Happy Christmas !!

Wow....Happy Xmas everyone, although does not feel one iota like Xmas at all, I (G) got sunburnt today having woken up and saw lovely 4 footers rolling into the beach I have spent most of the day in the water (only body-surfing however as the lifeguards would not allow people to hire out boogie boards as the surf was so big!!).

Happy Christmas love from Jo!!! We are thinking of everyone at home!

Anyway, back to the 21st Dec. After the Keralan backwaters we headed to Kollam whereby the plan was to canoe into the backwaters away from the main canals to experience some village life. However everything seemed to conspire against us and the lack of places to stay, (apart from an ayervedic treatment retreat which we stayed at for one night), meant that we decided to move on to Varkala for some beach relaxing and our overall plan to spend Xmas on the beach....

Ayervedic retreat was v peaceful. We didn't actually have any treatment (ayervedic is traditional herbal medicine and preventative treatments) but enjoyed staying in a cottage with a hammock outside that backed onto a lake. Also was able to handle a glow-bug, amazing thing we found outside our room, its ass just glowed!!

On to Varkala - very nice beach with loads of backpackers everywhere, massively touristy but nice to spend Christmas with other people. Groups of young Indian men come on day trips to the beach to stare at tourists in bikinis! Lots of restaurant and shops up on the cliff-top overlooking the beach. In the evening each restaurant displays its catch for the day - blue marlin, tuna, barracuda, squid, shark, red snapper, butterfish to name a few. We have eaten some fantastic fish curries for about GBP2 each (150 Rps).

We stayed in Sea Pearl Chalets which is perched on the cliff edge.... the government wanted to close the Chalets down because the cliff is crumbling into the sea (it is especially dangerous in the monsoon). Luckily the owner chucked a load of money at the authorities who then withdrew their threat - hmmm, comforting. Bribes seem to get you anything in India.

On the 23rd managed to secure some fins and a boogie board so had an awesome session in 3 foot clean waves. And no one else in the water either....

Hired a Royal Enfield for a day on Christmas Eve. A great bike, 350cc, a classic look, they used to be built by the brits when we colonised and after we left the Indians continued to build them. We headed down the coast and found some proper tropical paradise beaches with no one on them except the local fishermen and really sweet children. We came to a Catholic area and everyone was shouting Happy Xmas to us when we were riding along. The villages were preparing for Christmas Eve parties with music blasting out of loud speakers and people dancing in the street. (G helped the local fishermen pull in the net - spot the yellow hair.....)

Bumped into some pals who we met in Ooty and decided we wanted to experience a proper Indian midnight mass so we headed out to a massive Catholic church at 11:30pm (after a few too many G&T's). Varkala is a Hindu town so took taxi to nearest Catholic village. It was massively full-on, 2 hour service all in the local dialect with amazing singing and a lot of kneeling on the floor. At the end Santa appeared dancing and swinging his hips and paraded in a procession around the church.....all in all it was a bit like a weird acid trip, but the locals were very friendly as usual so it was a great experience and at the end everyone wanted to shake hands with us and wish us Happy Christmas.

For Xmas day we are staying in a 5 star hotel, paid for by mum and dad (G's). Thanks Roger and Sue ;-) Its an amazing hotel right on the beach and it will be a while before we see such luxury again. We have had a wicked day on the beach and by the pool. Had fishie Christmas lunch and just about to head out for a fishie din dins (wary of the turkey curry option!).

Happy Christmas! Love from Jo and G xxx

Kerala

Arrived Kochi in Kerala in the wee small hours and found a homestay. Kochi is a random mixture of Portugal, Holland and England with large Jewish community. Saw massive Chinese fishing nets, old spice warehouses and old Portugese palace from 1500's with amazingly colourful murals (and totally pornographic - e.g. a man with 6 arms pleasuring 8 milkmaids...).



Kochi massively touristy with loads of art cafes and nice hotels - only stayed one night, biarrely we missed the hecticness of other places (think we have got used to the constant noise of traffic and horns).

Kerala is the only decomocratically elected communist state with highest literacy and highest standard of living in India so much less poverty than other states. Hopefully other states will go the same way.

Went to Alleppey next morning which is a hectic market town on edge of the backwaters. The town is in the middle of a 12 day festival so saw procession to temple and music, fireworks etc. Went to fairground in the evening and saw the most dangerously put together rides in the world (I got stared at a lot for being the only female - women seem to retreat into their homes at night and men aren't shy about having a good old stare).

Took houseboat yesterday morning along backwaters with another couple (peaceful if it wasn't for the 6 million other boats... it is massively peak season here). Went past villages and rice paddies. Amazing food and had much fun with the other two. Slept on the boat and back to town this morning.

Its Friday 21st - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM, we will call later!!!!!

Into the hills

Up into the Nilgiri hills of India now in Tamil Nadu, drove through two wildlife reserves to get there and saw monkeys, elephants and deer en route - the smarter animals stayed away from the road!

The Jungle Retreat was awesome place to stay, in the heart of the Mudmalai National Park surrounded by electric fence to keep the tigers and leopards out.......I was wishing I had bought my air-rifle!

It had a great bar area and really friendly place - everyone ate together so we met lots of people. After lunch the staff had time-out which obviously involved a game of cricket (these people are obsessed with the sport). They seemed pretty pleased that an Englishman was so shit at it.

