August 2008 ~ Travel In Home

Faces of Triplicane - Chennai

Triplicane or Tiruvallikeni as it was known in the Puranic age is one of the oldest villages that is a part of the Madras (Chennai) city today . It is in fact older than the city itself. Located just half a km from the Bay of Bengal coast and Fort St George , it is today synonymous with[...]

by Jour ~ Friday, August 29, 2008 1 comments

More soon...

Just a quick note to promise that, despite appearances, I won't be abandoning this blog entirely now that we're home! Since our arrival back in Oregon on August 6 we've been quite busy settling in, seeing family and friends, finding an apartment, setting up house, unpacking all the stuff we put in storage or sent from Europe, marveling[...]

by Jour ~ Wednesday, August 27, 2008 0 comments

Destination - Tamil Nadu ,India

Its been a while since I posted a post - as in write about a destination and I hope to do that in my next post. Until then, here is an attempt to be alive in the blogging world. I have been travelling extensively all of August and all roads pointed to Tamil Nadu. I started with Chennai[...]

by Jour ~ Tuesday, August 26, 2008 0 comments

Celebrate Madras !

Madras Day/Week Celebration is on full steam and I am here in this sunny city. I went for a photo walk this morning around one of Madras's oldest villages, Triplicane where the famous Parthasarthy Temple stands. On the occasion of Gokul Astami or Krishna Jayanthi, there was a buzz around[...]

by Jour ~ Friday, August 22, 2008 0 comments

India through my eyes - The grass is green on the other side

Women working in the paddy fields in Thanjavur, called the Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu . Situated on the deltaic region of the River Cauvery also known as Ponni in Tamil Nadu, it is believed that every inch of soil here is equal to an ounce of gold. Pon in Tamil means gold and Cauvery is[...]

by Jour ~ Wednesday, August 6, 2008 0 comments

Leavin' on a jet plane

Well, we've had a great few days in Amsterdam and are so excited to head home to the States in the morning!! We're really glad we chose to fly out of Amsterdam Schiphol - it's an excellent airport. It has always worked smoothly on our previous visits and there are lots of great shops and restaurants to wander around. We've already[...]

by Jour ~ Tuesday, August 5, 2008 0 comments

The Chola trail ..

July end will go down in my travel diary as one of the best trips Ive ever had this year. And I must thank a few people for this. First and foremost, my uncle, second, my mother and then, a couple of friends Sivaram and VJ Kumar and my father for not missing my mother's absence :) So[...]

by Jour ~ Tuesday, August 5, 2008 0 comments

Delft, Leiden & Amsterdam

Tomorrow morning we leave Delft for Amsterdam, our last stop in Europe! It is pretty exciting to be getting so close to the home journey.Oostpoort (East Gate, c.1400 AD) in DelftThe second half of our week in Delft has been as pleasant as the first, consisting mostly of relaxing days around town plus a nice day trip to Leiden and[...]

by Jour ~ Saturday, August 2, 2008 0 comments

Ayyannar - The Guardian God of South India

In the pantheon of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, are the guardian Gods who serve as protectors. They protect villages and are called "grama devatas" or " Kaval deivam " in Tamil. In Tamil Nadu, the guardian god is portrayed as a mustachioed male and is called Ayyannar.During my recent visit[...]