You'd be surprised how hard it is to find an internet cafe that works in India. So far, I've been able to upload one more set of pictures from Thailand, but that was a fluke. Maybe someday I'll be able to finish up Thailand and move on to India.

John and I are currently in Tiruchirappalli, or Trichy, as it's commonly called. We arrived yesterday evening, and spent today exploring a huge temple in a neighboring town, and are planning on visiting another few this evening. So far, India has treated us well. The food has been delicious, if hard to eat, and the people have been nothing but friendly. We still haven't been able to find a hotel that has any available A/C rooms, but we're doing ok dealing with the heat.

The temple today (don't ask me to try and spell the name) was enormous, and we found a guide to take us around and tell us about all the buildings and carvings. I really wasn't too interested in much of what he told us, but it was nice to have someone who would let us know when it was ok to take pictures and which buildings we could enter. The difference between the temples here and those in Thailand is quite large. While the temples in Thailand were all sparkle and glitter, those in India try to fit in as many different carvings and statues as they can on one piece of rock. If I ever get pictures up of either, you'll see what I mean. The temples of India have hundreds of statues of the various deities everywhere you look.

Inside the temple was one of those guys who you just have to take a picture of. I'm sure you've probably all seen the holy men from India with the long hair and are just really cool looking guys in general. Unfortunately, this guy wasn't a holy man, but a beggar, and I had no money so he wasn't interested in me taking a picture of him. I've found that in India, I just want to take a picture of every other person I see walking down the street. Indians are a very good looking people in general, and all their clothes are very beautiful, and everone looks like they have an interesting story to tell. I don't feel quite right stopping random people on the street and asking to take a picture of them, so I suppose I'll just have to take my time and see if I get any good opportunities.

One thing I've noticed about India is that everyone is very well dressed. Ok, not everyone, but I'd say at least 90% of people we see all wear nice long sleeve button up shirts and slacks. I imagine that for quite a few of these people, those are the only clothes they own, but still, they have their hair combed nicely, and all look classier than John and I. We met a couple of guys on the bus who were going to take their examinations for degrees in education. They said when they get out of school, they can expect to be making about $25 per month, which means they'll be living on less than a dollar a day. It's pretty crazy to think that my backpack alone costs more than they'll make in six months.

I was talking with a few people back in Thailand about why India is a place that anyone would want to travel to. We all agreed that when you ask someone about India, the response is always something about the huge gap between rich and poor, the heat, and the train rides. They usually end with, "but yeah, it's a beautiful country." I think that's why I came to India mainly, to figure out what it is that everyone loves about the country but can't quite describe. Hopefully I'll have something to report other than that it's hot and that there are poor people here.

I guess that's about it for now. I came to try and upload some pictures, but of course, no luck. A little frustrating, but I guess I didn't really expect much else. Hopefully sometime soon.