Heatwave

It's been hot the past week in Tamil Nadu. Hot, sunny, and sticky. It's affected my photography as quantity and quality are both down. Just don't have the energy to always strive for the perfect shot(s). And the strong midday sun makes it harder to get a good exposure.

But you say it's supposed to be hot in South India. Well this heatwave has made the newspapers. Schools have been ordered to close early. We spent two days this week in Bhubaneswar and each day the temperature was 40 C or 102 F. The second day we went on an AC bus tour of Konark and Puri... Of course the AC stopped working at 10:00 AM. Sigh. We did get a partial refund. Woohoo!

Yesterday we arrived in Calcutta and it's much cooler. The high today was only 88 F. We spent the whole day around Sudder Street, the so-called backpacker's ghetto, looking for a better hotel (we decided to stay put), trying to contact a travel agent in Kathmandu (no luck), eating, and shopping (I bought a set of 5 pens for 10 rupees). Tomorrow we start seeing the sights.

Big Temple - Thanjavur - Tamil Nadu - India

The locals call it the Big Temple and it's an impressive UNESCO World Heritage site officially called The Great Chola Temples of Tamil Nadu.

We liked it a lot as the admission was free and non-Hindus were allowed in the Inner Sanctum (the tall structure at left center).

On the downside, I was under the weather with a sinus infection and felt like crap the whole day. That evening we measured my temperature at 102.4; time to break out the antibiotics and Vit-I.