After having enough of boulder-watching we continued our journey south to Kerala - this involved a night train to Bangalore and then another night train to Ernakulam. In Bangalore while queueing for tickets we met up with a couple of American/Canadian med students so we befriended them for the day and lazed around the botanical gardens in Bangalore and then caught the train together to Ernakulam. We arrived here in the unearthly hour of 5am and headed to the boat jetty to catch the ferry across to Fort Cochin. At 6.30am we were knocking on doors trying to find a room eventualy some old man felt sorry us and let us in! We then spent 2 nights in Fort Cochin watching the Chinese fishing nets and soaking up the European feel of the place. On the first night we engaged in some 'cultural encounters' and decided to watch a Kathakali show which is a tradition of Kerala..... what a pile of sh*t!! Second night minus our new American/Canadian friends we indulged in some beer drinking out of a tea pot! Cheers!!

From Fort Cochin we then caught the ferry back to Ernakulam to catch a bus to Alleppey, the so-called gateway to the backwaters. We arrived here on the Sunday so there wasn't much going on so we decided to get the 8hr tourist ferry boat down to Kollam for some more action. Although long the boat journey was good fun and was a realy good way of seeing the back waters and village life here. We also got talking to a number of other travellers here which was good fun. We had the opportunity to get off the boat half way at a crazy ashram for some brain washing yoga and mediation but decided against this! Once we got to Kollam we found a palce stay along with an American guy called Steve who we met on the boat. At the hotel we also met up with a Dutch girl called Steph so the four of us together decided to hire a house boat the next day to take us along the back waters for 24hrs. This was fab as our boat was like a floating palace with 2 ensuite bedrooms, a lounge area and our very own crew including chef and onboard masseur!! The back waters were amazing and so peaceful, the highlight was definitely our evening swim jumping off the boat at sunset!! From her the four of us headed to Varkala...

The main reason to visit Varkala is the beach which is set below huge cliffs where all the bars and restaurants are. We had 2 nights here topping up our tans, sampling the cheap cocktails and eating the catch of the day - swordfish!! Here we met Howie from the Backstreet Boys who we travelled with for the next few days.... (sorry Nicolas!!)

After Varkala we headed to Periyar, a wildlife sanctuary to hopefully spot elephants in their natural habitat.... we saw one!! Not too many animals but it was really pituresque as it was near the outskirts of the mountains. In Periyar we also had a tour of the tea plantations, a working tea factory and spice plantations. Here they grow cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, vanilla, cardamon etc. Really interesting to see where things come from and what goes in to all their curries!

After Periyar we then travelled to Munnar with Howie still in tow! Munnar is in the Western Ghats near the border of Tamil Nadu and famous for its masses of tea plantations. Munnar is set realy high up in the mountains so the bus journey here was slightly hair-raising as the bus driver didn't seem to know that he had brakes! Spent one full day here soaking up the views from high up in the mountains at a spot called top station wher you actually cross into Tamil Nadu (another state in India). We liked it here as it was a lot more cooler than the rest of Kerala - we actually had to wear our fleeces in the morning!! From here we are heading to Goa for a week in the sun and to do our washing!!!

Kerala has been fab, its really beautiful here and probably our favourite place so far! The people are lovely here, the food is good but its a bit too hot this time of year, musn't complain though!!

Lots of love and hope everyone is well,

Charlotte and Becky xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx