Between the months of June and September, the state of Kerala experiences its monsoon. Endless days of rain ensue which explain the lush, green landscape - very different to what we had seen further North before the Nepal trip. After breakfast we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and set off for a walk through the town. Kerala is mainly Christian which is instantly evident by its array of churches, small cathedrals, and shrines to Mary that can be seen on a number of street corners. We splashed through the puddles as we made our way to the main Church in Fort Kochin. The town was incredibly differed from other parts of India we had seen and the main difference here was that it was quieter and cooler, although there was still the sense of a tropical, humid climate. We explored the church, built by British settlers to the region at the time of colonialism. We spoke to a few of the smartly dressed tuktuk drivers who all wanted to take us on a tour of the town. Drivers must, by law, wear an all brown uniform when driving, adding to the clean and already smart image of this state. We spoke to an older driver as we were leaving the church who arranged to meet us outside our hotel in an hour for a tour of all the towns local markets and places of worship. At 1pm we set off first for some lunch. Our man dropped us at a place he recommended. This was a restaurant that was as local as you can get. We sat down and had a few stares from the locals who were also there for lunch. Masala dosa is popular in the region, so one of them and byriani was ordered. The food in India is never a miss when eating local and today was no different. We paid the man no more than 80p for our two meals before heading back to meet our driver. Next stop was a Hindu temple where we watched some locals coming out of a ceremony. Fort Kochin is a very diverse town that celebrates a number of religions living together in peace. A Jewish synagogue, mosque, Hindu temples and a number of churches are scattered around that town. We visited the local spice market where some very pushy sales ladies were forcing packets of spices into our hands. We politely declined and headed to the synagogue. There are now only a few Jewish families in town but the synagogue is very much in use and is located at the end of a shopping street in 'Jew Town'. There were a few stops at churches including one baring the tomb of Vasco de Gama before heading to a huge hand washing laundry. Here, all commercial washing is done by hand each day. We stopped by the Chinese fishing nets before heading back to our hotel to organise transform to the next port of call, Alleppey and the Kerala backwaters. We headed off by taxi that evening for the hour and a half drive to Alleppey. We had booked another homestay which was again troublesome finding. It appeared to us that Indians cannot read maps in any way. Despite showing our driver and several people we stopped to speak to, our accommodation on the map, no one had a clue of where it was. Eventually we stumbled across it and we were down our room in the 500 year old building. It was late and we hadn't eaten so Tom set out to pick up some food at a local restaurant which was about a 20 minute walk through what was clearly the Muslim area of town, in the pouring rain! We had some local cuisine back at the homestay and organised our trip to the backwaters.