Last Day

Kieran:
We arrived in Bangalore airport by 2 o'clock today, having flown from Cochin. The weather as always when we travel is overcast, wet and cold. The worst part though is that we have to wait until 4.00 tomorrow morning for our flight home.

But to save money and bother, we're not going to check into a hotel. Instead we've taken to the streets of Bangalore for the evening. We've been exploring the MG Road area, and it all seems strangely western. Clean streets, good roads, nice restaurants and shops, you wouldn't believe we were in India if it weren't for the hundreds of auto-rickshaws lined up at the side of the road and all trendy Indians walking the streets.

This is the British planned part of the city and also the most affluent but I'm sure you wouldn't have to go far to find "real" India again.We're going to hang out here until everything closes (Bangalore is an early to bed city) at 11.00 and then head back to the airport to wait around for the last 4 hrs.

Nick:
Hey folks, in Bangalore right now on Mahatma Gandhi road, the centre of it all! It's quite clean and quiet, oddly, expected it to be mayhem as usual.

We've got our big bags on us, as they won't look after them for us at the airport for security reasons... Security is nuts at that airport, we almost couldn't leave once we'd gone into departures, the automatic doors only work one way. They let us go once we explained our flight wasn't until tomorrow morning! Luckily it's a really comfy airport and has a good coffee shop.

Mountains

Kieran:

Today, we're in Munnar, high in the mountains, surrounded by miles and miles of green patchwork quilt tea plantations.We arrived here yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour public bus in the rain (as usual!). We did all our sight seeing today however, and in the morning jumped on an all day tour and managed to remain relatively dry. We stopped off at some mountain viewpoints (1800m was the highest point we reached i believe), walked to a waterfall, saw some wild bison in a forest of sandal trees (the only place they are found) and finished off with a two hour trek in the Chinnar Wildlife Park. We didn't see much wildlife, but the views were amazing.

Its pretty cool up here, with a lot of the surrounding mountains lost in white cloud. (I debated buying a jumper). When you are in Munnar it gives the town a rather gloomy feel, but when you're out amongst the countryside, it gives the whole landscape a more mystical feel. Its a big change from the coast of Kerala and a welcome one at that.

We fly to Bangalore the day after tomorrow, so are taking the long bus back to Fort Cochin tomorrow morning... Fun.

Nick:

It's raining here in Munnar! It was worth coming just for the 5 hour bus ride though (cost about 75p), the hills and windy roads are amazing, and the tea plantations were all covered in mist (it wasn't raining yet). There were no other white people on the bus either, rather nice. We've eaten at a cheap little Indian mentioned in Lonely Planet, (Kieran didn't like the food much or the weather, hope he cheers up!) and had two cups of tea already! It's also really high up, different feel to anywhere we've been so far... a worthy expedition!

We're checked in at SN Homestay, it's mentioned in lonely planet. I haven't got my internal flight details on me, our main packs are in storage at Tag und Nacht in Kochi, I'll get you the info on Monday!

If the weather is okay tomorrow then we'll head on a trek to the waterfalls and view points around here, if it's not maybe we'll hop on one of the organised car tours to all the main sites...

I've got a copy of the boy in striped pyjamas to read, I swapped it with my copy of White Tiger, which was fairly enjoyable. The book stores are really cool, they all buy sell and swap, and give you nice woven bags for your books!

Oh and as for Bangalore, we're not going to stay anywhere, as our flight leaves, at 6.50am, we have to be there 3 hours before for check in, and leave an hour or two for traffic and getting from the centre. This would mean leaving the hotel at like 1:30am anyway, so we figure we'll probably drop our bags in the cloak room (assuming there is one), see Bangalore, and then head back to the airport in the evening, and just wait for check in to open. We hear there's plenty around the airport to keep us happy we hope!

I'm not sure about what tea gets sent to Britain, but 90% of the Tea here is owned by Tata, who make most of the tea for India, and also all the cars too... We know lots about tea now! There's all kinds here, but that's true of all of India, the tea tastes as good as anywhere, but no more... Will explain tea when I get back.

