Last day in India

Mamallapuram

Pondicherry

Kumbakonam at Jalal's

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

Madurai

Finally got to the temple: very big, very colourful, still wonder how the paint can stay on it.
I got really pissed off in there because they refused me the entry (forbidden for non-hindus) when they usually all think I am an Indian. They only wanna piss me off when they say that then, because it does not grant me any advantage: I have to pay my flight tickets the foreigner price which is 3 times what Indians pay, I have to pay the entry of all monuments 25 times more than Indians do and I can not visit Hindu temples.... there is something wrong in their reasoning? Do they think it makes my day brighter when they say I look like an Indian? Cause it doesn't, on the contrary, it drives me crazy!!! lol, voila ma vie de touriste en Inde....

Madurai:On my way to the temple

Bumped into an elephant on my way to the temple... lol I never had touched an elephant before and it is weird.... It has little thick hair! I thought the skin would be soft... Anyway I got harassed by the owner who wanted me to pay him 50 Rs for a couple of blurred pictures taken by a random guy in the street. I said: "no". Then I left (was too scared of the elephant anyway). Still gave a banana to the little elephant.

Cape Comorin or Kanyakumari

Headed for the very South of India where 3 different seas gather. Symbolic. Still, I am confused which ones because different sources give me different names but there is the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean for sure... Ooooh I am so bad. Anyway. There I was. This huge statue in the background is the of a very famous Tamil poet who wrote things a bit before Jesus was born. I read it: 133 little "notes"(about life, love, how to treat one's wife...) which makes the statue 133 feet high...

Took a 2.5h boat trip along the backwaters... Very relaxing and beautiful.

Kerala Dance

I forgot how they call that dance but this is a traditionnal Kerala dance. The show tells a story but what is important are the moves and the different expressions expressed by the face of the dancers. Impressive and kind of scary at the same time... lol
Watched the show in Kochi.

Kochi 2

Kochi is a kind of port so you can get fresh and excellent seafood!

Kochi 1

Kochi is in Kerala on the South West coast of India. Kochi (or Cochin) is a city made of two parts divided by a canal (big canal so must be a part of the sea...). Fort Kochi is the isolated part on the other side of this "canal". This is where I stayed... Really idyllic spot. On the picture, you can see Chinese fishermen nets. Need to describe how they fish, it is really.... different and I guess quite efficient.

Message Special

Nadege, pourrais-tu stp me dwler les episodes de Lost et de Desperate Housewives qui sont sortis et que je n'ai pas vus? Je me suis arrete a Saison 2 Episode 9 pour Lost et Saison 2 Episode 10 pour DH. Grave les sur des CDS ou un truc dans le genre. C est a mes frais bien entendu. lol. Ca me ferait super plaisir si tu pouvais faire ca pour moi. MERCI.

Mysore - Market

Full of colors and nice scents, I really enjoyed walking in this market...

Mysore

Mysore is a cool city: not too much hassle and beautiful sightseeing. This is the temple near the Taj Palace.

Auto Rickshaw ou Tuktuk

THAT thing there is an auto rickshaw and they literally drove me crazy in Bangalore!!!
They see your face and they know straight away they can charge you 5 times the regular price. They would refuse to put their meter on or pretend they do not speak English or worse, look at you and, if you refuse their exagerated price, drive away. When it is the middle of the night, you are bound to give up to their demands if you wanna be driven home... Be careful with trhem if you go to India, especially in Bangalore where, I guess, they are as powerful as trade unions in France!
lol

Bangalore

Bangalore is from far the most "developped" city I have been to in India so far. lol. OK, there was Mumbai also. Though there is nothing to do there, I stayed a couple of days coz I met "adorable" people. ;)

Goa

Goa.... Had a good time there although everyone had left. lol
You can really feel it has this "costa del sol" potential even though most of the bars and clubs were closed (or empty). lol
The peak season is supposed to be Dec-Jan so yes I missed the spot but still enjoyed feeling lazy on the beach.

