Today we woke at six forty five to pack for the next destination... As we were returning to the same hotel at the end of the trip, we were able to leave a bag of stuff here so left behind our rum and saris and such things. Its amazing how much lighter our bags are! We packed up and Steven headed to breakfast while I returned messages online, before heading to the train station. It was so much more peaceful and a lot cleaner than the last station but I am missing the stunning bright saris that were so common in the north.

We then boarded our train to Kozhikode, once we had arrived in Kozhikode we went to a pace called Mezban where we had lunch. Steven had a delicious looking thali that even he struggled with as they kept piling on more rice. I had a fruit salad that cost the same amount as he thali but was a bit of a disappointment. After dinner we jumped in the bus to Wayanad which is a small village north east of Kalpetta. The journey took about two hours and was so sceanic... we passed forests and mountains and very few towns. Steven got quite nervous as we drove at great speed around winding roads up the mountain... with a thousand foot drop on our left side, in fact he had his head burried in my lap for most of it. as we got higher and approached the villiage the heavens opened and it poured!! was quite refreshing to be honest. We resided in a brand new home stay opposite the mountains and it was lovely. We had rented the whole house which was spilt into four flats... Two upstairs and two down. We were upstairs and our room was situated at the back, which was a blessing as it was so quiet. We had our own room with en suite ...complete with resident geeko and shared a sitting room with three others from the group. The guy who owned the place with his mum were so welcoming and friendly... They said it was the first time it had rained in a whole month just as we arrived. The view from the property was stunning. We had a football pitch in front of us and brightly coloured houses scattered around up in the trees, the kids were kicking a ball around but Steven was too shy to join them so instead we freshened up for dinner. At this time Vanessa came back from her massage giggling like a school girl... She had been sent for an Indian massage as she struggles with her back and had been in quite a lot of pain recently. Anyway she was gone a good few hours and on her return filled us in on this "special" massage. She was told to go in to a room and take all her clothes off... yes ALL her clothes... Including her bra and panties. She was then told to lay on a hard wood table that was covered in oil, where she was massaged from head to toe... Front and back!!! Haha she said she was mortified but did eventually relax. Then they put her in a box where only her head was sticking out, then hot air was blown all over her! Haha she couldn't stop laughing while she was telling us and had us all laughing at the image. Now we understand while only guys massage guys and girls massage girls... All for the bargain price of seven hundred rupees.

At six thirty we headed in to town to get some food for our lunch tomorrow before heading for dinner. We bought some fruit, biscuits and crisps... The latter for Steven who was missing the "stodge" of bread, we had walked to the bakery but that simply sold cakes. We paid for our purchases... Got our receipt stamped and headed outside, to be stopped my a man outside the door who then checked our purchases against our receipt, just to ensure we didn't still anything during the two foot walk from the till to the door. Not that this had been possible because there was about twenty people there staring a us.

We headed to a resturant called the woodlands and sat down for our meal... I didn't have a good feeling about this place as the room was tiny and when we came in they put the telly on.... Loud! We then asked the to turn it off! By now I was ravenous as I hadn't eaten much all day so we ordered promptly... Steve ordered dal and naan and I ordered a paneer butter masala and we shared a veg rice. When the meal came my heart sank.... And when I tasted it, it sank further... It was a thin waterey mess and although the cheese was tasty ...the sauce was too sweet and bland. The dal was okay but I was annoyed at wasted calories on such a rubbish meal grrr!! Went home in a strop lol. On returning we sat briefly with our roomies before retreating to bed... On entering the bedroom I thought I had walked to a David Attenbourgh documentary... There was zingy our resident gecko with a new friend and a bout a million party guests... They were these little nat things everywhere!! Thankfully we didn't care as its only really spiders that freak me out and we are in the countryside! so we switched the bathroom light in (in the hope they would retreat there instead) sprayed bug repellent all over us and climbed not bed... Zzzzzzzzzz!!