Next day....
We hopped on a tour around the area which was cool. We shared our bus with two Swedish couples who were rather nice. We saw all the tea plantations and had them explained, and also saw coffee and pepper being grown. Then we visited some Sandal Trees which make Sandal Wood (funnily enough), visited a waterfall and saw some Wild Bison... After that they dropped us for a two hour hike around Chennar wildlife sanctuary. As usual not much there! A couple of monkeys, and some very very distant bison. The views however were spectacular, really high peaks stretching far off in to the distance, and plenty of mist. It did rain a bit but not too bad.

A nice day, but we're pretty tired out. We've managed to move hotel rooms, because our previous one was right by reception and really noisy! Oh and when I said we were at SN Homestay, we're actually at SMM Cottages Homestay whatever, SN is a restaurant across the road, very confusing...

I finished White Tiger on the train to Kochi, it was fairly insightful, and reassured me that I had the right idea about a lot of things too... If it's a highly exposing novel, we've seen the vast majority of things mentioned in the book. Not an amazing story though, he starts by telling you the end, and there are few surprises!

Anyways, we're back to Kochi tomorrow morning by Bus. We'll confirm our flights and book our taxi when we get there, and maybe spend some spare rupees in Jew Town, and hunt something out for Danbam.

Kochi

Kieran:
We arrived in Kerala or "the land of god" at noon yesterday. Our homestay seems really nice and we have the next 3 nights booked there. We spent the rest of yesterday and this morning looking round Fort Cochin, doing a little antique shopping in the old European looking Jew Town and giving a helping hand to the fisherman in operating their 19th Century fishing nets along the harbour.

There's not loads to do here, but we've found a really nice teashop with real character, that we've visited twice so far and will probably become our local, being our substitute for the non-existence of bars or any nightlife. Tonight we're excited about going to see Kathakali Theatre! Its the dramatic art of Kerala and is supposed to be something special. Kerala has very similar scenery to Goa although we are now coast to a different sea, the "lackschweep... sea" something like that. ( Actually Lakshadweep.) Anyway, it rained heavily and continuously last night, but luckily we woke up to a hot if not so bright day.

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Alleppi and the backwater's, where we embark on a 7hr backwater trip. Our plans for the near future include, taking buses inland to the highlands and visiting Munnar (with its vast hills of green tea plantations) and another wildlife park called Periyar. These two excursions should use up our last remaining days before we fly to Bangalore.

We played with the idea of visiting Varkala further down the coast, but decided we were done with the beach scene and wanted to experience something different. Last night we walked along the harbour, amongst a huge crowd of Indians and caught an amazing sunset. Sorry that this blog doesn't really have any logical order! oh well...

Nick:
The train journey wasn't too bad, but uncomfortable, Kieran barely slept... Luckily our hotel is really clean with soft beds. We're going to rent bicycles I think, as it's all a bit spaced out here and oddly quiet! Weird place, we've not explored much yet, but it's hard to tell where in the world you are, all sorts of cultures and religions and nationalities happening all over...We can get a shuttle bus right from our hotel to the backwater in Aleppi and be back the same day, which is very helpful! Might do that Friday, and then catch a train down to Varkala a couple of days, then back to Kochi for our flight to Bangalore. We'll investigate our plan and keep you posted!There's Katakhali (think I spelled that right) to see here, plays with cool face-paint in the evenings. Also lots of quirky art shops and places to eat. Okay, hope you guys are good, we need to get rested and refreshed!

Yeah the hotel is lovely, we have a twin room, so only 250 rupees each per night! It's very comfy and the couple who own it made us an awesome breakfast this morning. The lady is German, and they guy is Indian, they're both experts in the local martial art here!

Really like Kochi a lot, last night we stumbled across hundreds of Indian people on the little beach (we think celebrating Ede, they all were Muslim from what I could tell!), got some great photos as the sun set.

This morning we've rented awesome old bicycles, and been to see the Chinese fishing nets. They caught a small tiger fish, cat fish, and lots of jelly fish. They let us help pull in the nets too which was cool.
After that we cycled over to the antique market in Jew Town, it's amazing! I got a couple of old photos, but I could have spent way more time there, not really Kieran's thing, I'll try and go back before the end...

