Kerala: Mountains, Tree houses, Beaches, Italians, Boats

Hello, Holly here. I know, I know. We've been really bad at this blogging thing. Again, I'm short of time - so here is a quick update on what we've been up to over the last few weeks and a few pictures to keep you all happy.

Kodaikanal - the weather was terrible and what should have been perfect views were actually terrible. But we went on a great trek with a Nick Flugge stunt double and the grumpiest German woman in the world. (see picture) How someone can have a face like that after the amazing walk we just had, I just don't know. We saw wild buffalo and picked wild raspberries and hopped across waterfalls. It was fabulous.

From Kodaikanal we took an interesting drive to Munnar (I think I'm recapping Sam a bit here) - our car kept breaking down and we were instructed to "take photos" of the view while he stopped the car to check out the "no problem". There was a problem, he just didn't like to tell us - so we obediently took photos of the wonderful views. Here is one of those photos. Tea! We finally got to Munnar and checked into a pricey hotel so we could have our first hot shower in over a month. It was an exciting occasion. The vegetarian slop we'd eaten for the past week or so was starting to get us down. We've not been eating meat since being in India - but we've been by the sea and eating A LOT of fantastic sea food, so haven't missed meat at all. I'm pretty sick of rice.

In Munnar we were lucky enough to catch one of the weekly Keralan dance displays they put on, for free, for tourists in the local town hall. It was a hilarious evening, much like going to a school play - with the plastic chairs all lined up in the (half built) town hall. A man on a mic explained (very loudly) what each dance was about. The dance in this picture was explained as "a traditional Keralan dance often used to combat snake bites, performed at marriage ceremonies or as a ritual for problems with fertility.. etc..." A wonderful catch all dance, I'm sure you'll agree.

From Munnar we went to the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. For the grand total of less than 12 pounds both Sam and I were taken on 2 treks through the amazing wildlife reserve (in search of wild Elephants, which we did see - very far in the distance) AND stayed in an amazing tree house in the middle of the reserve for the night. We were cooked for by two local guides around a camp fire by a lake. It was magical, VERY basic and very exciting. We saw fire-flies, Kingfishers, all manner of birds, an eagle, 4 Elephants, Buffalo, some strange monkey type things... It was brilliant. This is a picture of Sam climbing into the tree house. It was VERY high up and quite scary. It rained on us VERY heavily and we were very wet, with no real way of drying out.

Next stop was Fort Kochi. We got very overexcited and finding ourselves back in tourist-land we found a French style restaurant and ordered a 3 course meal, with REAL COFFEE. I couldn't speak I was so excited. Fish, Crab, Chocolate brownies with ice cream. Ahhhhhhhh. Beer is served out of tea-pots in Kerala, because no one can afford the licence! It's like being in 20's America.

From Fort Kochi we got our first day-time train trip down to Varkala. This should have taken 4 hours. It took 6 . We were in Second Seating, which is the cheapo cheapo carriage. I have never seen or experienced anything like it in my life. I tried to take a photo but I couldn't get to my bags. In fact I couldn't move. I had a woman standing IN BETWEEN my legs. This seemed completely normal to her and everyone else on the sardine tin carriage. She pushed herself in between my legs, put her bag on one of my free knees, pushed her breasts into my face and rested her arm on my shoulder. We remained in this cosy position for the best part of 2 hours. The man sitting next to me asked if I was comfortable. I laughed. He laughed and then told me that his favorite actress is from London. Kiera Knightly. Could I get him her address. I said I'd try.

Varkala was a very welcome little piece of (hippy tourist) heaven. The weather was bad for the first 3 days, but the food was SO GOOD. Red Snapper. Blue Marlin. Sword fish. More Massive Prawns. There is always an amusing typo on the menu. Check out this one. The breakfast of all boys dreams.

We had one beautiful sunny day with a sunset that deserves to be up here. This was the first time I'd ever seen the sun set into the sea.
We met 2 wonderful and funny Italian boys on their gap year after school. We decided to head off together to see if we could find a house boat. All four of us got the train to Alleppey. It was a fairly miserable place so it was nice to have a lively group. We headed off pretty sharpish to Kumarakom on the ferry through the backwaters and checked into another home-stay before heading off to find our boat. After 4 months travelling they are hard nosed negotiators who aren't going to take any rip-off nonsense from the Indian tricksters. 18 year old Giulio scared the hell out of me, let alone the boat agent! He did a good job though. We got the boat of our dreams.

