Varkala Beach

After some time in the highlands we felt like a spell at the beach so came to Varkala. Its a lovely beach backed by cliffs with a nice walkway along the top. Its got loads of really good restaurants and we have a fantastic place to stay.
We had three nights here then went to another beach place about 70k down the coast - we only stayed in Kovalam one night as it was such a dump...no beach, rubbish all over the place and real tacky restaurants. Whilst there we found out that many European charter flights go there for holidays...we couldn't understand why and decided to head back here to Varkala where we knew we would enjoy the sun and the beach. We haven't really spent more than a couple of days lazing about on the beach in the past 9 weeks since we got here so we are certainly making the most of it. We are catching a 17hr overnight train tomorrow to Chennai ....we are trying out first class in the hope it makes the journey more comfortable...

Houseboat - Keralan Backwaters

We took a ferry for 2.5hrs to get to Allepey where most people go on a houseboat cruise round the backwaters. We booked our boat when we got there and looked at three boats before we found one of a decent standard. It has a lovely large sitting area and our own en suite bathroom. There were three crew - two to run the boat and our own chef. The scenery really was lovely and it was so peaceful. We sat there watching the scenery drift past whilst intermittantly imbibing whatever wee snacks the chef periodically produced. We anchored in the middle of a lake at night but in a large storm we ended up dragging our anchor and intentionally arrived at shore with a slight bump of the boat. It was the only thing on the trip that didn't go as planned and we immensely enjoyed the trip on the boat.

Periyav Tiger Reserve - Kerala

We are staying here for a couple of days and did a boat trip at dawn through the tiger reserve. Needless to say the boat was packed with indians (as most places are here) who can be quite loud so we didn't see any tigers. We did see bison, Sambar and a few elephants all of which roam wild in the park so we were really lucky. One elephant swam right across the river in front of us and then had a bit of a stand off about 10m away. It was really amaxzing as we hadn't expected to see any but in fac there were over a 1000 in this huge reserve.

We visited a spice garden and saw all types of spice being used - cardamom, chilli, pepper, coffee, nutmeg, clove, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass....it was really quite interesting as the guide took us round.

Nicola has been for an auyerdevic massage and we are off tomorrow for the keralan backwaters and a stay on a housboat....should be good.

Oh one other thing - Ben is thanking his lucky stars he wasn't born in this country...the indian family who own our guesthouse have a wedding today...its a very small one with only a thousand guests!

Munnar Hill Station

We took a couple of connecting buses up to the mountains and this small town called Munnar. Its reason for being is the thousands of acres of tea plantations that surround it on the beautiful mountainsides its perched on. We took a couple of trips round the main sights, waterfalls, viewpoints and of course went to the tea factory and learned about how tea is all made. All round the countryside there were women dotted through the fields of tea picking the leaves...the smell is amazing but not really like tea (until its been processed).
The air is much cooler up here - 22 degrees so we are enjoying a break from the heat. We are staying in a "homestay" with an indian family here. The first night one half (ben's) of the bed was just a wooden table with some blankets on top...it was like sleeping on rock...the next night we managed to upgrade a little. Well worth a visit though even just for the scenery.

Fort Cochin - Kerala

We managed to wake up at 5am and get off at the right stop (they aren't announced on the trains) and we then got the ferry over to Fort Cochin. The only guesthouse that was open at half six out of the 50 or so that we passed was the one that we wanted to stay in...quite good luck. The owner didn't have a room until about 11am but he gave us a bed in his house to catch up on sleep until we could check in. Very nice of him.

We spent our time here wandering about looking at the various churches and cathedral and also at the chinese fishing nets. Enormous wooden contraptions used to suspend the nets they lower into the water and then raise up full of fish (or not as the case may be).

We have also changed our plans for some of the rest of the trip - Kerry gave us a useful suggestion of getting the engagement ring in Dubai so we cancelled the other flights we had and will now stop there for a few days on the way back. In the meantime we've loads more places to see here so we had better get cracking.

Palolem Goa - Love is in the air ;-)

Palolem was the original Goan Hippie beach and you can see why they chose this place to stay for months on end. The golden sands and palm trees along the curved beach was just amazing from the moment we arrived. We stayed at Ciarans Camp - a beach hut but with black marble floors, hot water and a lovely veranda over the garden with the beach just beyond.

As you will know we got engaged on the second night here. We went for a walk at sunset along the beach - and you can see it was beautiful - and in a quiet wee corner Ben proposed. He arranged flowers and Chapagne to be waiting in the room as a surprise for when we got back from our walk so its just as well I said yes. We then had a lovely dinner practically on the beach with another bottle of champagne to keep us company.

