Chennai, India – April 1999 Pg 2
Shopping
Chennai is a Shopper’s delight. There are a lot of places and shops worth visiting. One thing to be kept in mind is to try and bargain for prices at almost all places. Most shopkeepers reduce the prices of the commodity after a bit of bargaining, so be sure to do that.
For cloth
Chennai, India – April 1999
Places to Visit
There are quite a number of places to visit in Chennai. The best way to tour Chennai is to either hire a motorcycle (Try the Enfield showroom at Alwarpet or Urent) or by Auto Rickshaws, which are basically three wheeled vehicles fitted with a motor.
Be sure to bargain with the
Ganges River, India – May 1999
Standing there on the bank of Ganges you can hear the ‘gentle’ roar ahead till you go a little further and it transforms into a thunderous one.
You can see the water foam, swirl, make whirlpools and rise to form sheer walls. The waves crash into each other in their pristine fury a
Bangalore, India – July 1999
Bangalore! The “Silicon City”, the high-tech capital of India.
Cybercafes beckon and a surprisingly western culture permeates
sections of this 5.2 million person city. Thinking about visiting
Bangalore? You’ll find pubs, coffee shops, and dance clubs along
with vegetable mark
Vagator Beach, India
To any visitor of India, Goa presents an entirely different sight from what one expects, and is confronted with, in the rest of the country. This is so because of the rich influence that the Portuguese culture has had and continues to have on the Goan culture (Goa was a Portuguese colony until
The Millennium Trip – Letter #5
Arrived here on Tuesday evening after a stunning 6hr bus ride up from the Punjab. Perched at the foothills of the Himalayas this “Little Lhasa” is only 1000m higher than Amritsar, but the difference could not be more blatant.
McLeod is surrounded by hills awash with conifers and
The Millennium Trip – Letter #7
Namaste All,
Like an infection, I seemed to pick up some bad karma in India. In Agra,
while walking around the Taj Mahal in the 43°C heat, I caught
bronchitis. The following morning I woke early and took a cycle rickshaw to the station in time to catch my 1st Class air-conditioned –
Feeling Wibbly Wabbly in Bombay, Mumbai
Just a quick warning: This is not my usual witty, sarcastic, brilliant, highly modest self. It’s just so exhausting being “on” – I now know why Lenny Bruce, Gilda Radner, Andy Kaufman, and Richard Nixon succumbed so early.
This is a more pensive, serious, more 2000 C
New Delhi, India – Things to Do
Shopping
India is a paradise for shoppers. From traditional Indian bazaars to modern shopping arcades, India offers splendid buys to suit individual taste and pocket. No matter where you are in the country, you will encounter a bewildering array of shopping options. You could shop for fine br
Full at Mani Rimdu (1 of 5)
“You know, Babu, this stone had better be real because I’ll be back,” said Jim. Jim Wills, our red-haired, flaring blue-eyed California mountain man, had promised to guide Rick, Susan, Chris and I to Phaplu, Nepal for the annual Buddhist moon festival called Mani Rimdu R
New Delhi, India – Transport
Quite recently, the main airports for entry into India were New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai (Madras). However, a number of other ports have now been converted into international entry points such as Trivandrum, Cochin, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Goa and there are more to come. Hence, it is
Full at Mani Rimdu (3 of 5)
The Hotel del Sherpa, our home base for the next six days, brought eclecticism to new heights of grandeur. A cross between a four star Swiss ski resort and a painstakingly frescoed Buddhist monastery, this lodge embraced the best of spiritual aura and creature comforts – woodburning st
Sai Baba, You’re So Fine…
…You’re So Fine You Blow My Mind! Sai Baba! Sai Baba!
Hello all, from Hempi, uh, I mean, Hampi. Can you tell that there are a lot of hippies here, by my Freudian slip? I arrived here after my flight from the Valley of Peace, as Sai Baba’s ashram at Puttaparti is called (thou
Full at Mani Rimdu (4 of 5)
We hiked along a wide, well-trodden path connecting Phaplu to Saleri (about forty minutes at a leisurely pace). On Saturday market day, the thoroughfare would swell with a flow of porters, merchants carrying produce, monks riding horseback, and local townsfolk, but this day, we had most of t
Thank You, India
So it’s come to this…I’ve quoted Alanis Morrissette. I am in my (hopefully) last moments in India, as I am booked for a flight to Thailand to connect to a flight to London. That would be fine in dandy in a perfect world.
Not so, India. Seems they may not honour my flight d
Guru-ve Is In The Heart: How Do You Say Dee-lite?
Om shanti shanti shantihi
After leaving Kovalam, I went to Kollam to start my backwater trip up the coast. The backwaters are a series of interconnected canals, lagoons, lakes and rivers that line India’s west coast. After a 2-hour jaunt I arrived at the ashram of Sri Mata Amrithananda
Hurtling Through Space and Time, I Have Stared Death in It’s Ugly Maw
In reference to my previous observation about travel in India, let me just say, without appearing vainglorious, that you are lucky that there is still a Craig to be typing this. Why? Let’s just say that Magic Mountain holds no thrill for me now. After hurtling through the dark at 95 mil
India – 41 Days of Exoticism
Immediately as I entered exotic India I was blown away. I had travelled by bus all day from Pokhara in Nepal and I crossed the border into India at Sunauli. This must be among the busiest border crossings in the world. The place was full of trucks, rickshaws and pedestrians. I took a cycle ri
India – Fairs & Festivals
Fairs and festivals in India are colorful commemorations of religious or historical events or celebrations of the change of seasons. This colorful mosaic reflects the vigor and lifestyle of its people. These festivals are like gems, ornamenting the crown of Indian culture. Every season brings
India – General Information
Bounded by the majestic Himalayan ranges in the north and edged by a spectacular coastline surrounded by three seas, India is a vivid kaleidoscope of landscapes with world’s highest mountains, awesome rivers, fabulous valleys, great deserts, national parks, game sanctuaries and golden b
