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Well we finally made it to Kerala, starting our trip in Kochi... it just happened by chance that India were playing an ODI against Australia in Nehru stadium that day so the city was completely blockaded!
After driving around Kochi for 3 hours we realised that our driver/guide hadn't actually said a single word to us - a bit weird really, but still, we went to see the Chinese fishing nets, the Jewish part of the city and the old town.... Kochi is one amazing city, with a real mix of Jewish, Hindu, Christian and Muslim cultures. We spent hours wondering through the old town looking at ancient Hinndu antiques and statues. We've got our heart set on a sandstone Ganesh murti standing at 6 ft tall... we've negotiated a price and will hopefully order it when we get back to the UK - we could have bought hundreds of items if we could!
Our hotel was superb - a traditional village resort with only 2 guests...us two! The staff cooked up some of the best food we've ever tasted and gave us some recipes and ingredients to take with us. After getting rid of our silent driver, we managed to get a new driver (Shafeeq)... top bloke. He drove us to the hill station city of Munnar - you can't believe how green and scenic Kerala actually is... our photos don't do it justice!
After a 3hr Ayurvedic massage we were floaty light - and just chilled around Munnar for a few days, including visiting a real Tea factory and going on some nature hikes (yes thats right - we did some exercise).
We then headed to Alleppey near the beach. We started the day with a 2hr boat ride around the backwaters of Kerala - its just how we imagined it to be...palm trees, little village huts...superb! Then we spent some time on the beach to watch sunset and met a local family who were on their evening outing, who helped us to find shells on the beach.
Next was Kovalam - very scenic again but a bit too touristy... the water had too many jellyfish as well! We took a daytrip to Kanyakumari - the most southern tip of India, where the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea all meet - a place of pilgrimage for Hindus... you can actually see the different coloured waters!! We also took the ferry to the temple in the sea...amazing bit of work! Just by chance our driver asked our flight time, and when we checked, we realised it was for the wrong airport (brown trouser moment!)... we got some new tickets in the end though!
On our final day, we visited some ancient south indian temples around Kovalam - a really unforgettable experience..unfortunately though, photos weren't allowed, so we weren't able to capture how amazing some of the thousand of year old temples were and some the strange things we saw (including a 15ft statue of Hanuman made from butter!). Funniest thing was that men aren't allowed into the temples unless the take their tops off and wear a lungi (a sort of sarong)... of course Raj was more than happy to get his belly and hairy legs out!
All in all Kerala has been one of our highlights... can't recommend it enough....the sights,the food, the language were completely different to anywhere else in India...will definitely come back one day... but for now, onto Mumbai........
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