India & Sri Lanka trip

Link

I've been trying to get a posting on to this blog for almost 2 weeks, but from
grungy Internet cafes in India it seems to be impossible. The worst one was
not only grungy, but had no lights and a keyboard that was so worn most of the
keys were illegible!

We are now a friend's house in Mysore & he has broadband, so here's trying
again.

I wrote this a week ago.
We have left the cold north for a trip to India. The main reason was to visit
my wife's old medical school - Vellore Christian Medical College - for a class
reunion. I won't mention the number of years since she graduated, but it is
more than a few. For some reason all her classmates have grey hair, but of
course we have not changed a bit. The fact is, the goal posts have shifted.
After a week in UK, where we had to do battle with the fact that the Brits know
almost nothing about snow, we arrived in Bangalore and went straight away to
the city of Tirupathi. The 300 km taxi ride cost about $60!!
The best thing about the city was the food in our hotel. All vegetarian, but
wonderfully delicious, with various forms of Dosa being the star attractions.
We are now in the alumni hostel at the medical school and I can finally get out
my camera and see what interesting birds there may be among the wonderful array
of trees in the compound.

Since then we have seen the most amazing golden temple at Vellore. It is said
to be about 4 times as large as the more famous one at Amritsar, and to have
between 7 and 8 tonnes of gold on the roof, pillars, ceiling & walls! There's
no way I can attach a picture but I will endeavour to do so once we get home.

From there we headed to the Kerala coast and had avery interesting time
relaxing, swimming and eating delicious food. My hair cut cost 35 rupees,
about 70 cents.

Tuesday early we head to Sri Lanka and more exploring.

Let's hope this blog effort reaches its destination