The next day we all set off, with another Italian couple we'd met in Varkala, for our 24 hour slice of heaven. We cruised around the backwaters on our AMAZING boat: flat screen TV (no need though, the view outside was all you needed), surround sound music, fantastic Keralan food cooked on the boat and served to us. WOW. It's the most luxurious thing I've ever done - and the whole thing cost less than 20 pounds a head! The boat had 3 double bedrooms, all en-suite and a beautiful covered veranda where we all hung out watching the palm trees and local fishermen drift by. It was brilliant. You should all be very jealous/go out and book a holiday to Kerala.

beautiful views

Smug Bridger drinking a coconut

After sunset. Holly & Sam on the boat.

Giulio having a little sleep. Relaxing is tiring.

We're in Fort Kochi again now and heading to Bangalore on Sunday. More updates soon. xxx Holly & Sam

The Andamans - a retrospective

namaste! (check out my hindi...i believe that means hello)

hello again to the ever swelling gonefoacurry readership. latest ratings suggest we have broken into double figures...which i think you'll agree is a real landmark.

We're now in Kerala in the tea growing heartland of Munnar. Rolling hills of tea everywhere which are absolutely beautiful. looking out over the valleys gives you an almost surreal visual blend of well manicured british hedgerows and something resembling the teletubbies landscape. Odd yet breathtaking. However at the moment Kerala seems less like the verdant sunny utopia you might imagine and more like a wet weekend in winchester...its absolutely bucketing it down and i smell a bit like a wet dog for some reason.

Anyway, Holly posted a picture of some elephants we saw on the beach in the Andaman Islands so i thought i'd write a bit about our time there. We've got some more pics we'll put up shortly.

We flew 2 hours east out of Chennai to get to the Andaman and Nicobar islands which comprise of about 200 islands. Most of which are off limits to tourists as well as Indians as there are still a great many indigenous tribes living on the islands, some of which have never come into contact with the outside world. Apparently one particular island has never been set foot on by anyone because every time a boat pulls up to the shore its met with a hail of arrows! There's something quite nice about that still happening in 2008 i think.

Our first port of call was Havelock Island which was amazing. We ended up staying in a place called Happy Resort which was essentially around 10 or so bamboo huts in a semi circle on the beach. We got stuck there for 9 days it was so nice... not to mention cheap (about a pound each a night.) Havelock is home to 'the best beach in asia'...whether thats true or not i don't know but i certainly dont think i will ever see a more perfect beach in my life. Rada Nagar beach (or beach #7 as its less romantically known) is a 2km stretch of powdery white sand, or should i say flour, backed by lush tropical jungle and huge ancient trees. Im talking BIG trees. We went there several times and there we're never more than 20 people on the whole beach. At one end the beach curls round creating a crystal clear lagoon which was our spot of choice. Elephants walk around, parrots fly about and its absolutely silent. No boats or jetskis out in front of you...no buildings behind you. simply genius.

We then hopped on a ferry across to Neil Island which made Havelock seem like New York City. 'Laid back' is not the phrase. They dont have any computers on Neil island not to mention the internet. What they did have was more beaches, bamboo huts and bikes which we rented and went exploring with. it was ace. apart from one day when i got stung by god knows what and my arm swelled up into something resembling a tennis ball.

We were out there for just over two week, then we got the plane back to Chennai and hopped onto a sleeper train to Kodai Kanal (imagine a cross between prison bunking and a hospital on wheels...very friendly inmates though). Kodai Kanal is a Hill station 2200 mtrs above sea level. On the coach up the mountains we saw monkeys, wild buffalo and inhaled the delightful aromas of euycalyptus, cardammon and an elderly Indian lady yakking up behind us for the last hour. Spent a couple of days there and did an amazing trek around the mountains (dad you would have loved it)

Anyway...thats a bit of a rushed summary but it gets us neatly back to Winchester.

Hope everyones well...what i wouldnt do for a glass of rioja and a nice bit of roast beef. speak soon. xxx

Back from the Andaman Islands

Hello! We're back on the main land and back in contact with the world! The Andaman Islands were, are and I hope will remain ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. We don't have time for a proper update now, but we'll be logging in over the next few days to fill you in on our Andaman adventure. We'll leave you with this teaser... yes, we swam with elephants. Or rather, we were swimming then turned around and saw elephants and swam as fast as we could OUT of the water and grabbed our cameras.

off to catch a train. lots of love xxx holly