Wet season in Darwin

Most tourists come to Darwin during the dry season. God knows what they do. Most places are dry and the grass actually starts to turn brown in June. Nothing special happens at that time. However, the weather is very steady and the temperatures vary from 23-30C.

But we realised that the wet season is the most spectacular time of the year. There is spectacular lightning and thunder. Don't forget the rains and we got it in buckets loads and we have had continuous rains for 4 days. This is accompanied by flooding. Of course, not in Palmerston. The whole of NT turns green and all the billabongs are filled up. There are water flowers everywhere.

We were at Fogg dam and enjoyed some spectacular scenery and weather. Enjoy the pictures.

Back in Darwin

In KL as house guests and they were such lovely people
Swish KL

Not so swish but excellent Bukit Lawang Forest camp dinner

River crossing in Bukit Lawang

Forest camp Bukit Lawang

Majestic Orangutan

Bechak ride in Bukit Lawang

We are finally back in Darwin. We took a flight from Tiruchy to Kuala Lumpur by Airasia. Mahima joined us at KL. We flew Medan in Indonesia and were driven in taxi to a place called Bukit Lawang. This was Radhesh's wish to see the Orang utan in the wild. We stayed there for nearly 5 days. The place was beautiful with wild forests on very tall steep mountains. Radhesh and Mahima walked with Murdoch and Williams for nearly 5 - 7 hours in a single stretch

Kate and Shirley are here

Henna applied

After washing the henna offFrom atop Tiruchengode

Huge granite mountain at Tiruchengode

Temple at Bhavani

Temple elephant "blessing" worshippers

Kate and Shirley turned up after all after much expectations. However, their arrival was not without drama, thanks to Kate. Kate missed the flight to Hong Kong from Melbourne - well, you should believe that. So she became late Kate and Shirley early Shirley (Radhesh came up with these).

K and S are enjoying all the attention that they missed out at home. They are also going through interesting times in terms of food. More than the item of food, they normally ordered many more from the menu with the result they ended up eating only once in a day. Also a few problems with the type - when they wanted poori, they got parotta or vice versa. However, the best part is they didn't get a Shane Warne belly by strictly following the advice on just eating only vegetarian food. Otherwise, imagine getting baked beans from Woolies.

K and S got a nice henna tattooed. The colour and design turned out to be great. Manoranjitham did a great job on them too.

They are both in Ooty and they return on Saturday.

NT Forensics

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487760.htm?section=justin

NT forensics personnel Kym Chilton and Gino Rob are off to Victoria to help identify the victims killed in the fires. This is indeed a very tragic time in Australia and NT forensics personnel are highly skilled and experienced from performing forensics during Bali bombing and East Timor tragic events. We have worked with Kym and he is a very efficient and meticulous man. All the very best.

Figure this one

All university exams and classes in Tamil Nadu have been suspended indefinitely to protest against the killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The local Tamil Nadu Government has been protesting strongly against the war in Northern Sri Lanka and political parties of all hues have taken up this protests of conscience. However, on Telly we are now watching the third one day international cricket test between Sri Lanka and India! Go figure that.

Kurai ondrum illai

Radhesh played this song on the flute. The song was composed by Rajaji and became famous through MS.

Murali's Inner Peace

Murali has produced a flute album titled "Inner Peace". The album was recorded entirely in Chennai. The album has melodious music played in the Hindusthani style. Murali also hired a tabla player in Chennai to accompany him. The music is indeed very peaceful. Murali, Keep it up. The recording is very clear and crisp. Here is a short snippet.