The last leg of our wonderful trip in India began in Kochin, Kerela. Kochin is made up of Islands and we stayed on Fort Kochin, which was really beautiful. It didn't really look like India as it was originally built by the Dutch, so it sort of felt like we were in a different country! After another boring 12 hour bus journey we found ourselves a 'Home Stay' called The Ham Dale Inn. In Kerela, instead of guest houses, owners rent out as many of the rooms in their house as they can spare, hence Home Stay! The man that owned the Ham Dale Inn was the sweetest old man ever, and anyone who knows Heather knows what she's like for old men!! There wasn't really that much to see in Kochin, so we did a little bit of the obligatory sight seeing, and just had lots of nice walks!

On our second evening we went to watch Kathakali Dancing, which is a Kerela tradition and speciality. It was officially the most boring 2 and a half hours Heather has ever sat through, but Jess seemed to enjoy it!! It is basically a 'dance drama' that is made up of continuous drumming and symbol bashing, along with eye movements, neck movements and some very strange shouting noises! Sounds wonderful, don't you think!! Afterwards we decided that the time had come to try some fresh fish... and to be fair it wsn't that bad, we would even go as far as saying that we enjoyed it!! Jess's was on the bone, and only had the head cut off, sadly, Heather wasn't so brave!!

As parts of Kerela are Christian we decided that we would go to Mass at one of Kochin's oldest and biggest churches. The church itself was beautiful as was the ceremony, but the only problem was is that it was in Malaylam (the language in Kerela) so we didn't have a clue what was going on really, but it was still an experience!! After our 3 days in Kochin we made our way to Alleppey on a public bus (lovely) to do what everyone in the world should do at least once in their lives, go on a Back Water tour. Kerela has 900 km of Back Water network, and it is absolutely incredible.

We arrived in the evening so checked into another Home Stay called Orchid. It was the best place we stayed at in the whole of our 2 month trip. The people there were amazing. They were so nice and friendly and didn't want to sleep with us or rip us off, which is a miracle!! The 2 guys that owned it were called Arun and Ashish and they couldn't do enough for us. They took us everywhere and picked us up from everywhere so we saved some valuable cash on transport!! They only had motor bikes which was quite scary at first, but we have been officially converted and when we get back to England are going to buy one!! The Back Water tour was fabulous, we took a small canoe which was rowed by 2 men; one of them was 74 years old and rowed us round for 8 and a half hours in the blistering heat with only 2 breaks... amazing!! We had such an amazing day, we went down some really narrow canals, and went along some larger water ways, saw lots of houses and a few villages, and we could never forget the amount of rice paddy's we went past!! We took a zillion pictures which all look very similar, but it was so beautiful and picturesque that we didn't care!! All along the canals there were people washing their children, their clothes, their pots and pans and themselves. We just couldn't believe how clean the water was, you could literally see right to the bottom. It was full of tiny little fish, ducks and water lilly's. It was definately one the most beautiful places either of us have ever been.

After a couple of days in Alleppey we bumped into Cat and Marianne, the girls that we met in Goa, so we decided to go to Varkala with them for a couple of days relaxation on the beach! When we got to Varkala we were a little bit annoyed that we hadn't found it sooner because it was alot nicer than Goa, believe it or not!! It was cleaner, quiter, the beach was loads nicer and the sea was nicer aswell! We only stayed for 2 days because we were bored! We had done enough of the whole get up, sunbathe, eat, sweat, swim and go out for dinner thing in Goa, so made our way back to Alleppey to spend some of our last days in India at Orchid. We just chilled out with our new Indian friends, ate and had a few trips out on their bikes!! It was sad to leave because we loved it so much, but are both looking forward to the next part of our adventure!

We caught a flight from Kochin to Mumbai, and spent the last couple of days there just shopping and walking, we even watched a little came of cricket at the cricket maiden which was cool. We were the only girls and white people there, but nobody seemed to mind!! So here we are in a little internet cafe in Mumbai getting ready to fly to Thailand!! India has been absolutely amazing. We think everyone should come here at least once in their life as it is too hard to describe in words. We just hope that the pictures and journal entries have given you all a little glimpse of what life is like here. It is a country full of extremes, but we think that's what makes it so special. We will definately be back!!