There really isn't a lot to say about or stay in this typically noisy Indian town as we were simply stopping over on the way to the hills from the coast. The highlight was walking into a shop and emerging a couple of minutes later to see a sketch a guy had done on the wall outside in chalk which was an amazing palm fringed beach, incredible how he had produced it so quickly.Our journey to Calicut was by train and we have now worked out the importance of gra...

Firmly on the backpacker trail, Fort Cochin is an island (i think) which has had very little development on it for many years and is a great place to wander, especially as a lot of the old buildings have retained their charm whilst housing some great shops. Lots of yummy backpackery type food too and cereal for breakfast which is great after too many curries for breakfast. It's an area known for its massive line of chinese fishing nets which are still used, thoug...

We had the two most enjoyable days of our Indian adventure in a small village called Nedumudy in the Keralan backwaters. The area is a series of canals and rivers which people live alongside farming rice. We stayed with a local villager called Matthew and his family who wer perfect hosts, feeding us plenty, providing travel tips and teaching us the Indian board game of Corram which we were hopeless at. We had arranged the homestay through another local man, Thoma...

Having recovered from our stomach complaints in Varkala we felt brave enough to venture onto the train up to Allappuzha, the jump off point for the Keralan backwaters which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in southern India. Basically it's a series of canals and rivers which you can cruise around in vessels of varying sizes. After checking into a pretty basic hotel we wandered up to take a look at the houseboats. These are big boats that are kitted out ...

Varkala was meant to be a bit of r&r time on the beach. Another train journey which started by me accidentally insulting my fellow passengers on the platform as I sat with my flip flops off and my legs resting up on my rucksack. I didn't realize that showing your bare feet is considered very rude here and had no idea why the train guard was gesturing to me so animatedly. About an hour later on the train, Steve realized my mistake, so we won't be insulting any...