We arrived in Alleppy and were immediately greetd at the train station and taken to Browns, where the very freindly owner Matthew looked after us for our stay. It didn't take long to meet two people to share a house-boat with the following day, so we spent the evening enjoying a few beers with our new friends, the owner and his various helpers. We spent 24 hours on a house-boat which is a relaxing experience to say the least. We floated along watching village li...

We are now in Varkala where we are staying on a cliff overlooking a rocky beach. There is a tiny beach and some mental waves which throw you around all over the place. Today some of the waves decided to start coming in the wrong direction, which took us by surprise and knocked us off our feet. We emerged with water up our noses and swimming costume just remaining to cling on! There's not much to say about this place, it's a bit like being in Greece as all the re...

Hot, smelly, busy and polluted. There was a really lovely zoo, gardens and museums, but it was all shut. In fact the only thing we enjoyed about the place was finding a beer shop after 2 weeks without alcohol. Bring on Goa and the cocnut feni.

Hot, smelly, busy and polluted. There was a really lovely zoo, gardens and museums, but it was all shut. In fact the only thing we enjoyed about the place was finding a beer shop after 2 weeks without alcohol. Bring on Goa and the cocnut feni.

After a hair-raising eight hour mountain journey on a local bus, we arrived in Kumily to find an eerie silence and every shop closed. Thinking the tourist season had not started, we immediately wondered whether we could catch up with the bus, but it had hurtled off down the mountain. It then began to rain. As it turned out there was a bandh (general strike) due to the governments proposal to build a bridge to Sri Lanka which would destroy some Holy sights. ...