Well, the 40 hour train journey turned out to be 57 because of a detour and then engine failure! It wasn't actually as bad as it sounds and once we arrived in Kerala we all agreed it was well worth it.

Caught our first bus from Trivandrum to Varkala. It was very different to the other places we'd visited; lots of greenery, huge palm trees and at last, a beach! Very chilled out atmosphere, felt relaxed straight away.

Spent the afternoon on the beach chatting to a German guy while Jen shoo'ed the rabie infected stray dogs off her towel! We've never been on a beach where the sea was so strong, still it was nice to have a dip under the considerate, watchful (pervy) eye of the life guards!

It was really nice to be around a few other travellers and spent the evening chatting with two 'goras' (what the Indians call white people!!). We really splashed out tonight not only did we have our first portion of meat, but we also had 2 bottles of beer between us!! It was good talking to the lads who had similar experiences as us. It was evident we were far more superior at haggling than they were, but then we are very 'worldy wise'!!

Spent another day chilling on the beach, enjoying being able to come and go as we pleased. That night a mouse came to say bye to Jen and Vic...by crawling over their face!

Next we got the train to Alleppey where we went on a house boat on the back waters. This has been by far our favourite experience of India. We floated past several different vilages watching people wash themselves, clean their clothes and swim about in the water. Sal and Vic took a dip in the hot but dirty bath...Jen was the more sensible one seeing as we'd just seen a snake swim by...oh and of course the thought of a tape worm bursting out of her ankle, she's watched some dodgy documentaries!!

Had our own captain who guided us through the trip and a chef who cooked up some lovely food; including the huge prawn we'd bought off a man in a canoe! It tasted so good!

All the kids waved and smiled as we went by shouting '1 pen, 1 pen'. We only had chocolate biscuits to offer but they went down well!

We've spent the last few days relaxing in Alleppey, being looked after by our guesthouse manager. He's so lovely and very funny (although he doesn't realise it!). He tends to ask us how much we've paid for things and then puts his hands to his head and repeats 'orrrr my got' (oh my god!). Very funny!

Yesterday we laughed as the locals pushed each other out the way in a race to buy an umbrella, shops that we hadn't seen open before were now doing a good trade...selling umbrellas. Today, as we arrived at the tropical, isolated, beautiful, 'secret beach' - we realised why!!

We're now on a mission to beat the monsoon to Goa!

Thanks for all your messages. It's great hearing from you all and nice to know you're so interested in our adventures.

Love to everyone xxxxxxx