Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Heloooo!
I know it hasnt been that long since our last blog but i thought a little update was required as its been a busy few days since Cochin!
We left Cochin for a brisk 60KM ride to the town of Allepey, famous for the start of the Keralan backwaters. One quick note on the ride, Em decided it was time to put her foot down and over took the guys and drafted the aussies in front, before i knew it she was out of sight, i tried many times to catch up but she was going to damn fast! Getting briefly lost on route i eventually wandered into a shop and was given directions to our hotel. And what a hotel it was! tucked down a footpath alonside a canal our home for the next night was fantastic. We were given a hut right by the river so we spent many hours that afternoon (after wandering out to get cake and chocolate) sat on our decking reading and watching the world go by. I did spend a couple of hours doing some work on my bike as Pete our guide wanted some tips on fork servicing and as anyone who has worked in the Sandy Balls sweat shop they can be a hassle even when you have the right tools! With abit of bodging and a bottle of coke (to rid the forks of the rust) we had the suspension good as new! Abit of a busman's holiday, Em had the right idea though, watch from a distance from the comfort of the deckchair!
The next day we were on our houseboat and armed with my freshly purchased sarong we spent many hours chilling and playing cards, one major bit of drama involved me boarding said houseboat, with 25kg of rucksack on my back, the quarter of a meter leap from dry land to bat was to much and i proceeded to basically wedge myself in the gap! A most unpleasent feeling and if it wasnt for Sheebu and Joseph (our two helpers) i probably would of ended up in the water. Not much damage done though ruined one pair of shorts and a massive bruise on my left thigh! Good job i decided on boxers as the rip in the shorts would have revealed a fair ammount to all those on board! We cruised the backwaters for a good 5 or 6 hours stopping for lunch and mooring for dinner and sleep. The rooms were very hot as we only had fans so sleep wasnt the easiest. We cruised for another hour in the morning which was probably my favourite time as mist was over the water, it was quite chilly and it was very interesting to see the locals getting ready for their day. We had a long ride today, 90KM to Varkala our final stop on our tour. Mostly through fishing villages and occasionally on some bigish roads, the busiest of which Em showed expert riding skills, taking on the traffic, overtaking buses, she was riding like an Indian! Inspired by this i did the same but maybe not with the same Panache! Lunch was at what seemed to be a semi abandoned house right by the sea with rocks leading down into the warm cool waters of the Lakshadweep sea. Some of the guys went for a dip but i decided against it and hunted the shade and prepared for lunch, which as it happens was fantastic, fresh prawns, calamari and two barracuda dishes, there was also some crab but not knowing how to tackle one of these we decided to leave them be! The ride for me after this took a turn for the worse as dehydration took hold and i became really quite disoriantated and even worse the dodgy stomach kicked in! With no toilet for 30KM the feeling was fairly uncomfortable, i flagged down Joseph and Sheebu in the support van and they tried to locate a toilet for me, i was just stripping down to head out to see as Sheebu suggested when Joseph had located someone who said i could use their house loo, this was of huge relief as i didnt fancy using the fishermans methods. After practicing my squatting techniques i got in the van and proceeded to down litres of water to rehydrate, it would sem that i missed a good part of the ride, they had to rent a boat from a yoga teacher to cross some water which had flooded the road they were meant to ride down. It may be best for Em to describe this at a later date!
Varkala was/is great, we have been here 3 days now and spent most of it shopping and eating and generally wandering round. The last two evening with the exodus crew were spent in eateries and round the pool hotel. They all left Saturday morning at 1am while we slept on and checked out at lunchtime the same day. This is where it gets complicated!
We got picked up to go to our hotel- the plam leaves resort- it promised much and delivered nothing! It was in the middle of nowhere and the beach was undoubtably abit of a fishermans toilet! As we have things we need to sort out regarding Sri Lanka we need Internet and phone access and it just wasnt available, we voiced our concerns and managed to negotiate 50% of our deposit back and got a lift back to Varkala. Having no where to stay we adopted the travellers approach and armed with rucksacks we set about finding a room for the night, finding one for 400 rupees, it smelt abit and was very basic but it would do for one night while we find somewhere more perminant. We checked the hotel next door and of course it was the same price per night, didnt smell and had hot showers, still basic but comfortable. With this we went back to the other hotel and proceeded to get our gear and check out of our third hotel of the day and check in next door. Both feeling pretty happy that we have found somewhere cheap that suites our needs perfectly we plan to spend the next 8 days in total relaxation, writting and reading in some of the many bars whilst looking out over the sea.
I will update the blog again either later this week or when we get to Sri Lanka, our trip has changed slightly and we are now teaching first and elephanting second, but it doesnt bother us, we have learnt that plans need to be pretty fluid in this part of the world!
Pics soon
Mike (and Em)
x
- comments