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Wow, Kerala.
We arrived in Cochin Airport after our ridicuous journey down from Rajasthan last Tuesday. And after a very scenic, yet long and expensive cab journey ended up at our little homestay in Fort Kochi.
The Fort area is an old Portugese settlement on a little island on the Arabian sea. It doesnt seem very populous, yet there are a lot of schools in the area, and thus a lot of school kids everywhere! It is soo laid back its unreal! Instead of getting reletlessly jumped by everyone with a shop or a stall, I simply walk past, they say 'ay, you wanna blah blah blah (insert something that you would likely have no use for buying)', I say 'nah' and they just sit back down! Doesn't sound that amazing, but trust me, for india it is!
The food is also amazing. The fish is all fresh, and tastes amazing in a curry! So just been spending our time relaxing mainly for the first couple of days. Then sorted ourselves out with a houseboat trip (the thing to do in Kerala) since apparently there was a massive flood a couple of hundred years ago and now there are huge stretches of saltwaters covering a large part of Kerala.
The houseboat was very very chilled. Drifted almost silently along by the force of our captian pushing us with a stick. We sailed peacefully by some villages and some shrimp farms (very strange to think they are farmed so far inland!) Our boat dropped anchor in the middle of a small lake area for dinner which was cooked by our two chefs, and we sat and watched the sun go down over the water. Mmmm...
The night was pretty hot and uncomfortable given the necessity for a mosquito net, and the bad ventilation, but in the morning we set off for Allepey by bus. Allepey was has a nice beach area to which we had a stoll along before stopping to lounge in a hammock and read a book at a local beachside cafe., but besides this we didn't really do much in Allepey.
We left Allepey the next morning by ferrybus (the nicest journey, if slightly uncomfortable, so far!) to Kottayam to catch the bus to the infinately cooler, and less humid, Munnar hill-station.
Munnar, or more precisely the area around Munnar, is beautiful! It has rolling hills of tea plantations, and fields of spices, running rivers, and tall tree forests! Ahh.
So, not knowing what to do we set off on a rickshaw tour of the hills! Was very pleasent day, saw the dam and the lake it makes which was beautiful, went on a paddleboat (which I'm aware sounds immesely gay and 1930's summer holiday-ish, but was both fun and got some awesome photos, so neerrrr!), and went all the way up to the top station, which intuigingly isn't a station at all. It's just where the road ends!
So the next day we're not feeling entirely up for the days adventures our rickshaw driver has planned for us, so we sneak off for breakfast. After podering what to we get chatting to these guys who look like Munnar vets. Who, it turns out also don't know what to do, but have heard of an adventure sports company in the area who belong to a worldwide chain. So we agree to meet for dinner and figure out where the company is. Anyway, long storey short, one of the guys turns out to be good friends of one Mr. Richard Jennions (or scouse as you may or may not know him as) my 3rd and a half yr housemate. Small world!
So after finding the company we were looking for, we set up a whole host of events for day 3 of our Munnar stop. First we would do a rock rappell, then a skywalk, followed by a 3hr trek through the tea plantations in the afternoon. All of this was amazing, and the photos will do all the talking once I get round to uploading them!
So the next day we said a fond farewell to the beautiful scenary of Munnar on a bus journey back down the mountians to catch our train to Goa. Our 15 hour-uber uncomfortable train journey arriving at 4am in Goa! Which brings us pretty much up to date! And yes, I'm still tired! But there's the best stocked bar this side of the Arabian sea at our hotel, so I think we'll sleep well tonight!
- comments
Dad & Delphine Sounds wonderful, we'd love to be there. Can't believe you've been gone a month already. India sounds such an exciting place to visit and looks as though you are making the most of it...lucky you! Thanks for the blogs we feel as if we're on this journey with you. Take care both of you. Love Dad & Delphine xx
max reading this almost a month late but it's all sounding ace. the world's a small place when you meet friends of friends in random countries! keep safe, have a good rest of your trip! x