India, India, India

What a place. Full of contradictions. One moment I am loving it and the next I am hating it. You meet or chat to really some interesting local people or you are [I am at least] left clueless at all the tourists who 'indian-fy' themselves for some reason.

Goa
I came 10 years ago and toured on the back of a motorbike with Adam but I can't remember that much. Its now full of tourists looking for enlightenment, whatever that means, but the Goans are really generous and curious of visitors that stop looking at the naval for one moment. The beach landscape is great, tranquil and full of fish. Panaji, the region's capital, is a beautiful city. Completely Portuguese in architecture and predominately christian in religion and outlook. We stayed for a couple of days exploring it. We found an amazing soon to be open art centre.

Kerala
All the tourist info brands this area 'God's own country' and for good reason. Famed for the backwaters and although they are nothing like Venice in India as the publicity says they are breath taking. The landscape's colours are so vivid and alive. Sunset and sun rise are peaceful and amazing, worth a trip by itself. In contrast Munnar is situated high up [1450m+ [I have a watch that tells me]] in the Western Ghats, a town with over 22 tea plantations spread over its hills. It was beautiful, similarly to the Chianti region of Tuscany but with the occastional whiff of tea in the air. The town itself was full of shops selling dried fruit, nuts, spices, oils and teas. Even homemade chocolate. I loved the place and if I return will spend much more time than we did hanging out there.

We have made Fort Cochin our base in Kerala before we head to Chennai tomorrow night on another overnight train. Another old Portuguese town but with Syrian Christians and one of 3 Jewish communities in India alongside the Hindus and Muslims.

I have had an insight into India which is nothing like we get told back in the UK. I have found/experienced so much I hate and find frustrating about this country but I discovered so much more that is fascinating and requires so much more thought and reflection and of course another trip. It is 3 days before we leave and come back to the UK and the FIRST big adventure will be over. Both Emma and I have different reactions to this. We are both travel tired, desperate for the same comfortable bed and being able to cook our own food but sad know that we won't wake up in a new town full of new discoveries and hassles after a relative sleepless night on Indian railways. Our big adventure has been great, amazing but very difficult to explain, particularly in writing, with lots learned about the countries and regions we have visited and ourselves. It really has made me reassess what the hell I do for the next part of my life because maybe it wasn't that correct.

Kerala

We are making our final leg of the trip through Kerala and it's beautiful. It is certainly the best place to end our trip. We've been here a week now and we've spent a few days in Fort Cochin at a homestay set in a 500 year old house, we've done a Keralan cookery class and generally wandered lazily around the streets of the town. The last 2 days were spent on a houseboat (a converted rice boat) and sailed between paddy fields, villages and past the greenest of scenery................so peaceful. Today we arrived in Varkala, a coastal town perched on top of a cliff with a beautiful beach at the bottom of the cliff. All lovely.

It's far too hot to be doing anything energetic so we are making the most of it before we have to head to Chennai for our flight home.

Hippy Dippy Goa

We arrived in Goa yesterday after an overnight train from Mumbai. The journey wasn't too bad, even though we still seem to be fighting something nasty.

We're staying on Mandrem beach and the last 24 hours have consisted on eating great seafood, reading on the beach and fighting with the waves. Goa is full of tourists, not like the rest of the India we have seen but it's a break we needed after the travelling we've been doing so far in India.

We are having 1 more day of chilling out and then we are heading inland to discover the history of the area.

We are heading to Kerala on Friday (the bit of this trip I'm most excited about) for a few weeks and then that's it. We head home - boo! It's going all too quickly.

more photos

hotel room








birthday cards from everyone








me & wine in the bath








the back of the Taj











a 40 year old whale [yes I've eaten asia]

40 in Mumbai

Well its happened after much anxiety on the run up to it I am officially middle aged and have to start being like the everyone else.

We have come to Mumbai after an amazing Jaipur and really the beginning of the India leg for me.

Emma's birthday treat for me was an amazing luxury with staying in The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower right next to The Gateway to India. It was the hotel that got hit by the terroists in November but most of it is open again and full of people so we stayed a night!!!!! Emma made it an amazing day, lots of surprises and presents and mountains of love. I am too lucky. Here is some pictures.

this morning out of the hotel window








us x x xx









We checked in at 11am then explored the huge hotel, went to the 19th floor which as it happens is only 1 floor below our room and went to the middle eastern restaurant then to the pool & spa & bar. Drank Italian red wine and went to a great restaurant called Khyber in the evening before collapsing into bed. Bliss!!!!

All of this with both of us trying to get over an head/ear infection & a bad cold set off by our visit to Delhi.

My God..............India!

We're in India and our first few days have been an absolute assault on the mind, body and senses! We arrived in Delhi at night only to have to negotiate the airport with it's car and human traffic to find ourselves a place to stay and what an experience! We found a taxi driver who couldn't speak English but we decided to chance it anyway and hoped by some miracle we would find a place to lay our heads. It was in deed a miracle, the driver was a maniac and by Delhi standards that's something. We dodged cars, rickshaws, people and dogs in between breaking down and Andrew having to jumpstart the car while other vehicles nudged and jostled with him for a position on the road. We did make the centre of Delhi but the driver had to hand us over to a rickshaw driver for the final part of the journey because he had no idea where we wanted to go. We crammed into the rickshaw with our backpacks and held on for dear life! As you can tell we lived to tell the tale, found a place to sleep and managed to eat some good Indian nosh after the ordeal. Although I have developed a nice hacking cough caused by the pollution in the air....lovely.

Delhi
The pollution hangs in the air like a fog, there are throngs of people everywhere, the beeping of vehicle horns is constant, dogs fight on the streets and there is poverty like we have not seen so far on this trip. We have seen some horrible things and been on the receiving end of a couple of attempted scams too. It really is a culture shock like no other.

In 2 days we have visited The National Museum, Humayan's Tomb, The Red Fort and Chandi Chowk (the backbone of Old Delhi) and munched our way through samosas, dosa's, biryani's, butter chicken, jelabis and benghal sweets......none of which are good for the waistline. We also squeezed in an Indian cookery course with Lubna, the lady who runs our B & B. Absolutely exhausting, thankfully our B & B was a restful retreat.

www.delhibedandbreakfast.com

Delhi is hard work but I think we managed to discover it's charms too.

Agra
We caught a really early train this morning, in the fog, to visit the Taj Mahal. I'm not sure what we expected but the Taj is actually a very peaceful place in the middle of another polluted part of India. Agra is the chemical production capital of India so you can kind of imagine what that might mean for Agra itself. The authorities are introducing eco-friendly projects to the area although I'm not convinced by their efforts so far. We are both feeling the effects of the pollution and this is after just 4 days. Incidentally, the Taj Mahal by sunset is rubbish! The pollution hides the sunlight so it's like viewing it on a cold, foggy morning.

Another early start tomorrow as we set off for Jaipur, the pink city.

Wow!!!!!!!

We have made it to Koh Lanta's beach and its 32 degrees in the shade. Hot hot hot HOT.

After spending 3 days in the south Thai jungle, swimming with monkeys, going to the toilet in our tree house with [tree] frogs, having loads of tree snakes sleep above you as you walk [quickly] on by and be eaten by the trips most aggressive mozis, thank goodness we are here.

http://www.khaosoknatureresort.com/

7 days by the beach, sun, snorkeling, BBQs, beers and staying in our brand new bamboo beach bungalows. Its going to be fun.

We have heard its cold back in the UK. We have briefly thought about you all.