From December 27, 2024 until January 16, 2025, we took a trip from the United States to India. These three weeks covered everything from the Taj Mahal in northern India to Kanyakumari Beach at the very southern tip of India. Our seven member team of adventurers braved our own ignorance and inexperience to witness first hand the cultural history of India, the Lutheran missionary heritage of our family, the wonders of the wildlife sanctuaries in the Ghats (steep mountain-jungles), and finally the beauty of the Coromandel Coast on the Bay of Bengal.

  • Phase 1 Highlights : Cultural History of North India : Moghul Empire, Mausoleums, and the Taj Mahal
  • Phase 2 Highlights : Meinzen Family Lutheran Missions in South India's Malabar Coast : Trivandrum, Kovalum Beach, and Nagercoil then on to Ancient Madurai
  • Phase 3 Highlights : Western Ghats of South India : Kannivadi (Bethania), Kodaikanal Hill Station, and Pollachi/Aanamalai Tiger Reserve
  • Phase 4 Highlights : Coromandel Coast of Southeast India : Mahabalipuram and Chennai

Mahabalapuram and Chennai

Relaxing at the end of our three weeks' journey

After so many days of traveling in our mini-bus, we took a few day to rest up at the resort at Chariot Beach in Mahabalapuram an hour south of the city of Chennai. Our driver, Mr. Rajasekar, was phenomenal at negotiating the varied traffic from the croweded and chaotic city streets through the steep mountains switchbacks and rural highways. A native of Kodaikanal, he only took one day off to see his family. Mr. Rajasekar was kind, respectful, and competent and kept us all safe. It took us awhile to realize that his use of the horn was a specialized form of communication but never used out of rudeness or frustrations. While we had pre-paid for his services (including vehicle, gas, food, and local room near our hotels), his service was easily worth the largest tip of our trip. I commend him for merely keeping all of us save for the duration.

At the end of our journey, I must admit to enjoying the trip much more than I expected. Other than my wife's upper-respitory ailment for the last 10 days or so, our group managed to remember we were adventuring together and every small event was a blessing. While we are all happy to have returned home safe and sound, there is just one more"Hi-Low" game to share:

My "low" of the entire trip was seeing one of my parent's old missionary compound--of the two we visited--falling in disrepair and not being used for the benefit of the local Indian community.

My "high" however, was experiencing the warmth and welcome of every Indian we met EVERY DAY!

Mahabalapuram and Chennai

Life around a big city

With at least 30 meals under our belts, our visit to the city of Chennai was blessed with two western-style sights...one being McDonalds and the other was a Starbucks. While the coffee at Starbucks was good, it couldn't compare to the basic tea and coffee service found it the cheapest hotel or shop. Indian tea and coffee is amazing and we cannot quite match it in the USA...perhaps because the water is treated differently or the milk used is gotten from slightly different stock of cows (or other animals).

Obviously Chennai was our last chance to shop and explore India so we spent a few hours touring the city and googling sites. St. Thom cathedral--where "Doubting Thomas", one of the original apostles of Jesus was maryred and buried--was a valued visit just to see some of the history and relics. This cathedral is one of only 3 sites where apostles are said to be entombed...the other two being St. Peter's tomb under the altar of the Vatican Basiclica in Rome and St. James' burial site in Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Glacia Spain.

Along the coast of the Bay of Bengal sits the fish market where numerous buildings house the fishermen who sleep during the day so they can go out to the sea at night. Mahatma Ghandi has a statue that shows his simple lifestyle and is venerated by many Indians for his efforts to peacefully resist England's colonialization that led to India's independence in the 1940's and the largest historic democracy in the world where socialism, communism, religious secularism have--to varying degrees--coexisted relatively peacefully though with flare-ups over the decades. The Hindu religion and history is omni-present in India with numerous, sites, stories, practices, and myths that it is easy to forget that India is home to many other religions and peoples including Sikhs, Jains Buddhists,, Muslim, and Christians among others.

Other Pictures from our Trip to Eastern Coast of India

A few select images from the last 6 days in India

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