Hello everyone! Thanks for the messages. It is nice to hear from everyone.

Day 21-23 -- Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd

This weekend we went to Kovalam, another beach resort in Kerala. It is only about 10km from Trivandrum so it was very easy to get to. When we arrived we had a look at some VERY basic and slightly grimy hotel rooms before settling on a surprisingly spacious room (with tv and hot water) for a reasonable RS 350 per night (about 5 pounds). We then went to watch the sun set and then had something to eat. After our meal we were walking back along the beach when a group of New Zealand-ers shouted over to us to come join them for drinks (paid by them, of course). It turned out that they were construction workers working on an artificial reef in the area, (strangely enough they are the same team that are doing the one in Bournemouth) to improve the surfing potential of the area and to help protect the beach. They were really interesting people and i chatted to them for a while about diving, religion, poverty, politics (amongst other things).
The next day we spent all day on the beach. I somehow manged to burn (despite spending most of the time in the shade with factor 30 on AND wearing a t-shirt all afternoon) so i wasn't too happy about that. In the evening we went for a meal and then took the oppertunity to star gaze during the powercut. The stars were amazing and i am pretty sure that we could see Mars.
On Sunday we had to check out of the hotel quite early so we sat on the beach (in the shade) with our stuff for a while. I brought myself a top, a skirt, and a wrap around skirt.

The atmosphere at Kovalam is much different than that in Varkala. Kovalam is the place where families go for package holidays whereas Varkala is much more backpapker based and is full of hippies. Oddly though, there aren't a lot of people our age in either resort. Travellers seem to be around mid 20s.

I have to go to nurse my sunburn... Love to you all. xxxxxxxx