So we arrived in Fort Kochin from Bangalore and Brett was feeling much much better! We found a lovely little homestay and went out exploring.

We strolled along the sea front and watched the locals fishing with Chinese fishing nets and selling their catch, really fresh fish!

We visited a Kathakali show, where the costumes and make up are unbelievable! Green faces and crazy eye movements gallore.

We decided to head out on to the backwaters and booked a 1 day trip along the main waterways, then a canoe along the smaller ones. It was so calm and quiet that we both fell asleep, ha! We tried climbing coconut trees and tasting the local alcoholic drink called toddy that they get from the trees.

We then headed up to the hills of Munnar and the tea plantations for an overnight trip. After a gruelling 7 hours on minibus with a very sweet Indian family from Delhi, we finally arrived at the top station to look at the beautiful view accross the tea plantations. Of course this was us on the trip and predictably it didn't go to plan. There happened to be a fire on the hill and the smoke blocked the whole view. Plus we could see it advancing towards the viewing platform and actually had to leave because we could hear it crackling and burning!

On the way back Brett decided to make friends with a pony. After stroking and petting it for a while he asked me to take a photo. The pony clearly didn't want to be 'papped' and whipped his head around with no warning to nip Brett on the leg. Much to Brett's displeasure and my fits of laughter.

The tea museum was great and they gave us free tea! Bonus.

After Munnar we headed to Varkala for a relaxing few days by the sea (again). We embarked on some Ayurveda treatments. No room for being shy here as they stripped us down and scrubbed and rubbed us to within an inch of our lives. All very good for us apparently, at one point I'm sure I got rubbed down with a rice pudding wraped in muslin cloth but hey 'when in Rome'!

We hope all are well at home. I'm afraid we are unable to load any photos to go along with this blog as our SD card has malfunctioned and wiped all of our photos, we are absolutely gutted. As soon as we have some new photos we will add them to the blog.

Much love to all.