Panaji and Old Goa

After getting the train from Mumbai we made it to Panaji. A town on the coast that was under Portugese governance until 1961. The town though looks like it is still under their rule. Its buildings are lovely and there are churches everywhere - a noticeable difference to all the hindu temples elsewhere we have been. We think its due to this fact that there are no cows (or cow pats) on the streets of Panaji.

We took a local bus to Old Goa which was the Portugese base in the 17th century. It was apparently a very prominent and powerful town but all that remains now are the churches (one pictured) and cathedrals dotted about a small area on the banks of a river.

The food here is also very different and we can tell we are in the south. Prawn curries abound and we've had three different types already - all excellent. Its also the first town where beer is on sale very openly so we have certainly been enjoying ourselves. It does cause problems for some though - an Aussie guy was killed by his waiters just up the coast yesterday after complaining of slow service.

Bombay....as the locals call it

We got in off a train late at night (again) and it took about 20mins to get a taxi. There were loads of them but all the rip off merchants seemed to be congregated around the station. We eventually got a fair for 10% of the first few prices we were quoted.
We set off next morning on a walk round the city. We are staying in an area called Colaba, the backpacker type place and from here we wandered round one amazing building after the next. The whole city seems full of remnants of colonial times. India gate, the Taj hotel, The prince of wales museum, Victoria Terminus...the list goes on and time flew past. We watched some of the many cricket matches taking place on the oval maidens. They seem to play the stuff everywhere, from kids using tennis balls and tyres as stumps to proper official looking matches played in whites.
The city was much hotter on our second day here...the are was so humid it felt like breathing water and although the smog was overhead the sun was as fierce as its been on the whole trip. We visited the Dhobi Ghats (pictured), where most of Mumbai's washing is done. The men literally beat the clothes against a large stone over and over...clothes don't last too many washes over here but they certainly get cleaned thoroughly!
We took taxis to the hanging gardens and round Chowpatty beach and walked again for hours. The taxi's are battered old fiats. We reckon that about 80% of the cars here are Taxis...they are just everywhere. Its a lovely city and its the first place in India that feels like what we would call a city...Its definitely much more Westernised here than any other metropolis.

Udaipur

The train to Udaipur was 3hrs late which got us in about 12.45am. We found a cheap and not so cheery place which opened their shutters and let us in for the night and in the morning we went to the place we wanted to stay at. Its lovely here, as is the whole town although it doesn't quite justify its tag as the Venice of the East. There is very little rubbish here and its a quiet town. The lake is stunning and we splashed out to get a couple of drinks on the terrace of the city palace to watch the sun go down over the lake and the lake palace (of Octopussy fame). Nicola had her first glass of wine in over a month here - they had Jacobs Creek Chardonnay which seemed to go down well. Thats the funny thing with alcohol here - it doesn't appear on any menus. Instead the waiter will sneak up behind you and offer, in a hushed tone, "a lager beer". Bottles usually get brought to your table wrapped in a cloth or in some cases the beer is poured into a tea pot to keep it hidden.

I got a hair cut today...the first one since we left 78 days ago. I say a haircut but actually this involved an hour and a half of sitting in the chair. I got a head massage, a haircut, a face massage, a shave, arm massages and a back massage (all using oil) at the end of it all the old barber took a handful of detol and rubbed it all round my freshly shaved face. This hour and a half (during which elephants were trooping past the window) set me back one pound twenty (we gave the guy double what he asked for) and was certainly an experience. We have really enjoyed it here and splashing out on top accommodation and other stuff has definately recharged us a bit...We're off to get another bottle of wine now....

India - Pushkar

Someone on the bus out of Pushkar asked us why we had come to visit and the fact that neither of us could answer him probably tells the story - there isn't much here.
We arrived into a bit of typical indian town, lots of coughing, spitting and rubbish but the difference here was the smell...there were dead fish all over the lake in the centre of the town.
There is a festival to Ganesh (the elephant god of good fortune) each year. Locals carry mini metal statues of the god through the streets before laying them into the water of a holy river or lake. In Pushkar, just 3 days before we arrived they immersed thousands of statues into the lake and by a cruel twist of irony managed to kill 10,000 of the holy carp that lived there. God of good fortune my ass. You can imagine the smell of 10,000 large fish baking in 35 degree heat for 3 days! Luckily we managed to get out before the flies and the stench got too much.