Finally, four days later than planned, we managed to drag ourselves away from lovely Varkala and headed off to visit the most popular nature reserve in India - Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Our friend Mark, who we seem to have been following since we came to Kerala, was also wanting to see a tiger and so the three of us set off together on the full day's journey up into the hills. We stopped for brunch in Kottayam, where we changed from the train to the bus a...

Fully rested and recharged after our wonderful backwater cruise, we heaved our trusty backpacks back on and headed south for the little beach town of Varkara. Three buses later and after paying yet another autorickshaw driver twice what he quoted (although only half what he demanded..."that price was for the bottom of the hill, much more to the top of the hill!") we settled into our gorgeous little bamboo hut on the clifftop and proceeded to do what it seems...

We have left Fort Cochin a little later than expected and caught a local bus on a bumpy but pretty road south to Alleppey. Alleppey is a bustling market town on the shore of a lake connected by a labyrinth of canals and lakes to villages and towns in the area. We were excited about hiring a house boat - a converted old rice barge - to cruise through the backwaters. When we arrived we found it very easy to find boats with owners willing to hire out their ...

Interwoven with countless rivers, backwaters and canals, the coastal state of Kerala, meaning land of coconuts, is without a doubt our favourite part of India so far. We arrived into Ernakulam in the middle of one of the incredibly heavy, although usually brief monsoonal downpours which inevitably leave you at the mercy of the auto-rickshaw drivers... This time was no exception, although, now armed with a little local knowlege and the essential haggling weap...

The bus from Mysore was a little longer than anticipated. We took a stopping bus and not an express. This meant we saw a lot more of the rural countryside and it was worth it, really stunning views coming down from the Western Ghats. A local guy sitting opposite us next to his wife and 3 kids shared his lunch with us, a rice dish with fruit and chilies – yum! Something we have noticed is that the further south in India you go the friendlier the people g...