Knobby News

We began our trip with the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. Mountain Film is held over Memorial Day weekend and celebrates adventure in the outdoors, nature, the cultures that live closer to nature, the environment and saving it for the future. This year the theme was Awareness Into Action. Also setting the background for discussions was [...]

We are now in Mysore, Karnataka. Today we re-arranged our train tickets so we can make it to Hyderabad for Padma’s cousin’s engagement party on March 6 which will be attended by many of the relatives Louisa met in 1997. It will be a great occasion and nice finale to our trip!

Unlike many [...]

From Mysore we took buses and a jeep up to a small “resort” named Honey Valley Estate, a working coffee plantation (and former collection of bee hives). We arrived on Saturday to a collection of westerners, but more Indians, particularly from nearby (6 hours) Bangalore. Cool nights and eighties during the day. Today Sunday, [...]

Haripad, Kerala, India

A change from Sri Lanka. India is dirtier, noisier, and the streets and sidewalks (when they exist) are in much worse shape; but seems more alive. Maybe because Colombo was more modern and therefore less interesting. But unlike previous experiences getting a train reservation and boarding the train was straightforward. Took [...]

We’re happy to republish another fun email by Bon Caplan.

29 January 2011 Hi Family and Friends,

Thanks for all the swell notes and news. Since last writing you, Greg and I climbed the 11,000 round-trip stair steps of Adam’s Peak to see the sunrise. Louisa and Anita bagged about 5,500 of them, deciding [...]

Quite the scene even on an off day. Three times daily pujas. And outside young men dancing widely for hours to a few drums. And apparently without any special fuels such as alcohol. Kataragama is one of the two top pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka, the other being Adam’s Peak. In a big park [...]

.A restaurant in the former office of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s most recognized architect.

The following is an email our fellow traveler, Bob Caplan, sent on Jan. 21. He has given permission for us to publish it here. We will be able to post more of his stories soon.

Below are some of our first adventures. We have had the fortune of being in areas free of the [...]

The day before yesterday we arrived by train in Ella which is at about 3000 ft. elevation. Considered hill country which where the English escaped the heat of the low lands. At this time of year the hill country is supposed to be cool and dry. However like every where else in the world, [...]