Namaste We met our skipper Tom at the boat jetty yesterday and boarded "Eden" our home for the next 24 hours.The houseboat was two bedroom but we had it all to ourselves. As the boat left the jetty we settled back in the rattan chairs in the lounge and started to watch the world drift by. It instantly reminded me of something from an Agatha Christie film like "Death on the Nile." There was a big bowl of fruit on the table and I couldn't resist putting the pine...

Namaste After leaving behind the town with the second longest name behind this morning we took the local express bus from the chaotic bus station to head back North to Allepey or Allapuzha (which sounds like a magicians word!!) but it is the same place. Allepey as we shall call it for now is 150km North of Thiruvananthapuram (18 letters!!!) and took 3 1/2 hours on the bus which had no windows. On the way we got bumped and bruised as the bus bounced it's way alo...

Namaste It was a 7.30 start yesterday to take the bus from Palolem beach back to Margao for our train further South to Thivandrum. I was not feeling too well but as luck would have it as soon as we got to the road the bus turned up and we jumped on. I got my Rs50 ready to pay the ticket guy and he started rattling on about luggage charges, I was not in a mood to argue and handed over another Rs10 but Mel was and when he came back later wanting even more money he...

Namaste We are still in Palolem and the last few days have been really mixed. Yesterday we had to hole ourselves up in a bar as it just bucketed it down all day and the thunder and lightning was pretty impressive. It did mean that we got to watch a lot of Premiership football though and we enjoyed the Newcastle v Portsmouth game!!!! We have pretty much been curried out and last night Mel managed a delicious veggie lasagne and I tucked into a meat and potato pie...

Namaste Yesterday we left Colva behind and headed further South through Goa. Our journey started with the local bus from Colva to Margao or Madagon (everywhere here seems to have 2 names, which can confuse things a bit!!) This bus journey was a cramped affair and being British I kept giving up my seat for Indian ladies who were grateful as my Indian counterparts did not budge. On the buses here there are seats designated for ladies only and disabled persons, we ...