Gingee

I had a really busy and long weekend. Missed the only class I had on friday to be able to travel 3 and a half days. Left on thursday at noon and came back on monday morning by train to miss my first class...
The three town we vistited were really amazing. In Gingee we just stayed the thursday afternoon, to walk up a hill and see an old fort with a view of the whole surroundings. The fort is incredible. It was walls 20 feet thick. There are three outposts so that the walls were protecting everything which was inside with a triangle shape. One of the outposts was the fort on the hill, where for example the grain was held and where there was also a temple. Will update the two remaining cities of the last weekend later. Have my dear aunt coming to the airport and I have to pick her up. Ciao

Madurai, Kanyakumari and Mahabalipuram2

Two weekends ago we decided to leave again to the south of india. We actually went to the southest point possible of india, where one is supposed to see the three oceans combine. The arabic, the bengal and the indian ocean. We didn't really see that but it was a beautiful part of the country. There was this huge statue in the middle of the ocean with a temple by its side and the sunrise was just amazing...
Coming and going to the southest point of india we did by train. Incredibly the trains were perfectly on time. We took the sleeper non A/C compartments which were very comfortable. We were the only Europeans in there.
Then we saw madurai which is a city with a huge huge temple. It also has some museums and a palace but the temple was just amazing. There was even an elephant inside and you could get good luck from the elephant by giving it some money and the elephant pounded it's big trunk on your head which was supposed to be for good luck. Quite funny.
I went back to Mahabalipuram too for 1 day to get out of the heat hell that Chennai can become. Had some great food, fish!! Went up a hill behind Mahabalipuram where there a beautiful view.

Pondicherry and Kodaikanal

I've been travelling a lot and having a busy time with my course work. Finally another post.
we went to Pondicherry 2 weeks ago, which is an old French Colony. So I could finally eat baguettes and normal European food again. They also served alcohol in restaurants which doesn't happen in the rest of Tamil Nandu (the state I'm in).
We went to a "utopian" city close to Pondicherry named Auroville. In this city there is a mixture of culture and people and everybody works for everybody... Anyway in this town there is this huge golden sphere where sometimes they have festivals.
Last weekend we went to a place in the mountains called Kodaikanal. It was finally fresh there, even cold sometimes. We walked around with a pullover and didn't sweat at all which didn't seem possible to us at all. Perfect place to trek and sightseeing (although there was a bit of fog). We saw a 120 meter high natural pillar... Went walking with Hadrien and got lost in the forest. Found our way back through an unknown village. Came back to Chennai Monday morning by bus: 11 hours plus 1.5 hours late because of a flat tire...Next weekend going to Madurai and Kanyakumari (southest point of India). Should be beautiful!!!

Kanchipuram

Last weekend we went to Kanchipuram for 2 days. Kanchipuram is called the golden city of 1000 temples. Was just an incredible city. We rented bicycles and rode through town from one temple to another. Just look at the photos... Some of these temples were really massive. I thought they looked a lot like the aztecs temples... The big towers are actually not the temples themselves but "just" enterences to the temples.