We decided against Varkala, sounds too much like what we've already done in Goa! Instead we might catch a bus to Periar wildlife sanctuary on Saturday, which is supposed to be awesome, do a night there, then go to the tea plantations in Munnar, do a night there, and then catch a bus back to Kochi, for our last night. We're going to a tourist information to try and work it out... Back waters tomorrow though, very exciting!

Kochi is very laid back and brilliant for photography. Seems to be the case in the south that the food is amazing, and cheap, love it! Last night I even found beef on a menu, and had Ginger and Onion Beef, with a garlic Naan. Mmmmmmm. All for 110rupees, (about 1.30pounds)

Tonight we're off to a Kathakali performance, we're told it's good. Going early to see them do their make-up.

Goa; South young man

Kieran:

Yesterday we shared a taxi with two other travellers (who we met the night before) to Palolem in South Goa. Two hours down the coast, the weather's still great, the beach is even nicer and there's far more going on down here, than in Anjuna ( I guess the low season affects the north more than the south). The food's a little more expensive here, but the quality of the meals seem better, so that's good.

We seem to have made a group of four for the next couple of days, with the two solo travellers we shared the taxi here with. I think we'll look at getting another moped tomorrow to explore the area, much the same as North Goa, but with a few more hills.

Today's been a great day for people watching and we spent a lot of the day just sat in a restaurant, talking and watching the day go by. We saw a cow chew on a man's vest for half the day without his knowledge, and helplessly watched a huge group of dogs violently attack a lone one, while men from the restaurant rushed out to break it up, throwing rocks at the vicious mass.We were told at dinner last night that we missed out on a beached whale that was saved only the day before, bummer!

We leave this evening for Cochin in Kerala, continuing to hug the coast south towards Bangalore (our final destination). We only have to endure an overnight train journey this time, so shouldn't be as taxing as the the last time we used the train.

The past couple of days have been spent relaxing on the beach and in restaurants, but with little else to do, you can't feel too guilty. Although as a change to disturb the peace, we did take a moped out to a rainforest wildlife park further inland and spent a good 4 hours, navigating the awful tracks on our bike, dismounting every so often to adventure off by foot into the dense forest, stumbling across a tree houses or two nestled high in the canopy. We didn't see much actual wildlife in the park, but were constantly walking into thick cobwebs everywhere and as we drove, did see a large owl swoop across the road ahead of us. We did managed to find a large spider under a tree, a few other creepy crawlies, some tree swinging monkey's and plenty of mangrove crabs.

The best food I've had so far in India has been in Palolem and there's no shortage of eateries and bars to enjoy the evening. All I seem to have done here is eat, drink, swim and sleep and it's been nice but I'm glad to be moving on.One night, we spent an evening on the beach with a druken goan fisherman, who had a screw loose or something, but had spent the last 37 years in goa and has had a film made about him. He owned a drum, on which he only knew one tune and which he played endlessly. But my favourite moment was when he pointed at a red boat light out at sea and said that it was the planet Venus!... we doubt that this washed up hippie is ever sober or actually gets any fishing done. He was accompanied by an also drunk (though not as far gone as his friend) Polish man, who as far as we could gather from his very limited English and use of hand gestures, had come to India on a boat illegally and had no visa... It turned out to be a very interesting evening, which lasted well into the early hours of the morning. Our two other travelling friends left us yesterday, one going on to a party elsewhere in Goa and the other returning home after 3 months in India.

Nick:

Patnem is literally one beach south from here, it's very small, and only about 2km away I think. Oh and Chicken Dumpling stew please, how exciting!

Our hotel in Palolem is called Wavelet Hotel, Kieran's still sleeping there now as he stayed out a little later than I did last night. There's a pretty happening beach bar/dance club thing here which we went to with our new friends from Anjuna, Meg and Tom. It was pretty nice sitting out on the beach under the stars, but the club was a bit annoying, so not what I came to India for! Kieran was enjoying it though, so I let him stay and hit the bed earlier. I think it was a good move as I've had this morning to myself! I found a place that does awesome coffee with a good window view so I could draw and lyric write. I took a few photos of quirky things at my leisure and went trawling through a bookshop. Want to read something by an Indian author, but not sure what I'll enjoy... Any ideas for me?

