Hello!

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone, hope it was a good one! It was strange not being with friends and family but it ended that we made a temporary family in Varkala anyhow, which distracted us from being homesick and still sort of made it Christmassy. But it took us a week to get there…

From Pondicherry we got a very bumpy busride to Trichy, but we couldn't stay there because it was 'marriage day' and so went straight to Trivandum. This was a nice city, quite modern and had some good restaurants. We stayed a few days and then went off to our asham. This was a very weird experience!

We signed up for a two wekk yoga course there, but it turned out to be a bit more religious than we would've liked. Too many 'ommmmmm's' if you know what I mean! Also we had to get up at 5.30 and go to bed at 10 every day. The place actually had really good views and there was a crocodile lake near it (which if you could get a day pass to you could visit) that we swam in. at night we could also hear lion roars from across the lake where there was a lion safari park. The yoga was great (when we wernt having laughing fits) and e met some nice people but we decided that 3 days was enough!

So we ventured on to Varkala and had a really wicked 8 days! The beach had some 'killer waves mannn' and we got a good deal on a room. We got on really well with some other travelers who were Jamie, Ruben, Larry, Jack, Bee, Adrian, and Kate and Andy also joined us!We had one day trip to Triandrum zoo and also looked around the market there.

On Christmas Eve we all tried to go to midnight mass but the church was shut. It was all lit up though so we climbed over the gate and held our own service (even though most people wernt religious!). It was really nice though and we all just sat here (admittedly quite tipsy) and appreciated the fact that w were with a bunch of really nice people at Christmas time and were really lucky to be there.

On Christmas day we gave each other jokey presents (you might see the hats me and kate are wearing in the pictures). Me and Kate made everyone headbands. The 3 girls were known as thekates and therefore everyone was 'team kate' etc. Then we just spent the day on the beach and had a few beers and a swim and generally chilled out. It was quite surreal for Christmas day but an experience non-the-less!

It was quite sad and unsettling leaving everyone but 8 days was a long time in Varkala. So now we are in Fort Cochin, we bumped into a very camp hilarious Australian guy called simon who we met in Varkala also. Last night was new years eve and we were walkingdown the street (where most Indians were partying) and invited into a family party (that looked pretty happning and really was!) so that's where we were for the count down!

We are off to ooty today in the mountains!

Hope everyone is well and had a great few weeks break from college/ uni/ work!

All our love

xxxxx