April 30, 2003

Delhi Belly

So after months of good health in India. I finally sucumbed to Delhi belly... In Delhi of all places... Kept me in bed for a couple days. I got better and then.. Somehow tweaked my neck and spent today on anti-inflamatory drugs with lots of hot packs... Shesh...

And for some reason I don't feel down about this... Not sure why... Maybe it's because I don't have any plans or anything else that needs doing and taking care of myself is actually a really nice thing to do... (despite having to.)

I spent a day (a few days ago) doing a Delhi tour. Mostly it sucked. Not very interesting things to see (Indira Gadhi's House for example.) I think most of the sites were geared towards Indian tourists. The Lotus Temple was really lovely!!! First time I've really felt the power of a pyramidal structure... and it isn't really a pyramid... Just has that magical sense of space inside... Other than that we drove past most of the other interesting places (Red Fort and the tall phalus thingy... ah... tower.. I don't remember the name)

Other than that. I've been reading, watching TV, being sick, walking around markets, surfing the net, eating good food. Has actually been really relaxing.

I'm very excited to leave for Thailand in a couple days. I just confirmed my flight and although the time has changed, the flight is still supposed to go. Yay. I'm esp. excited about learning to Scuba dive. Anyone out there know a good Scuba school on Ko Tao?

As for SARS, I expect I'll extend my stay in Thailand for an extra month and I really hope that a cure/treatment has been found. Because it will be very hard for me to miss Hong Kong, China... Will see as the time comes.

Much Love!


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 10:12 AM | Comments (2)

April 19, 2003

Northern India Galleries

I just uploaded a bunch of new pictures of my tour of northern india
.

Hope you all enjoy, I have been!

Posted by binduwavell at 05:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2003

Temple Tour

After several days in Delhi dealing with my Indian and Thai visas, I headed off to Agro..... I mean Agra ;) Mostly a horrid town, although I discovered on my second (last day) that the warrens around the Taj are pretty cool... Still major hastle from the Touts... Shesh... Anyway, I did a proper tour of Fateh Pur Sikri, The Taj Mahal and The Red Fort. Quite amazing... Esp. the Taj which did not fit my expectations at all, but felt so magical inside... Amazing... Hard to put into words. There are all these inlaid flowers that are made with semi-precious stones. The ones outside are nice. The ones inside are breath-taking. They use the grain of the stones to create wonderfull textures. Too bad there is no photography inside (although I have a big photo gallery, from this trip, that will include some shots of the outside in the works.) I stayed at the Red Fort so that I could see the view of the Taj and sunset. Alas they close half an hour BEFORE sunset :( On the positive side, the guard that gave me the bad news took me into one of the fenced off areas... Aparently the guy who comissioned the Taj was imprisoned in the Red Fort by his son. Since his eye sight was bad, one of his daugters put a huge diamond in one of the walls of this fenced off area. Apparently the diamond projected the Taj into the room so that papa could see his monument to love. Very cool! Too bad the diamond wasn't there anymore ;)

From Agro, I headed to Orchha (near Jhansi which is a travel hub for Khajuraho) for a couple days. Very nice small town with some great old palaces. Not anything like the fancy stuff at Agro, but you can climb around and find secret passages and there are some nice mosaics (pictures in the works.)

From Orchha I came to Khujaraho. The temples here are AMAZING... At least the sculptures. There are a lot of erotic sculptures, and many many more that are not erotic, gods, nymphs, etc. I went on a day trip today to see a Tiger Reservation (not very exciting really, no tigers today ):

Tomorrow I'm off to Varanasi, I hope to take a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise. Chill for a couple days and then head back to Delhi. Not sure if I'll just hang in Delhi for the following couple weeks or make it up to Simla and Manali which should be cooler and mellower than Delhi... I really want to do that because it is DAMN HOT here (no I TOLD YOU SOs please ;) Just not sure I can handle the train ride up there.. Will see if there is a good express.

Posted by binduwavell at 06:36 AM | Comments (2)

April 06, 2003

More Galleries

I just uploaded two more photo galleries (since the two earlier today :)

Munnar 2 has some really lovely landscapes.

Kerala 2 has more interesting stuff from the last few days.

I think both of these galleries are really worth a look, I hope you do too :)

Lots of Love,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 07:29 AM | Comments (2)

I Karalot

I spent 8 days in Munnar, which was beautifull! The first morning I was there I took a Rickshaw to a local National Park where they have Nilgiri Tahr (some kind of Goat/Dear that is only found in that park and in Switzarland.) I also went to a tea factory and saw the whole CTC process... Damn! What a way to treat such a lovely plant :)

I met a couple (Dave & Tara) from England in Munnar and we spent quite a few days hiking together, seeing sights, etc. We traveled back to Kochin a few days ago and have been taking in the sights here. Yesterday we took a day trip to Athrapally where there's a great double waterfall (pictures of waterfall and more from around Kochin will be forthcomming :)

I'm taking a 3:35am flight to Delhi tonight so that I can take care of some Visa stuff and check out the sights up north. It has been so wonderfull here, I'm sure I'll miss it and especially I'll miss Dave and Tara's company. And I'm looking forward to seeing new things. I hope it isn't too hot and if it is, I'll head up into the hills (Manali, here I come :)

On a tangential note, I'm concerned about the SARS issue. Esp. since I'm planning on going to Hong Kong in 3 months and to Bangkok in 1 month... I really hope that this gets sorted quickly! Yikes!!! I also hope that we get better information on how to prevent infection and how to treat infection if it arrises.

Lots of Love to you all!

-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at 03:42 AM | Comments (0)
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