Welcome!

This blog is for the benefit of friends of family so they can keep up to date with what I'm up to during my year out in Bangalore, India. I hope to keep a regular journal of goings on, photos, maybe even some drawings of my work and travels. If you want to contact me, please email tfmw2 at cam dot ac dot uk.

Sorted

Tuesday 29 July 2008, 1:01AM
I'm through airport security, on my way home!

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Hampi II

Friday 18 July 2008, 4:57PM
After a very long journey, involving a stay overnight in a grotty hotel and an extremely crowded slow train this morning, it's fantastic being in Hampi again. Despite being completely deprived of sleep, we both managed a good walk today, and saw lots of the ruins along the river, most of which I didn't get to see last time. We've got a couple more days, and we're planning on getting a guide tomorrow to take us round everything, so look out for lots more photos of interesting boulders and crumbling buildings! I'm back in Bangalore, and should be able to get all my photos uploaded so you can actually see all these places I've been!

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Goa - Panjim

Friday 11 July 2008, 3:55PM
4 hours late (our train broke down) we arrived in Goa, to beating hot sunshine! For once our journey to the hotel and getting the room itself went without a hitch, and we've got a nice room on the 5th floor of a block overlooking the city, with a nice view of the Church of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception.

Later in the day we headed out for a walking tour of Panjim, as recommended by the guide, and found ourselves walking through what seemed like a slightly dilapidated European town. There really is a different feel here, it's a collision between Europe and India here; a lot of the older women wear western clothes, and on all the streets there are beautiful tiled street names in Portuguese!

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Lonavala

Wednesday 09 July 2008, 5:42PM
We had a very successful trip to Lonavala today, a small town 2 hours from Pune. Amazingly, we managed to get all our transport (trains - 3rd class!) sorted etc. without any hitches!

Lonavala itself was fantastic, and in a way enhanced by the monsoon rains. It is home to two cave temple complexes, similar to those on Elephanta Island in Mumbai. These caves however were much bigger, the biggest is the largest in the world I think. We were virtually alone in them, save for the little old men that took the tickets at the entrance. With waterfalls gushing over some of the caves' mouths the effect was dramatic. Off to Goa tomorrow, which will be very wet indeed. Apart from a few showers in Mumbai, and the rain today in Lonavala, we haven't really had any proper monsoon rains yet...

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Pune

Tuesday 08 July 2008, 5:12PM
Posting from The German Bakery in Pune, going to try and get to Lonavla tomorrow, but that's all dependent on whether we can make sense of the train station (our first attempt was fruitless).

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Mumbai 2

Thursday 03 July 2008, 1:42PM
Have had a great few days in Mumbai, went to Elephanta Island yesterday. The hot, sweaty ascent to the top of the hill was counteracted by the cold, wet voyage back to the mainland... Today we've been out on a city tour with a hired guide - Dilip - who was fantastic! We saw the amazing laundry, Gandhi's house and the Jain temple, amongst other things. Tonight we're going to a Bollywood film (Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic) which should be an experience!

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Mumbai! Monsoon!

Tuesday 01 July 2008, 1:22PM
Sorry I haven't posted on here for ages. I do promise to keep up to date with everything over the next month on here. I'm currently in a tiny internet cafe off Colaba Causeway in Mumbai, five minutes from the Gateway to India. Sarah's trip out was fine, the airport went without a hitch, and we had a few days to get organized in Bangalore before heading out again.

The monsoon rains have definitely arrived here in Mumbai, but they aren't actually that much of a problem. The whole city is still very much running at full speed - we've spent plenty of time in the markets - and the rain only comes in occasional showers, most of the time it's grey (but muggy). Our room has AC though so it's not much of a problem.

As before, I'll probably write everything up in full once we're back in Bangalore, for the mean time I'll try and keep you posted as I go. On Sunday we're off to Pune for a few days, before heading down to (off-season) Goa.

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Pune

Tuesday 13 May 2008, 12:12PM
Sorry, no photos from Pune, I spent almost every hour I was there inside the Iniquus office (I spent a few in bed, but not many). Together with the Gap Guru team at Iniquus we managed to get a lot done though, so and Gappers reading this blog can look forward to the new Facebook application soon. Currently the internet at Woodstock is down, so getting anything done is pretty hard, but the promise it'll be fixed soon...

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Izzy in Oz

Monday 05 May 2008, 8:19PM
Check out Izzy's blog of her stay in Sydney!

izzyinaustralia.blogspot.com | Comments

Hampi

Monday 05 May 2008, 6:52PM
Last weekend I spent a few days in Hampi with some of the other gappers. As usual I've been slow about updating the site, though I hope you've had a chance to see the photos by now.
Read More...

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