Alampur

In what became a whirl-wind tour, went to India for 2 weeks. Found time one of the days to visit Alampur. For those who don't know where it is, its a 30km away from my home in Kurnool.. and it took me this long to visit. I guess most of us are guilty of not exploring enough of our own places, while spending tons visiting exotic places.




The temples themselves were amazing and I was completely overwhelmed by their beauty. Built in the 6th/7th century, by the Badami Chalukyas, they were reeking with history.






The priest at one of the temples, a hereditary job that has been handed over to him by his father, and generations before him, took us around the place, explaining each work of art and its historical, religious and artistic significance.





Most of the sculptures were defaced by the Islamic rulers of the later age. The Nava-Bramha temples were in a decaying state, not unlike most of Indian archeological sites, for want of proper restoration.

The archeological museum at the site, with an entrance fee of Rs3! - yes really- 3 rupees, had some more beautiful sculptures from the same period.

Time for Goodbyes

I am almost at the end of my 6 months term in the Emergency Department at the Royal Darwin. Was an amazing roller-coaster experience. Have met some very nice and interesting people and some not very nice ones. Embarrassed myself before my colleagues with my drunken antics. And the work was great. Learnt lots of stuff, or at least as James said, got more comfortable with my level of stupidity.

There are very few emergency departments in the world which can offer the kind of diversity of cases and weirdness that Darwin does and as Dr.Palmer said,there was never a boring day at work.

Great Ocean Drive

Set off for the drive the next morning. Was overall a good day except for a few minutes of showers at the near end of the trip.

There was some fabulous coastline and greenery on the way, but I must say, given the number of sites with natural beauty around Melbourne, I felt that the drive is slightly overrated as THE tourist destination.

The walks were good. We were short on time and in a rush to see the Twelve apostles before sunset, so had to whiz through. One of the good short walks was the one to Sheoak falls.

Twelve apostles was a glorious site, especially as we arrived exactly at sunset, fulfilling one of my long held desires to see the site at sunrise or sunset. Missed the last helicopter ride over the apostles by a few minutes, but we were in no mood to complain, especially as we had just survived a nail biting prospect of running out of fuel in the woods before we reached the nearest town.

Melbourne in winter

Had 5 days off and decided to visit Melbourne. Landed in the morning. After the tropical heats of Darwin, was nice to be in a cool country for a change. After a good long coffee, were joined by Sudhakar and set off to Yarra valley. The drive was beautiful. Being winter, the vineyards were just stumps of stick, but that did not stop us from wine tasting.

Came back in the evening and went around the CBD of Melbourne. Went to the 88^th floor of SkyDeck to see a bird-eyes view of the city in the night. Was an adrenaline filled feeling to be there on the top and watching the streets below.

Went back to the apartment with some take-away and opened a few bottles of very good Chardonnay we bought at Yarra, all of which we finished the same night. Must say, that was the best Australian wine I had so far.