We shared a train journey from Varkala with a Michael Palin look alike (he was about to embark on a 32hour train journey from the South to Delhi! Crazy!) and we saw hundreds of Indian women carrying bags of Sandalwood to take to the festival. We seem to be the only people that walk over the bridges at train stations, everyone else justs walked over the tracks - even when there are trains coming. At Trivandrum station we finally managed to find the carriage and s...

Following yet another hairy bus ride round cliff edges (this time with a driver who likes to drink whisky at the wheel) we thanked our lucky stars and got to Varkala - backpacker haven! The rickshaw drivers at the station thought it was their lucky day when we arrived and we were bombarded with "maam - you want Rickshaw?" a thousand time! We eventually got a taxi (who claimed he drove a rickshaw) and arrived at our beautiful guest house right on the be...

After a rollercoaster ride of a bus journey we finally arrived in Kumily- home of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. This was the first time staying in a large hotel which had an over friendly manager who insisted on deciding our "programmes" for our entire stay (he was particularly keen about getting us into a church!) We were excitied so see that there was HOT water available - but were confused when they told us that someone would "bring" th...

The Ashram....O my goodness...where shall we start!? (it was an experience to say the least). The Ashram at Amrithapuri is home to 2500 followers of the spiritual leader Amma (more commonly known as the hugging mother...estimated to have hugged 23 million people) The day we arrived was known as a Darshan day as Amma was at the Ashram giving blessings and offering hugs all day and all night. We arrived at Amrithapuri with expectations of backpackers and middle a...

We said our final farewells to Fort Cochin which proved to be a great introduction to India and made our way to the train station to catch our very first Indian train! On our way from the ferry the rickshaw driver chucked (yes chucked!) Sarah's bag on top of the roof and he refused to accept that it was more important than finding a husband! No husband no life! It was a struggle trying to find the correct carriage since the train was sooo long! We gave up at sat...