Madurai to Mumbai (via the beautiful beaches of Goa!)

Our train journey down to Madurai wasn't as bad as we'd feared. We both had the upper berths in our compartment, which are fixed so we were able to stretch out on them any time of the day, and being quite close to the carriage roof they gave us a bit more privacy in a male-dominated carriage! We kept ourselves occupied chatting to each other and fellow passengers, reading and listening to music, and flagging down some of the snack vendors when the boredom became too unbearable. It was HOT, even with the fans on in the carriage and the windows and doors wide open. What a relief when the sun went down! Come 6:30 on the second morning we were well and truly ready to get off the train when we rolled into Madurai's train station...

The main attraction at Madurai is the colourful, magnificent Sri Meenakshi temple, which our hotel was practically next to and had a great view of from the rooftop. We visited the temple the following morning, so that day we took slowly after all that travelling - we attempted to find the market raved on about by Lonely Planet, but were disappointed to find a collection of ramshackle stalls selling fruit and vegetables. Instead, we filled the day with a visit to the Ghandi Memorial Museum, a walk, slurping fruit juice cocktails from a roadside stall, and dodging all the tailors offering exact replicas of the trouses we were wearing for 90 rupees. That night we got chatting to some other Brits travelling in India and ended up going out for dinner with them. It was a novel experience being asked what to do at the places we'd previously visited. We felt we'd passed the watershed mark of being 'newbies'!

And yet another train journey! This time we arrived at quite an unsociable time, 4 AM, so we hung around the train station at Kochi (in Kerala) for a couple of hours and were eaten alive by a swarm of ravenous mosquitoes that descended upon us. Fresh tourist meat! We were quite relieved when dawn meant that it was a reasonable time to go and knock on the door of a hotel!

We spent a nice couple of days in Kochi experiencing some Keralan culture: we watched a traditional katakhali performance; spent a relaxing day cruising the lush green backwaters Kerala's renowned for on a traditional houseboat and then a canoe (and eating some GREAT traditional Keralan food); and we got a ferry out to Fort Cochin, the old colonial part, and saw the cantilevered Chinese finishing nets being operated, the mixture of Portugese and Indian architechture, and visited the synagogue. Kochi really is an eclectic, interesting place! The only things we weren't keen on were the mozzies and stifling heat... The only way Jess could get to sleep was to stretch out under a wet sheet - the ceiling fan circulating the air meant that water would evaporate, cooling her enough so that she was a comfortable temperature. On the plus side, hand-washing our clothes was a doddle because they'd be dry in a couple of hours!

Our train journey leaving Kochi seemed to pass quickly, probably because we were so excited about getting to Goa and its idyllic beaches. This is what Sara had excitedly been waiting for almost since the moment we touched down in Delhi. And happily the beach at Palolem lived up to our expectations. We arrived early in the morning at an isolated, tiny train station, got an auto-rickshaw taxi to the beach, and literally wandered along the sand laden with our backpacks until we came across some beach huts we liked the look of. We ended up in a sweet little shack on stilts, part of a semi-circle surrounded by palms and looking out onto the beach. In the evening we were able to sit ot on our 'porch', watching the sun set and listening to the beat of drums from the beach and the waves lapping the shore... Palolem is quite touristy but not overly busy or over-developed, with beach hut restaraunts that have a relaxed ambience, serve great food, and at night extend onto the beach with candle-lit tables. Very romantic! Too bad we only had each other to share this idyllic experience with...

We weren't too lazy at the beach and didn't just lounge around all day sunning ourselves! One day we hired bikes and rode to a nearby 'wildlife' sanctuary (we didn't see much wildlife apart from some evil monkeys), no small feat considering Indian bikes have no gears or suspension, the total distance there and back was 32 km, there LOTS of winding steep hills, and it was very, swelteringly, hot. Despite the sore bottoms the following day we're glad we did it - we feel quite a sense of achievement having survived. That night we had a well-deserved homemade cocktail on our balconette, celebrating Jess's good news about having been accepted onto a Masters course back home.

We made our way north to Anjuna beach via several local buses, getting there in time for the Saturday night market, which was fantastic. A riot of lights, colour, music and crowds of people, all laid out on a hill, that was a shopper's paradise. We literally spent hours just wandering around browsing the stalls. Over the next couple of days we walked over headlands to adjacent beaches, getting caught up in the Holi festival celebrations which involves throwing around lots of brightly colured powders. Both of us now have items of clothing stained a delicate shade of pink, even after thorough washing and scrubbing. Unfortunately, Jess isn't really a fan of pink! We also hired a scooter for the day: Sara put her faith in Jess, hopped on the back and we drove up the coast of Goa and visited a laid-back beach with a freshwater lagoon we'd heard about, and also jsut to do a bit of sight-seeing. It was great fun and something we plan to do in Thailand.

The finale of our time in Goa was the famous Wednesday flea market at Anjuna. This is what we'd been saving ourselves for, and putting aside some money every now and then. Needless to say we did a bit of shopping - we didn't go as mad as we could have, but we did get some great buys after a fair bit of (enjoyable) haggling.

A bus ride and a train journey later (our last one - sob!) we're now in Mumbai, our last Indian destination before flying to Bangkok. We've found ourselves somewhere cheap to stay, and are spending our last couple of days sight-seeing, posting things home and getting ourselves sorted for the flight. And of course making the most of the street vendors and tasty Indian food, our last chance for quite a while!

We've had a fantastic time in India, experiencing so much that it's impossible to describe it all. India has exceeded our expectations, and although we're excited about Thailand we're both a little sad to leave. We're sure that one day we'll be back...