Wednesday 2nd November 2011 .........chilling in Kovalam This morning we drove 4 hours south to Kovalam. On arrival our final hotel was perfect - beautifully landscaped albeit with a resort like feel. I thought I would make the most of the facilities and decided to have a full massage... On arrival I was ushered to a room where a well dressed gentleman stood. "Take off your shirt" he said. I'm comfortable with this, I thought. "Take off your shorts". I obey...

Tuesday 1st November 2011 ......the Houseboat... Allepey Crazy Brown Stig (Aju) picked up where he left off as he drove us to Allepey, a small village where our houseboat was docked. Our 3 man crew consisting of a captain, a driver and the all important chef. The houseboat had a kitchen a the rear, a small dining room and an en-suite bedroom with one double bed... I would have to be careful not to roll over in the night and give Dave a 'Mikee cuddle' :-0 At th...

It's now early in the morning of 1 November (another new month and only 7 weeks to Christmas!). Unfortunately, the weather in Periyar was not good to us and so we had no choice but to blow out the 8 hour jungle walk and bamboo rafting. So instead, we decided to quit the mountains a day early and head for Cochin on 30/10/11. The drive here was completely bonkers and our driver (with the crazy laugh) ought to be locked up for the number of overtaking moves he did...

Just about to head off to the Shreemanakshi Temple and, tomorrow, Perriyer and its Wildlife and spice market. Will add more later. Sunday 30th October 2011 .......The Brown Stig... Periyar to Cochin It had been raining all night... And as I drew the curtains in our mountain top chalet, it was clear that Dave and I should give the 8 hour jungle walk accompanied by the hanging on leeches a swerve! So we headed off a day early to Cochin. The journey back down th...

Wednesday 26th October 2011 .......family search in the floods in Madras Very tired this morning as we head off in the dark hours to the airport bound for Madras via Bombay. We arrive safely at our hotel an with a quick turnaround, we are on the road in search for our Madras based relatives. Here in Madras was our first experience of the monsoon rains.... Fortunately, we were in our taxi when it really poured. The roads were flooding, with the drainage syste...