South India...

So when we thought we had seen what Mumbai has to offer, we met Ninad, our new friend. He approached us the previous night asking to meet with U.S. When convenient wishing to ask our thoughts of India, stating he works for the university....after debating whether this was another scam we agreed to meet for breakfast. What a lovely guy...I wrote reams in his little journal whilst he chatted to james. He gave us an itinerary for the day and said his goodbyes. The next thing he was in our taxi, joining us on our tour of the city! He took us to see Chowpati beach, queens necklace and hanging gardens. And he didn't want a penny, very rare. He even turned down the offer of an ice cream. We decided to walk the length of the beach, which to us wasn't very far, half way across Ninad tells us he has never walked this far ever, think we nearly killed him. Came to the conclusion that Indians don't walk anywhere! He showed us the area surrounding the beach where the millionaires and billionaires live, one being two brothers who own the most expensive building..... This was a world away from the previous day at the slums, and shockingly the raw sewerage from the slum area leads straight into this sea!

Our time at Mumbai was short and sweet but a great experience. After city hopping for 2 weeks lets hit the beach! A crazy taxi ride a 2hour flight and a 2 hour bus takes us to kochi, Kerala. First impressions although at night, much cleaner and modern. Then, the downpour! So much rain in such little time, the roads turned into rivers and lightening lit up the sky. This was the start of some amazing tropical storms to come. We turned into a little village and was directed to our hostel by a Ronaldo look alike on a moped, whilst also bumping into Australian John, who became our sidekick for a few days. Without going into detail out hostel was horrendous, a little old guy handed us our key, and left us to it! Never in our lives have we been so warm at night. Luckily the next day we were saved by 'happy campers' hostel! Clean, friendly and 4 beds in a dorm to choose from, our home for the next 3 nights. Spent the day walking along the beach, sampling the coconuts, picking bananas off a tree and watching locals catch fish in Chinese net. Loving kochi already. Bit of a downer seeing a dead dog on the beach, horrible! Finished off the day meeting with John for dinner in a Tibetan restaurant again sat on the floor, my first time eating meat in 2 weeks followed by being ushered out the back of a restaurant to share a can of lager in a mug, as very few in the area have an alcohol license. The owner was on edge the whole time, bless him.

Our time in kochi was pretty much one of relaxation and more relaxation! Having not relaxed enough we booked a backwaters trip, involving a very slow moving boat through canals of water watching the locals on the banks go about their daily lives. Felt like we were in an old Vietnam war movie waiting for Rambo to pop up. Two men steered through the marshy, beautiful waters before dropping us off on an island for lunch. This consisted of sitting in a wooden shed with a group of 20 odd people being served a variety of curry dishes on a banana leaf all being cooked on by open fire, followed by desert a type of rice pudding and banana. James was in his element, me, well a little freaked out as still early days on the food front! After lunch we, a group of girls from London and Carmarthen and mark (the barrister) opted to transfer to a canoe. Good decision, as we got to delve deeper into the marshes, spotting snakes, fruit trees and all types of birds and insects. Great day concluded with my first chicken korma whilst having dinner with mark lovely guy who later helped me get to a pharmacist as James had been bitten on his foot, and much like james he had a funny reaction.

We loved kochi, a friendly, quiet village which felt like home ended in a trip to the hospital for james to be given 5 lots of medication and a bandaged up foot. All set for our next journey to varkala, South India. 5 hour train journey, 2nd class, no air con, fail! With no accommodation booked I recalled one hostel and directed taxi there taking with us Stefano from Italy and Flic from Australia. We spent the next few nights mainly eating and drinking £1 cocktails with these guys. James taught Stefano how to surf in the really choppy sea resulting in bruises and scuffed knees! Safe to say I wasn't going to try, besides I was treating myself to some henna tattoos in the local beauticians, which was a world away to those at home. Varkala was an amazing place with cliff top restaurants, where we watched many a storm by candlelight, not in a romantic way, but mainly due to the lack of electricity! All good though as I couldn't see what I was eating most nights. We stayed in a small home stay costing £3.50 a night (bargain) right by the sea, whilst laying in the hammock listening to our Vietnamese neighbour learning Hindu songs via u tube (probably nothing of the sort). The 'yum yum' lady (sell fruit on the beach) was by far the most entertaining local we met. She decided to sit practically on my lap, chanting 'chop chop, yum yum' in my ear for some time, thanks to Stefano informing her I was interested in buying her produce. After 30 minutes she left only to wave money across the beach from another buyer. After calling me 'loco loco' ( meaning crazy) as I tried negotiating a cheaper price we bought a pineapple lovingly chopped by hand and thrown into an empty crisp packet. Yum!

As you can tell by the blog this leg of the journey is a little less chaotic than the previous. We needed a well earned break from the chaos and relaxed we did. For those who know me, I'm no relaxer but I tried very hard and enjoyed doing so. So now we move oversea to a little island called Sri Lanka to see what it has in store. No doubt extra spicy curries, more crazy trains, challenging hostels but most of all new experiences to add to our adventure. So as they say in India 'Namasthae' until the next time.

Much love xxx