Welcome to this, my first blog from our travels, although as always Bryony has beaten me to it by completing one on this site before me. If you're reading this, it means that you've been put on our email list of people we think may be interested in what we have to say. If you don't want to continue to get updates when we put new material on this site, please reply to us saying 'thanks but no thanks' or go onto the www.offexploring.com site and update your preferences. We won't take any offence.

As Bryony described in her last piece, we landed in a city called Kochi in the far South of India, on the West Coast. A relaxed city in a laid-back state, it was the perfect way to ease ourselves into India (great suggestion Laura!) We spent 2 or 3 days in Fort Kochin, famous for being the first colonial settlement in India, testament to which is a crumbling fort and a couple of slightly mouldy Portuguese and Dutch cathedrals.

We had some elephant-scrubbing adventures, which Bryony has written about: I've also uploaded some photos in the Kochi gallery.

After our day of pachydermal pursuits, we headed an hour and a half by weaving taxi South of Kochi to a town called Alleppey, the departure point for houseboat trips around Kerala's sleepy lakes, rivers and canals. Hiring a 60 ton, 50 foot behemoth of a houseboat, along with a cook, skipper and general hand for a couple of days, we cruised out into this lush and liquid landscape.

Sitting at the front of the boat on 2 chairs that were approaching throne status, and being served hand and foot wasn't quite the rough backpacking I had been expecting. Thankfully the beers were chilled and the food (curry-based dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner) delicious, although Bryony had started to feel curry overload by the time we had finished; I truly won't have any such problems! We spent two days cruising slowly along Keralan rivers flanked on either side by rice paddies and small concrete houses, painted with ubiquitous mobile phone service provider logos, hidden amongst a riot of jungle. Electric blue kingfishers, fish eagles, huge fruit bats, leaping fish and herons were in abundance and provided a good bit of nature spotting for us. We also had a great time talking to some of the locals on the riverbank in the local language, Malayalam - something that staggered people who had never heard Goras (i.e. foreigners) say anything in their language. Unbeknownst to them, our boat crew were enjoying translating for us: 4 schoolboys started dancing when we said hello and asked where they were going; when Bryony said she liked their dancing, it sent them into leaping raptures. We stopped at one of the crew's village, and went to the local church where we saw a wedding in progress: lots of people waiting for an interminable service to finish, but three cameramen and video guy in the church were happily clicking and flashing away.

One oily massage later in an ayurvedic (a traditional therapy for Indians and hippies) health centre later and we were back on the boat and puttering downstream - well, it had been a tough couple of days. A monsoonal thunderstorm came over and as the crew moored the boat, and Bryony and I jumped into the river for a bit of a swim, scaring the boat men who, themselves not great swimmers and worried at bringing back the boat minus one foreigner, were on standby with a life ring and a look of concern spiced with disapproval.

The landscape here is a photographer's dream: there are arresting scenes almost everywhere, and just when you start thinking 'this could do with a touch of colour to add interest', invariably from behind a bush will walk a lady in a beautiful red, orange or purple sari. I've tried to put a few photos up, but we are having some connectivity issues at the moment... hopefully a few more to come.

Lots to write about - the staggering numbers of people, Indian road etiquette, the 100% curry diet (highly recommended), people's lack of earning ability, corruption v. the Indian economic boom, but that would take hours and I'd rather be out there than sitting in an internet cafe, so will try but if not, I'm sure you understand!