It's a nice morning here, all bustling, I quite enjoy getting off on my own actually for a change, Kieran and I are getting on just fine, but you always need a break at some point!
Everything is in walking distance in Palolem, it's really only two streets, so it's dead easy to wander off on my own, and meet up on the beach or in the hotel.

Probably will get ourselves a moped at some point soon, if Kieran ever wakes up!

Next day: Hey dudes, thanks for the e-mails. I think it was just the soap, not insects! Looks better now I've rinsed everything. Have seen those Banyan trees around, they're beautiful, and some hints of Mangrove, but only very small patches. No fairy terns sadly, no gull/tern like birds of any description actually. Bee eaters, King fishers, some little wader like birds, and I'm pretty sure that there's a white Belly Sea Eagle floating around!

Last night was a thunderstorm, really far out at sea, lit up the sky brilliantly. We ran into some odd half Indian, half Polish hippy who's lived in Goa forty years. He was drunk off his head, and kept playing us songs on his drum. He claimed to know 200 songs, from different countries. You could say any country name to him and he'd play the song, but it became hilarious very quickly because each song was exactly the same!

Our friends Meg and Tom and heading off separate ways today, so we're back to a twosome tomorrow. We're going to investigate visiting Cotigao wildlife park. I could see about a recipe book for you... Last night we ate a red snapper (but I think that's actually their name for generic large fish, it wasn't really red). The four of us shared one big one, and it was really good! Got a photo of him. He came with some rice and salad and even chips! Most things have a western slant on them here, but there's often some unusual spice or something odd thrown in!

New moped has no name, we only took it for half a day, it was black with little personality... There's also an hour boat trip up the river you can do here, where we can see more Monkeys. I'm trying to persuade Kieran that it'll be fun!

Today we biked out to Cotigao wildlife park. It was pretty cool, no guides this time, or other people in fact! Just us on a dirt path with our moped around a pretty huge thick jungle park (i think we drove about 8km in to the park and 8km back) We had to get off at certain points and walk to observation platforms, which was where we saw most things. Little lizards, frogs, a thin black snake, some big spiders! There were monkeys all over when we were in a tree top tower, was pretty cool. Sadly we didn't see much else, no panthers, porcupines, Lori's, Bears, or squirrels, but they are in there somewhere! The best sighting of the day was a huge owl that flew in front of us. I showed my photo of it to the ranger at reception and he said it was just a common owl! Oh well, it looked very big and impressive to me.

When we got back to the entrance, some people were offloading a van with injured wildlife in it for the sanctuary to look after. They had a bag with a couple of pythons in, a caged monkey and a croc, with it's mouth and arms duct taped up! They didn't mind me getting close and taking some pictures, so they're pretty cool. We're off to Kochi tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, our train leaves Margao at 20:40, and should get in at Eranakulum just after 12.00 noon the day after (wednesday). We've also booked our hotel already for Kochi, at a place called Tag und Nacht, so we'll be there the first couple of nights at least!

I'm not sure about the spider, will show you picture! Was a bit crab like... lots of thick webs everywhere. We didn't quite feel the owls wingbeat, don't recall hearing it either, but we had our moped engine running at the time...

Picked up a copy of white tiger this morning for the train, already started over lunch! It's quite insightful, a very good thing to read while in India... We're checked out of our hotel, and just hanging out taking pictures before our taxi takes us to the station. The sky is pure blue today, pretty glorious.

Exciting to be moving on to our last week. We hope to catch a bus south to Alleppy and take a back waters tour there, we'll see, they have a travel desk at our hotel in Kochin. Also looking forward to seeing you guys soon!

Sunbirds

Kieran:

Since arriving in Goa, we've been taking it nice and slow. Yesterday we took Sasha (the name given to our pink moped) up the coast to a place called Mandrem (hailed as the best beach in Northern Goa). It took about an hour to get there, following the coastal roads (some tarmac, some dirt) over headlands, bridges, through paddy fields, small villages, seeing numerous small white churches and Hindu temples along the way, hidden in amongst the lush green landscape. The ride alone was worth the trip but when we got to the beach, we were amazed. The beach was annoyingly difficult to get to, but almost made the discovery onto the beach even more rewarding.