Organised a trek the next day with a guide and another couple (no gun). This meant venturing outside the safety of the electric fence - the comfort we were given is that the big cats rarely come out during the day.....and gladly we saw none, the closest we got was some leopard shit which our guide told us was a day old... In the end the only animals we saw were wild chickens, giant squirrel and one bison - it isn't quite the Serengeti, but then we didn't come here for the wildlife!

In all it was a 4 hour hour trek up to a tea plantation, a welcome cuppa in the village and then 2 hours back down. The people in the village were so friendly - everyone wanted us to take their pictures and show them on the digital camera. Kids appeared from everywhere to wave and practice their English.

Headed to the main town called Ooty that afternoon - it was an amazing journey up through the tea plantations. Ooty is 2,200m high and was properly cold - we had to dig out some long sleeved clothes and trousers... not what we were expecting! It was like an Alpine resort out of season but still with a distinct Indian feel - cows, horses and goats wantering the streets and rickshaws zooming everywhere... This place was a big holiday destination established by the brits in the early 19th century, so lots of old colonial hotels and buildings which are now a bit unkept. It felt like we stepped into a time warp. Had dinner in a colonial mansion recently converted to a hotel and sat by the open fire and Christmas tree. Not exactly real India, but we couldn't resist a festive evening warming ourselves by the fire!

(Dad Neil, we came back down from Ooty on a steam train, you'd have loved it!)

Currently waiting for the midnight train to take us to Kochi (Cochin) in Kerala.....we arrive at 5 am, oh joy.

Jo is still loose but getting better. I had a loose moment but back in the game after a day....

Mangalore and on....

Alright...... that train we were supposed to catch to Mangalore turned up an hour late, I reckon we'll need to get used to India's pace of life and generel lateness for everything.....

On the platform a western women in all the 'india' gear started playing bongos, and she was shit....I think I am going to have to try and be more tolerant of 'traveller' people.....they just seem like a bunch of tossers, but I had long hair and wore beads once so........

We got on the train and realised our 2nd class, non air-con ticket was a rip-off - the man had charged us 5 x the actual price of the tickets... The train carriage was like a morgue, one open carriage with bunkbeds like book shelves and people lying everywhere (and it totally stunk as the toilet was close-by). Locked our bags to our "beds" and slept for what felt like 10 mins. Arrived at Mangalore at 4:30am - we had been told 7am so you can imagine how happy we were to be on the station in what felt like the middle of the night.






Saldly so many homeless people at the station and around the streets of Mangalore sleeping on any patch of ground they can.

People are eager to help - we stood about looking lost and lots of people came to our rescue. A few hours later we were on bus towards Mysore. 5 1/2 hours on a bus through the mountains that rattled and bounced around so much our arses left the seats - the roads here are mental, huge craters and we were amazed that the bus made it. Amazing scenery though, rice paddy fields and rural villages with dogs and pigs and little kids running around.....and always people have a smile, at first they just stare but if you smile at them they give you a big grin and wave.

Mysore is cool - went to a huge extravagant OTT Palace built in 1930's with materials imported from around the world. Also went to an amazing colourful market selling insense and oils. Cows just wander the streets, so many smells and smiley folk. We got accosted in the Palace grounds by a bunch of school-kids who surrounded us wanting to shake hands and ask "which country you from?". Some people asked us if they could take our photo - it felt that we were more of a tourist attraction than the actual Palace.



Off tomorrow for a few days in this rainforest retreat http://www.jungleretreat.com/ for some trekking action.

....still solid, Jo is a bit loose.....

First week

Folks,

Arrived Mumbai, all very surreal, drove past some of the slums to get to our hotel, this place is unbelievably poor, makes us feel guilty about our privileged lives.

Spent first two nights in Mumbai adjusting to the heat, noise and mayhem that is India. Went to Gandhi museum which was very interesting, what a top bloke he was, I (G) reckon India needs a new Gandhi to sort out the massive contrast between the wealth of people here.

Ate in Leopolds (for and Shantaram readers), a couple times, saw some old temples 7AD, which consisted of digging out a hole in the rock/hillside and carving outs massive statues in there. Monkeys everywhere.....

We were approached by a casting person who asked if we wanted to be extras in a bollywood movie, they needed westerners in the background of a wedding scene. We had to decline as we were leaving that night. Have since spoken to someone else who was approached and accepted. They left at 7pm and did not actually film until 10 am the next day, no food or water provided !! Glad we declined now.....

Took an overnight bus down to Goa on Sunday, need to acclimatise and build up a bit of a base tan to get rid of the winter paleness. Slept about 3 of the 14 hour bus journey, Jo of course slept like a baby, I've got a feeling I will be spending a lot of time watching Jo sleep over the next 4 months..

Spent 3 days on a beach....managed to find the only surfboard in the whole of GOA (so it seems) and spent the day catching lovely 2 footers rollling in. Jo read a sad book and cried a lot, thankfully that book is finished so I'm going to find her a happy book next.

The food here is amazing, lovely curries and seafood.

Overnight train tonight to Mangalore, hoping to get to Mysore soon and sort out a trek into the hills.....

...all solid so far, fingers crossed.....

Welcome

Welcome all.
This is our first attempt at creating a blog so please bear with us. I hope you don't find it too dull !!
Cheers
Jo and G
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