Postcards from abroad
We drove from the Chettinad towards the Palani Hills in the west of Tamil Nadu on the border with Kerala, to stay in our remote ridgetop accommodation. The journey was full of interest as it always is in India - today pilgrims and a very special ceremony invite. Many, many pilgrims were heading in the… Continue reading Ear-piercing ceremony and pilgrims
We are heading off tomorrow (Sunday) to a tiny four-bedroom place situated at the top of a ridge - and we anticipate no signal or wifi at all, given the reviews we’ve read (‘ideal place to switch off from modern life’ …). Given that all there is to do there is go for little walks… Continue reading More from the Chettinad
The Chettinad was the home to the Chettiars, originallly mercantile traders in salt in the seventeenth century, according to a Unesco-sponsored book about the area. However, in the late nineteenth century, the (Chettiar-sponsored) myth developed that they originated as a group in 2898 BCE somewhere else, migrated to the coast and lived there until 790… Continue reading Chettinad mansions
We visited the Chettinad - the next stop on our adventure - fourteen years ago but we wanted to revisit it. It’s an area full of villages settled by the Chettiars who built the most enormous mansions in the nineteenth and early twentieth century - we’ll write more about this tomorrow. But most of today’s… Continue reading The roadtrip, the market and a flattering mistake
The eastern end of the island on which Rameshwaram is based is called Danushkodi or Rama’s Bow, reputed to be where Rama bathed and the location of Rama’s bridge built by Hanuman and his monkey army, you’ll remember, to reach Sri Lanka. This is where the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea meet and it is… Continue reading A lively day around Rameshwaram