a promenade or walkpaths to the beach. It was very windy so children were enjoying flying their kites. I was thinking how vivid still the memory of the tragedy must be for all those people, so I didn't mention it to anyone -- just felt for such extensive devastation and the sorrow in some of those faces.
I stayed at the St. Joseph's Pilgrim Guesthouse in Velanganni, right next to the Roman Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health. There were thousands of pilgrims visiting the impressive white neo-gothic complex of buildings. The Pope visited it on 1962.
Tragically, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were here when the Psunami struck in the morning after Christmas 2004. At least, 2,000 people were believed killed and 120 shops around here and the beach were washed away.
The church itself was untouched. But after visiting it, I can see why. The construction of it is totally solid, built to last. The construction of the living quarters of the mayority of people near the beach areas is very poor and light, and many of those huts can easily be washed away with a few buckets of water. Poveryty reigns in those areas. Very sad reality!!

Trichy / Tanjore (Tamil Nadur) - January 26th, 2007

This morning I got up early and went to visit the superb temple complex, Sri Ranganathaswamy. Many dynasties have worked on the structure, and work still continues on. This complex is on 60 hectares, it is possibly the lastest in India.
The Cauvery River crosses the northern part of the city, it's very wide and very panoramic with women in part of the bank river washing their laundry and bathing.
At noon I travelled to Tanjore, an easy going town, with a world Heritage Brihadishwara Temple, and a palace complex.
This town is also famous for its own art style (raised and painted surfaces). Krishna is the most popular deity and in the town school his skin is white instead of the traditional blue.
It's located by a fertile delta so they have harvest celebrations. Tanjore was the ancient capital of the Chola Kings (beginning of Christian era), and at the height of their power they controlled most of the Indian peninsula.
I went to visit the Brihadishwara temple and fort. This is the highlight of Tanjore, a magnificent Chola temple architecture. It's set in very spacious well-tended grounds. The inscriptions in the outer walls record the names of dancers, musicians, and poets, a reminder of the importance of the arts.
There is a huge statue of the bull Nandi, created from a single piece of rock, weights 25 tonnes and is one of India's largest.
The temple elephant was at the temple entrance, taking a coin donation from people with its trunk, and blessing them thereafter by touching their heads gently with the trunk's end.

Trichy (Tamil Nadur) - January 25th, 2007

I am off to Trichy this morning. This city has two extraordinary temples, one of them located very high on a rocky mount. Trichy was a Chola citadel before the Christian era, and the Rock Fort temple was built by the Nayaks of Madurai. I went to visit this Rock Fort temple, that can be seen from far away since is on an elevation of 83 meters on a massive rock.
I walked up the 437 stone-cut steps and it gave me the feeling that it was only 100 instead. I guess I am in better shape that I think, I am surely glad since I still got a long ways to go. The big backpack, the walking and all these vegetarian meals keeps me light on my toes!
The views from the top were excellent, most of the Hindus were sitting on the rocks all over and definitely, it was a lot of steps for many of them.
Nearby, I visited the Lourdes Church, modelled on the neo-Gothic Basilica in Lourdes, France. Very impressive with so many stipples pointing up to the sky and all in white.
I saw more tourists in Madurai than in this town.

Madurai (Tamil Nadu) - January 24rd, 2007

I visited the temple again because is a big complex occupying six hectares. I also visited the Tirumalai Nayak Palace. Of course, there wasn't much left of it, the entrance gate, main hall and dance hall.
Walking thru the streets, it gives the feeling of a very old and run down town, but there are more tailors than cars. Everybody wants to make you whatever for as cheap as $2.00.
The Hotel Srree Devi has some of the best views of the temple from the rooftop.

Madurai (Tamil Nadu) - January 23rd, 2007

I said goodbye to Richard since I was traveling to Madurai, another pilgrimage town, and he was going to a different place.
The British East India Co. in 1840 built a fort that surrounded the city. Four broad streets were constructed where the fort walls were previously located, defining the limits of the old city.
In the evening I went to the hotel rooftop to see the beautiful colors of the Sri Meenakshi Temple at sunset light. A expectacular temple complex designed in 1560. The Southern tower is the tallest building, and all 12 towers are adorned with carvings of celestial and animal figures. Within the walls of the temple, long corridors lead to gold topped sanctums of the deities.
Within the temple complex there is a 1,000 pillar hall with the temple art museum and great exhibit of Hindu deities.

Rameswaran (Tamil Nadu) - January 22nd, 2007

I was up early so I went to visit the Ramanathaswany temple after breakfast. I joined

Rameswaran (Tamil Nadu) - January 22nd, 2007

I was up early so I went to visit the Ramanathaswamy temple after breakfast. I joined the Hindu crowds of pilgrims wondering thru the various corridors filled with scultured pillars, and 22 sacred wells where people take ritual bathings and rushed thru each of the wells to receive a bucket of water over their heads and the healing benefits of each well. A guide asked me to join his group of 5 people, so I did.
The first bucket he poured on me, I thought I was going to drawn, and had no idea 21 more buckets were awaiting me. It was interesting the fact that before I went thru this bathing ritual, I watched the temple elephant for over 1 hour while she was getting her bath, and really enjoyed her ritual. It was a very sweet experience to observe how obedient and gentle she was. Actually, how domesticated such termendous animals become. She was chainned until bathing time started, then the guy removed the chanins from two of the legs and she was free and I was happy for her. And just like I watched her bathing and getting all wet, now I was getting my baths from the wells and getting all soak and wet and she was watching me as she was standing in one corner.
After that, a priest did a puja (purification) on me and put some mark on my forehead with color powders, and a flower necklace. It was quite an experience.
In the afternoon I joined Richard in going to the beach, located on a very long stretch of land that reaches towards Sri Lanka. We walked for over 2-1/2 hours on this incredibly gentle, clean and unending stretch of beach in one direction, I didn't even got to the end of what I thought was called Adams bridge. Some fishermen at the beach said that this bridge is buried under water. We returned to town without reaching the so called en-of-the-world protruding land.

Rameswaran (Tamil Nadu) - January 21st, 2007

Waiting this morning at the bus station I met Richard, a guy from North Carolina. He was very talkative and informative, so we got to chat in the way to Rameswaran. This town is one of the most significant pilgrimate centres in So. India. Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, offered thanks to Shiva. The Ramanathaswany temple is one of the most important temples in So. India.
This town is located on an island in the golf of Manner in the south east of India, connected to the mainland by the Indira Gandhi bridge (one of India's great engineering wonders inaugurated in 1985). This town was once an important ferry port with passenger services to and from Sri Lanka, but unfortunately the service stopped when things got ugly between both countries. I was hoping for going to Sri Lanka the old way, but may next time around.
Ramwawaran si a fishing village besides the constant pilgrim mecca. In the evening they had a live show accross from the hotel welcoming pilgrims and others, so I watched the entertainment while Richard meditated.