Southbound - Kerela

The train ride from Mumbai to kerela is about 30hrs and we decided that we couldn't handle it so we opted to take a flight. We had to spend one night in Mumbai and from what we saw it seems like the strangest place in the world, and I can't wait to get back up there and explore it properly.

The flight was a revelation, a 1.5hr flight instead of 30hrs on the train and it was all quite orderly and efficient. We arrived in kerela landing in a little airstrip carved from a forest of coconut palms and to another world entirely. India seems to be like that, there are so many countries within this country. Kerela is a Christian state and there are churches, statues of the virgin Mary and Nuns everywhere. It is also green and hot as all get out, but it was a nice change from the cold and hectic cities of the north.

We spent a few nights in Fort Kochin which is a little dutch colony on the coast and it was really nice and mellow, and beer was cheap and everywhere, which was another nice change from up north. There are tourists everywhere and it was the first place we have been where the tourist outnumber the Indians.

After spending a few days shopping and biking around we decided to flee the head and head for the mountains and tea plantations of Munnar which is on the boarder between Kerela and Tamil Nadu. It was gorgeous and so green, unlike anything i have ever seen. It started as a jungle with waterfalls and wild elephants, and the as you got higher it turned into a Swiss mountain town with lakes and fir trees. After eating alot of carrot \cake and tea we decided we needed some action and headed back down to the hustle of Ernakulam and checked out a Pilgramage to Shiva.

Our final day in Kerela we ventured deep into the jungle backwaters and cruised around on a boat all day eating curried mussels and drinking coconut beer, which incidentally, is much more tasty than the banana beer we had in Kilimanjaro.

Kerela has been amazing and now we are heading up to Goa to sit on a beach for a week and try to come to terms with the thought of coming home.

Also check out the pics we put up from Udaipur!

A traditional kerelan dance called Kathakali.

working on the fishing rigs

ian caught a baby hammer head shark

our elephant ride into the forest

a view of the tea and mountains in Munnar

Temple celebration

the huge elephants

a cruise through the back waters

Octopussy

We arrived in Udaipur from Jodhpur on a bus that was clearly not meant for tall people. The Indian coach busses have sleeper compartments above the seats and we were seated right at the back of the bus where each bump is amplified 10 time and we had the pleasure of taking a 400km journey on a torn up road that was being widened. When we arrived our heads were bruised and we were both a bit tired and cranky, and to top it all off someone puked all over the aisle.

We arrived just after sunset and all of the horror of the bus ride was immediately erased when we found our hotel by the lake. Udaipur is beautiful, tall clean white buildings, a great calm lake (don't get too close or it spoils it a bit) and it is surrounded by green foothills.

Despite all of that beauty it is still India and we stepped out from our hotel to find that the swear outside had exploded and there was litere

Being curried out at this point of the trip, the super touristy western restaurants we very appealing to us here and we took the opportunity to mend out stomachs with a fine German bakery, and Italian dinner (fresh made pasta if you can believe it). Despite our yearning for a good western meal, we decided to take cooking lessons which turned out to be at some guys mansion 30 mins outside of the city. Vishal, Jess and I all piled on to his motorcycle and headed off to his house in the hills. We spent the day learning how to make a few different curries, snacks, and Indian breads, and he showed us all of the different masalas and when and how to use them.

James Bond's Octopussy plays here and all of the guest houses have a screening every night at 7pm on the rooftop terrace. We were both excited to just sit and watch a movie for a night and it was cool to look out off the roof and see where each scene was shot. Fun for us but it must be torture for the hotel workers who have seen it every day since 1990.

You can only sit by a lake and drink beer so long before you have to get in it so we hired a boat to take us around the lake at sunset and getting close the the floating palace was pretty spectacular.

We both enjoyed Udaipur is was relaxing and the food was great. Our next step is to move down south to Kerela via a flight from Mumbai so stay tuned.

Finally Pictures

Ian learning to cook delicious Indian food

a sunset cruise of lake pichola

water palace

a view of udaipur from the water

inside the palace

Jodhpur

We headed on a great 3AC overnight train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, excited for our planned home stay with the family that hosted Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody while they were filming the Darjeeling Limited. We got a great tip from a friend of ours and arrived at Amar Niwas Guesthouse without much trouble. The family - Sunil and Neena - were infinitely helpful (although I shouldn't praise them until our package that they sent arrives home safely) and great friends.

We found after our first day of walking around the narrow Blue Old City of Jodhpur that it was much larger and more hectic than we anticipated, and the fellow travellers that were there were usually only spending the night on their way to somewhere else. There was however a very cool Lord of The Rings-esque fort and some great street food and we managed to bump into some friends from Jaipur to spend a day with.

We planned to send a package home from Jodhpur as our packs were becoming ridiculously heavy and we managed to acquire a few extra pieces of luggage on the way as well. We made up a list of things to buy and send home and Sunil took me all around the city on the back of his Royal Enfield to pick them up which was definitely a highlight for me.

Although not ideal, we had to spend new years in Jodhpur but we definitely made the most of it. Bars are few and far between in Jodhpur but we found a wine shop and loaded up and found on of the few places in town that served cold beer and enjoyed a fantastic dinner (some of the best Indian food in India so far) and several drinks. We headed back up to the rooftop of our guesthouse and put on some tunes and fixed some cocktails and watched an impromptu fireworks show over the Old City with the fort light up in the background. Although the fireworks were beautiful, the setting for the was urban enough to give us a feeling of what it would be like to have your city bombed in the middle of the night. In all i would have to say it was a great new years eve, and despite being in India, McDonalds on New Years Day is still the perfect cure for a hangover.

Next Stop Udaipur...

Clock Tower Market

The Omelette Shop...Amazing

Having Chai while we buy some treasures

The Fort

New Years Eve Beers

A view of the Blue City