The beach was a vast, gentle strip of golden sands, dotted with palms and backed by small dunes, hemmed in by a lagoon. To get to the beach we had walk across a long wooden bridge over the lagoon. When we reached the other side, I realised one amazing thing, there was not another person in sight, we had the entire beach to ourselves... Soon enough though, a boy trying to sell stuff appeared, almost out of nowhere, but after no luck in convincing us to see his wares, defeated, he turned and went back the way he came.

The water was the clearest and the warmest we had seen so far, and we could wade out quite far and only be up to our knees. Walking further along the beach, we discovered something completely bizarre and a little creepy. From afar they looked like bits of drift wood, but as we got closer they turned into something altogether different. At first I though it could be the severed torso of a man. It wasn't until we were almost looking down onto what was lying in the sand that we realised what it was.

It was two dead dogs, both bloated, one with its hind legs tied, still intact (that Nick wanted to believe was a polar bear...) and the other missing everything except its main body (the one I thought looked like a mans severed torso, which I thought was an easy mistake to make). They were both in various states of decay and lying on the far end of this beach in the middle of nowhere, we could only assume (after much discussion and imaginative fabrication) that the dogs washed up onto the shore after drowning in the sea and one had its head bitten off by a shark.... yeah that's right. Why the hind legs bound? I have no idea, I guess for some reason, someone threw it out to sea?...

Anyway, over the past few day's we've spent a lot of our time exploring the area on Sasha, relaxing on beaches and taking long time out's for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For our final day in Anjuna today, we plan to visit the flea market and maybe relax on the beach in nearby Baga.

Tomorrow we leave for Palolem in south Goa where we'll stay for the remaining five nights in the state. A nice change of scenery before continuing south by train to Cochin!

Nick:

We're off on a bike trip to Mandrem beach today, supposed to be a bit nice an undiscovered up there. Last night we tried some of the bars in Vagator, was quite a nice evening. The bar staff next to our guest house (Shore Bar) spotted me drawing some of the dogs on the beach, and flicked through my sketch book. When we came back later they gave me the back of a scrabble box and asked me to make them a no smoking sign! I made it a bit arty and took a picture of it nailed on the wall, was very proud.

During the day there are Kingfishers all over the wires, and then at night lesser spotted owls replace them all, as do the odd firefly. We also had a humming bird (we think!?) flying around us at breakfast. It flew just like one and had a long beak. It was larger than a ruby throated and didn't make a humming sound. It was sort of greeny brown on the back with a cream belly and dark beak. (It was a sunbird. Ed.)

Oh and Kieran's got two tickets to see Regina Spektor in Birmingham, hopefully I'll get to use the other one. But you guys should seriously see if you can do like you did for James Taylor, and see her in London or join us in Birmingham! Might have to be quick on tickets though. You sure deserve it!

Okay we're off on the road!

(next day) Mandrem yesterday was amazing, it was a beautiful drive up there through back roads, and when we eventually found it, there was no one else there! Big stretch of sandy beach all ours. We had to cross a little marshy river over a cool rickety bridge to get on to the beach, it's one of my best photos.

Despite being the only people, a kid selling sarongs managed to spot us from miles off and gave us the usual, "Hi, How're you? Where you from? you want to look at my things?" They're everywhere on the beaches and very persistent, but we're good at shaking them off, haha. Even in deserted Mandrem...

A little way along we stumbled across some (we think) dead dogs, with their legs bound, obviously washed up. They were a bit bloated, one looked like a Polar Bear at first! it was a very Lost moment... Pretty mysterious, they might make it into a story.

We ate lunch there also and had my first seafood here, some garlic fried calamari, which was probably not the best ever, but good all the same.

Wish I could see river dolphins, that last Chance to See show sounds awesome!

Today we're off to the Flea Market, and perhaps Baga for dinner in the evening. We've also been asked by the guy in shore bar to paint Che on the wall! I guess we'll do it after the Flea Market, he's providing paints for us, and we'll just need to print off a picture to work from at this Internet cafe... Should be fun!