BYE BYE RAJASTHAN

I am now in Delhi but flying tomorrow to Goa!
Will keep everyone posted as I find the first cyber around.

Taj Mahal 2

The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child in 1631! Shah Jahan is the great son of Akbar. He was emprisoned by his son and kept in a fort with view on the Taj Mahal. His cruel son put him there so that he could die watching what he hold as more sacred. He stayed in this jail 8 years before dying.
This is the view I had from the rooftop of the hotel I was staying it. I would like to thank the monkeys for waking me up at 6am and not letting me sleep till 8 am! They were fucking running on the roof of my room playing or God knows what!!!

Taj Mahal

Waouhhh!!! That is something! SO GREAT. Described as "a teardrop on the face of eternity" and "the embodiment of all things pure", the Taj Mahal was the last stop before going back to Dehli.

Fatepuhr Sikri

This fort was built by Akbar, a great king who was married to 3 women: one Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian. He praised the respect and cohabitation of all religions in is kingdom. The Hindu wife palace is the biggest one as she was the only one to give him a son! Was a great thing to visit.

Somewhere in a fort (there are too many, I can not remember which one). Go to Jaipur!!! And check in at Pearl Palace, you will have an amazing time!

Jaipur

Jaipur: "Rajasthan's dusky-and-dirty pink capital twinkles and clatters under the sunlight,bombarding the senses at every turn. Hilltop forts and glorious palaces indicate its royal past. Camel carts follow a stadely pace through streets jam-packed with cars, cows, rickshaws, snuffling pigs, motorcycles and death-defying pedestrians. Street children beg outside huge jewellery shops, palatial hotel and the world's only meringue-shaped cinema. Candyfloss-bright turbans blaze a trail through the streets and fluttering saris catch the eyelike butterflies."

It is better written than what I could have done... Jaipur is quite cool. It looks more like a city than the rest of Rajasthan though everything is still dirty and poor. I quite liked it. Stayed 2 days there as I loved my hotel: Pearl Palace (not a palace) where the rooftop was simply amazing and the chinese food delicious. Jaipur was my last stop in Rajasthan and I must say it finished really well. The weather was awesome: not more than 30 degrees (it rained). Jaipur is a must see: a lot of history and still a growing modern city. The building pictured is Hawa Mahal and I found it sentational!!!

La cuisine

Maman,
juste un petit message perso pour te demander, stp, de me preparer des quenelles a la sauce tomates, avec du pain de campagne et du St Felicien quand je reviens. Merci. Je viens d'atteindre le point de non retour en ce qui concerne la cuisine indienne. Je suis abonnee au Mc Do maintenant... et ils ont meme pas de viande... Sauvez Laura de la faim et de la cuisine indienne!!

Pushkar

OK 4th stop is Pushkar. It has a cool market but still the same thing.
I hear it is Easter today. Well, I will not get any chocolate today. What a shame!
5th stop will be Jaipur.

I cant wait for it to end. And after that I take a non return ticket to Goa. lol

Udaipur

Holy cows. I understand why they do not eat them... have you seen what THEY eat?!!!
3rd stop was Udaipur. There is a lake there. Nothing else. I mean it is always the same kind of stuff: there is either a fort or a palace or a lake or ... anything. Cows, poor people begging, donkeys dying on the street, everybody asking you where you are from...

Bikaner-Rat Temple-Jodhpur

Second stop was Bikaner, the rat temple and Jodhpur. Again nothing to see. I can understand some people name it romantic (lovely hotels, OK landscapes) though I would prefer my boyfriend to take me to the Bahamas or Hawaii. But that is a personal opinion. ;)

Mandawa

Hey guys. I left Dehli on the 11th to head for an 11 days trip in Rajasthan, the land of the kings, where the heart of India is. Everyone recommended it to me with no exception saying I am going to love it. Well, guess what: I am hating it so much that I am nearly at the end of my trip after only 5 days. Plus, I am very sick and it is too hot. The pics are not gonna be awesome as there is nothing to see over there. My first stop was at Manawa -- nothing to see...

