Gisella and Joris in India - Photos

Chappatti stand in Tanjore.



Flower garlands for temple offerings.



Swordfish tandoori at Varkala beach



Temple at Madurai, Tamil Nadu - one of the biggest in India.



Gisella and a lovely Indian family at Tanjore temple, Unesco world heritage site.

Gisella and Joris in India - Part 3

Today we arrived in Thanjvur from Madurai.We took a local bus from Madurai which was more comfortable than I expected- all for 40 pence each....

Both Madurai and Thanjvur are temple towns but Thanjvur has a temple dated from 1000 AD that is also a Unesco World Heritage Site. It was amazing in it's red carved stone. Although we found the temple interesting the locals founds us much more so and many were keen to have their photos taken with us. We have a list of several addresses and counting of photos we will send to people when we get home!!

The south Indian main lunch dish is called Thali and it is really good. It is a bowl of rice with 6 or 7 small pots of curries, chilli and yoghurt all served on a banana leaf....

Tommorrow we head to Trichy (there is a longer Indian name for the town but I struggle to spell it or pronounce it), another and our final 'temple' town and then onwards to Pondicherry on the bay Of Bengal.

Gisella and Joris in India - Part 2 (with photos)

Today we are in Varkala Beach, just above Trivnadrum. We arrived two day ago from Thekkady, after a 8 hour bus journey. It is a very chilled beach resort sitting on a cliff above the Arabian Sea.



It's a balmy 36 degress here with a lovely sea breeze. Yesterday I went to a 2 hour yoga class in the early morning- very zen!!

There is so much fresh fish- each night the fish is displayed in front of all the restaurants- swordfish, tuna, butter fish, grouper and 3 to 4 types of huge prawns. You choose your fish and they grill it or tandoor cook it. Really great!!


This afternoon, the five of us that have stayed here after the tour finished, are doing a cooking class in keralan cuisine to make fish curry, rotis and some other dishes...



Tommorrow we head inland to the temple town of Madurai where we will stay for three nights.

Gisella and Joris in India - Part 1

Today we are in Thekkaddy, the hill station below Periyar National Tiger Reserve.

Yesterday we visited a spice garden featured in a BBC documentary called' 80 BEST GARDENS IN THE WORLD'. We tried fresh cardamon- amazing.

The locals are very friendly.

Typical food up here is quite spicy, mainly vegetarian with lots of coconut milk, really good.

This morning we left at 6.30 am for a three hour trek in the tiger reserve. Sadly we did't see any tigers or elephants but many other great things like monkeys and fresh turmeric!

We then went on a elephant ride which was fun but a bit bumpy- our elephant was Maria!

On the way up to Thekkady yesterday we stopped at the tea planatations- did you know green, black and white tea all come from the same plant?

Tommorrow we drive back down 6 hours to the beach resort of Varkala where we then have 2 days of beach related events and seafood.