Weekend in Coimbatore

Slight delay in posting due to internet access problems and the fact that we enjoyed a bit of a weekend off. Yes, we did schedule in some shopping and sightseeing on the trip!

 A bit of sari shopping

We left Bangalore Saturday morning and flew with Kingfisher to Coimbatore where we were met by one of our Coimbatore hosts, Tamil Nadu Agricultural College, who had kindly provided a bus and cars to transport us and our luggage to our hotel. We are residing at The Residency in Coimbatore, not too far out of the centre of town. We have been looked after incredibly well by TNAU and the wife of Prof Santhanakrishnar took us to an amazing clothes shop, selling fabric, sari, khurthi and a fantastic little handicraft shop.  Luckily transport was put on for us as there was a monsoon downpour that caused lots of flooding on the roads. The drive back was quite an experience and we saw some interesting improvised headwear along the route.

Our hosts once again provided transport, and very nice driver, for some of us to visit a meditation centre about 30km outside Coimbatore on the Sunday morning, while others chose to spend their day off with a long lie and relaxation at the hotel. Those of us who ventured out got a rare glimpse in to everyday life as our driver took us through many small communities on the route to the centre. The meditation centre was an experience. Many people travel there to bathe in the waters, although we went for the paddle rather than the full immersion and we also visited the meditation hall. As they have so many visitors the time in the meditation hall is limited but it would have been lovely to have longer. There was also a little shop selling inexpensive handicrafts and gifts along with more spiritual goods and a large canteen area. We all had a taste of the delicious energy snacks on sale there.

It has been good to have some time to relax and enjoy some touristy bits and pieces during our short trip to India.

Enjoyed the shopping and the trip to the meditation centre but highlight of the weekend, for the blog editor anyway, was my elephant sighting from my hotel room window!