Clothes 2

Laura 2: got to an Indian clothes shop. Change clothes but keep style lol

Clothes 1

Laura 1: Got comments that I should change clothes. What is wrong about my nice outfit and Gucci purse?

Dehli ou Tel Aviv en Inde

Crazy place again. Hard to make your way in Dehli's streets between cows, rickshaws, dogs, autos, touts, foreigners (btw, some of them really look like beggars, worse than any Indian tramp), Jews, Sikhs...

I have never seen such a concentration of Jewish people (never been to Israel): I wonder, what do they do here? lol Got mistaken several times for a Jew. lol Better than for a cow... mdr

Dehli is dirty and NO Sandeep this is not like any other city in the world. This is India and even the posh areas (embassies area for instance) are tasteless. Or you need to tell me where to go. Can not compete with Mumbai. Definitely poor capital with little to offer.

Airlines

It is crazy how easy it can be for airlines companies to provide its customers with good and healthy food. Take a look at what they serve on Indian Airlines: a veg meal with a small salad and yoghurt. That's all that easy!! Mmmmmhh. Ban Air France and co!

It is crazy how easy it is to forget where you are, where you come from or where you are heading to whenever you are in an aircraft. Bouhh. In a couple of minutes I had forgotten I was in India... only to be reminded it when I reached the heat of Dehli.

Gotta run... Follow me for new adventures and to a new destination: DEHLI.
Bye Bye Aurangabad!

Could not resist: had to take a picture of them!! They were so excited and impressed by the result on the camera's screen. Was so cool to hear them laugh when seeing themselves on a pic! The little one was dropped there by his mum and could not care less so stood up crying when I pressed the button. lol

THE cave in Ellora (Kailasa Temple): splendid, so beautiful and if you think about it: they carved it from the top. Incredible to see how much details they put. They had to remove 200,000 tonnes of rock! It is 1.5 higher than the parthenon in Athens and acovers twice its area. Impressive uh!

7 incarnations of Shiva... (or is it Buddha? I am very bad, I will check again later, lol)

More caves, more Buddhas, or Shivas...

I just felt like Lara Croft in these caves. I was almost alone, with my book and my torch trying to avoid the bats and going from a cave to another. Felt real cool. I just need her shorts and her Uzis... lol Ok a bit more maybe. lol

Day 2: Ellora

Same concept: a lot of caves bot not only Hindu like they were in Ajanta. There are also some Buddhist and Jainist. Slight difference. The caves are all superb anyway. This thing date from 500 DC and was discovered by the Brits who thought it was a good idea to put some grafittis in the caves. Some of them are therefore kind of damaged.

I like this one: was hard to take it in full though. This is (apparently, did not check my sources, lol) the position Buddha takes just before reaching Nirvana. Get inspired!

In a cave with a cool British girl met in the bus.

Day 1: Ajanta

This is Buddha in one of the Ajanta caves. Magical, isn't it? And that is not the best...

I am now based in Aurangabad. This is the nearest and most convenient city to go to and visit both Ajanta and Ellora caves. And this happens in this bus (see on the left). No AC. 40 degrees.

Mumbai - Conclusion

Mumbai is great. A lot of British influences which give this beautiful soul to Mumbai. People are in general very nice and helpful. A lot of poverty though. I would definitely go back. "Colaba", "gateway of India", "Oval Maiden", the magnificent old colonial houses... This is also in Mumbai that you can see middle to upper class people trying to follow Westeners style of living. Have not gone to Film City but certainly a stop one should do to try to see Ashwaria rai (spelling is wrong).

Need to go: have a flight tomorrow for Aurangabad to see other caves (you will see later). Bye Bye Mumbai

Shiva has 3 heads: one is the creator, the second is the operator (lol) and the last one the destroyer... This is what you can spot on Elephanta Island, 9km North East of Mumbai (but still an hour by boat!!). Really cool, isnt it?

I had to pay 30 f******* rupees to get that pic!! They really rip me off...

On my way to the Lost Island.....