Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Visiting India (Part 1 of 6)

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In the summer of 2014, I had the good fortune to visit India for the wedding of my close friend Ganesh. I spent three weeks in southern India with most of my time in Tamil Nadu and a few days in Kerala. This will be the first in a six part series about my time in India. One post every other day.

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I was lucky to spend a large amount of the time with Ganesh’s friends and family. They were unbelievably friendly, generous, and welcoming. I can’t thank them enough for all they did for me! It was an amazing trip.

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I will try to keep this series focused on the scenery and the motorcycles. I might write a few posts about the food over on my food blog; we’ll have to see how ambitious I get. In short, the food was some of the best I have ever had.

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The flight to India from Minneapolis was the longest I have had to date! I flew from Chicago to Dehli to Chennai and then took an overnight train to Erode where my friend’s family lives. It was about 40+ hours of travel time to get there. I was severely jet lagged. At that time, they were 10.5 hours time difference. On the return journey, I flew from Coimbatore to Chennai to Dehli to Chicago to Minneapolis. The Dehli to Chicago leg was about 14.5 hours the single longest flight I have been on. It was totally worth it.

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During the trip I saw so many great sights from mountains to ocean and everything in between. It was hard to trim down the photos into a series of posts. While I was there, I tried to unplug from technology and just live in the moment. I took some photos, but not nearly as much as I normally do. It was nice to just experience what was happening without worrying about trying to figure out how to share it.

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(Wedding photo courtesy of Jarwin Tee)

Google Map of Tamil Nadu.


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10 comments:

  1. Gorgeous colors in those photos. I am really looking forward to the rest of the series. Thanks for taking the time to put them together.

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  2. Beautiful colours, beautiful people. I'd like to visit India, but just on similar terms like yours... if you know somebody. Looking forward to the next instalments.

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    1. Thank you. I'd like to go back as well. Such a beautiful place. Ganesh is heading back for six weeks in a couple weeks. I would really like to go with him... maybe next time.

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  3. About 20 years ago I had the chance to visit India (a good friend of mine was getting married) and often regret not going. At the time investing in a house and paying for my own upcoming nuptials were the order of the day.

    After seeing your photo's and reading about your adventures I regret not going even more.

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    1. I'm sorry you didn't get to go. I hope you get another chance and enjoy the series of posts.

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  4. Thank you for posting these, India looks like a wonderful place especially if you have someone local to help you get around. I'm really looking forward to the installments!

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    1. You're welcome. I hope you enjoy the series. It took me much longer than expected to get it posted. A local is almost always great when travelling.

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  5. Just beautiful. That photo of the people sitting in the shade of the boulder is excellent :)

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    1. Thank you. That boulder was fun. Called the "butterball" it is very sturdy. Several times a host of elephants were employed to try and move it since it looks unsafe. It hasn't moves in thousands of years.

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