We left Munar which was quite sad as i loved it there (think i really do say this about everywhere i have been apart from the house boat; i was glad to get off that), i had eaten the hottist curry in the world in Munar which made my nose and eyes run, my ears pop and also made me go very dizzy. I put the dizziness down to altitude but have now read in one of the guide books that you can get a 'chilli high' so from now on i'm going to ask for hot curries i think!

We arrived in Kochi (kind of), actually arrived in a huge busy city and had to make our own way to fort kochi. Most of the accomodation were homestays and they were all very spread out. We ended up taking a home stay which was run by the sister of a friend of the rickshaw driver (alot of thing work out like this). On first arriving in kochi, i really was not impressed, it seemed to me that it had tried to be very touristy twenty years ago but had failed. there didn't seem to be much there and was quite ugly compared to some of the places we had been. Over the next few days that i spent in fort kochi it really grew on me though and i ended up being quite impressesd. I walked everywhere, it is better this way as you stumble accross things more than you would if taking rickshaw's everywhere (i am also quite concerened about my weight from eating currries everyday). There were lots of arts and crafts shops in short streets hidden away and also lots of bbok shops; I am reading so much at the moment, it is so nice to have the time to read this much. I really recommend the read 'Shantaram' by something greggory davies (may have got the name wrong). We had a lovely local ferry ride over to one of the other islands to get to the beach. We opted for the shortist line to get on the boat but quickly realised that men board the back and wmoen the front of the boat. We took a bus to the beach, it was lovely as most of them are in the South, we did not sunbath or swim as it was very much a local indian beach where women paddle in their sari's and men swim in their litlle skirt/nappie thing made out of a big bit of cotton (i must find out what these are called. We have managed to find out why babies and children have huge painted eybrows, it is to keep evil spirits away).

In fort kochi they have massive chineese fishing nets which i helped to pull out of the water. The net did not have many fish in and it is quite sad really as this is the livlyhood of so many fishermen. Tourism has had an effect on the success of their castch but mostly it has been a result of the tsunami. I'm sure that the indian culture of how they deal with all of the rubbish that litters the streets and waters is also a major factor.

We went to spice market which was actually just a shop ( we were expecting a huge market) but it took us to a lovely part of kochi called jew town. It was full of shops with lots of hand crafted things on sale and some lovely coffee shops.

The sister at the home stay cooked us dinner one night which was lovely and cost us about 60p. She was very nice but slightly strange. She did not speak much english. One morning she was complaining that her lip hurt and when i asked her what she had done she said; "My husband, he" and then made a huge biting action. When we asked her what the beach was like she said nice but she had not seen it, she did not leave the house, only ever to lock the gate. She had a son and a husband but lived in the house on her own in one of the rooms. She did however find a lot of happiness from the bollywood movies. We have been doing alot of reading on the indian culture and the way in which women are treated here, this seems that it could be quite common around parts of india.

We took a ferry over to the station where we saw dolphins, never expected to see them in that dirty water. tThe train journey to Bombay was almost 24 hours in which we traveled in a cabin for 6 with no curtains, it was quite comfortable and slept well when the italins were not talking; some people think i talk a lot, i'm sure they mst have been on something. We arrived in Bombay late but had already booked our accomodation, i'm glad this was not the first time i had ever arrived in India, it was crazy. So many rickshaw men and randoms surrounded us staring and talking about us. I then quickly rememberred about their clearing the throat and spitting habbits which we had heard and seen so much of in the city.

Our first day back in bombay and we bumped into an indian man called kirran who we had met before and was sorting us out with bollywood extra work. He said his friend needed a favour and had some work for us cheering at the 20/20 cricket everytime they scored a 4 or 6. We jumped at the chance and said we would meet him the next day. In the afternnon we went to chapti beafch to people watch (def not to swim) and walked back. We met up with Jim again in a lovely couple of bars where i had my first really nice gin and tonic, the gin everwhere else has been horid, had a few more and some vodka's else where and chased rats all the way home trying to get a picture.

We met for the cricket the next day and were taken to some offices and sat in a board room with kiran, his friend and two other indian people. Two more came into the room with a lap top and showed us what they wanted us to be doing the next day. On the dvd popped up some cheer learders in small zebrea costumes and performed a choreographed dance for about 3 minitues. At first we were shocked and then couldn't stop laughing. The two professionals asked us why we were shocked and why we were not expecting this. They asked us if we were professional dancers to which we replied 'no' then asked us what exactly we actually do. We told them we were tourists and they excused themselves from the room. The people left in the room all started blaming each other talking about us as if we were not there so we quickly left the room and took the taxi back. Kiran met us that night and couldn't have been more appolagetic and bought us all a drink. He was very sweet.

The next day we managed to get some bollywood work and went to the studios with three irish blokes, an american bloke and a sweedish girl. We were journalist in a news room and had to wear some very very very funny outfits. Danielle had a lovely shiny suit with no arms and a big coller and i had some awful boots to wear under my very tight, shiny, pin stripe trousers. In the afternoon they wanted two westerners to have a speaking part; i was picked randomly with one of the irish lads. It was all very funny to everyone else but i got very nervous and stage fringht took over me. They just shout at each other in front of everone and everyone seemed very stressed on set. Luckily i managed to swap speaking parts with the lad and only had to say "what happened". The film is called mission istanbul and will be out in 6 months.

We took another very long train journey, this time 35 hours to Varanasi the holy city on the ganges. We spent one day walking up the river stopping at all the different ghats to see men bathing, washing their cattle or preying. Two of the ghats are where thousands if not most of all the hindu people in india come to be cremated. They arrive in varanesi to die and then the men in the family organise taking them to the ghat and spend three hours cramating them on the river side. Lots of rituals take place leading up to, during and after the cremation. It is all in aid of the after life, being pure and clenising. Women are not allowed at the ghat because they cry and if anyone cry's then the body is not pure and will not go on to the next place. We took a boat ride in the evening to watch one of the ceromonies of worship which take place everyday at sun rise and sun set. Varanesi is a very interesting place with many narrow streets where you can easily get lost. Some of the streets are blocked with huge cows. The prim minister is here today so everyting is very crazy, busy and full of police. We met a man with a monkey and he taught us how to great using our hands in a preying action rather than shaking hands.

We are now about to take an overnight bus to the nepal boarder where we will be getting another bus to katmandu.