Kerala has been a wonderful surprise because it is so different to our previous Northern India travels. We had expected a frenetic tempo with lots of hassle and a constant feeling of exhaustion, but to date it has been completely the opposite. Only moving twice in the first 2 weeks has helped.

We flew into Cochin from Sri Lanka, which is halfway up the Keralan coast. Fort Cochin was our first port of call where we enjoyed delicious food and gained some understanding of the mix of Dutch, Portuguese and British influence on the culture. We pretty much just mooched for 3 days. The most annoying things were the mosquitos, particularly around the homestay we'd chosen.

From here we took a 7-hour train ride north to the coastal island of Valiyaparamba. This place was just idyllic. It was a very long and thin island where the only tourist accommodation was the guesthouse we were staying in - and even then there were only 4 rooms. The beach was 30m in one direction and the backwater lagoon was 30m in the other - and both were empty except for a some fishing! We had planned to stay 3 nights but ended up there for 5. We spent most of the days alternating between the hammocks, the porch and the beach; only having to expend any effort when our meals were served. We also shared a houseboat for the day with 3 others from the guesthouse. It was such a relaxing experience puttering along the backwaters and anchoring mid-lagoon for lunch. The surprise contribution of a couple of bottles of red wine from two of our fellow travellers helped too (alcohol sales are severely limited in Kerala since April 14!)

A further highlight was a Theyyam performance in a hill village. This is an anmalistic form of religious ritual linked to Hinduism unique to northern Kerala which involves drums, dance, costumes and fire. We got up at 2am and drove 40kms in order to see the culmination of 12 hours of dance - a costumed man representing Vishnu throwing himself onto a fire 40 or 50 times and being dragged out speedily by his attendants.

We finally managed to leave the beach house and wound our way by bus into the hills of the Western Ghats. At the Varnam guesthouse we had a great time exchanging tales with other travellers; and trekking through local villages and the Wyanad national park. There were hardly any animals on the safari we did but we did see a grumpy bull elephant on our way back to the guest house. Apparently 8 people were killed by elephants in this area last year.