Tomorrow we'll take a Taxi to Palolem, and stay there a couple of nights, then maybe move to Patnem or elsewhere, depending on how things look in the south!

We looked in to Hampi, there are trains here most days of the week, and that's the best way to get there. However Kieran and I read up on it in our guides, and we couldn't actually bear the thought of more temples and tourism! The descriptions were all too familiar, and while I'm sure it's pretty cool, we didn't want to go all that way for another temples with entrance fees and metal detectors experience, they're not all that spiritual!

I think Kochi might live up to Goa, if we get on a good backwaters tour and Bangalore is only one evening, so we'll see it and dash. Goa is really nice, free and relaxing, but it's not so "real" as Rajastan was, we even passed a Dominoes Pizza last night! The moped driving has got to be one of the best things about this holiday so far though...

The dominoes pizza was legit, they have the real signs uniforms and everything, there is also Baskin and Robin's and a Subway... It's odd here, in one way it's not real India, and in another it's more real, because it's modern India, while Rajastan has remained so firmly stuck in the past! It's a lot cleaner safer and modern than anywhere we've been in Rajastan.

The Che mural was interesting... I just did what they asked, and added the words "FULL POWER" in big silver paint across the wall. I'm not sure I really like it, but they seem pleased and gave us all our drinks and chips free for the evening! I've got photos of Kieran and I painting what became the two Che's, and of course the final product, will show you when I get back!

On to today, Palolem is awesome! We taxi shared with a guy from London and a girl from Ireland we met in Shore Bar painting last night, so that cut our costs a lot! They're very nice and we're hanging out with them this evening too. Our hotel is cleaner than Anjuna, and we've got some English TV channels too, absurd! The beach is stunning here, scattered with hermit crabs and dead cuttle-fish... Cows all over it! Hopefully we'll get a new bike tomorrow, and explore again. Would have been nice to hit the shell beach, but it's quite out of the way, too far by bike! Agonda and Patnem are certainly on the cards, and maybe Colva.

Had best food yet today, Goan Chicken Chilli Fry, with Naan, yummmmmmm! In retrospect it tasted sort of like a really extra good Mexican fajita. I had it on the beach front as the sun set. There's tons of beach side restaurants with good atmosphere.

Pink moped?

Nick:

Kieran didn't bring a phone with him sadly, we're hunting for an alarm clock for time keeping... I'll try and do daily e-mails for you, we'll be fine. As for drying the phone out it's not got much better, I think the salt really crippled it. It vibrates a bit and the screen goes a streaky white colour, but that's all it does!

Anyways, we're in Vagator right now, we took Sasha our moped out here, it's the next beach north. We climbed up to an old ruined fort and got a big old view. Black Kites are like seagulls here, everywhere! It's nice, but I think Anjuna is better and cleaner. We have a good bar next to our hotel on the beach, where kingfisher beer is 35rupees. There's also lots of opportunity for more western style food here, pasta and pizza! It sounds very inauthentic, but we really need it. Our stomachs just don't want any more rice dishes or Indian food!There's another more party party bar further down Anjuna beach which is pretty busy, but the Goa crowd doesn't seem to be our crowd so far. Lots of hippy families, and ex nineties ravers! It's not bothering us though, it's very relaxing and inspiring here.

We're staying at our hotel now until Thursday, when we'll likely head south to Palolem or Patnem. Sunset Guesthouse is run by a nice Christian grandmotherly lady, it feels like the Caribbean or something here, it's very cool and very different. Crabs all over the rocks on Anjuna beach, they crawl in to holes as you walk by. Think I've seen three kinds so far. The water's a bit murky and sandy, not really a snorkeling destination... maybe we'll find a beach that is! The fish are sort of plain black and white. Like Seychelles in some ways, but then not as glorious in others, really brings back memories of rocket waves and whatnot though.

We're loving having the moped, might take it further afield tomorrow. More tourists than expected all over on mopeds too! Hope you guys are well, would love a home update.Speak soon!

As for pizza in wood oven, we had one last night! Really yum, couldn't resist, could smell it from down the road. Haven't tried seafood, but lots of places are doing it. The food is cheaper and really good down here, it's really fun finding new places to eat each day on Sasha! We have a favourite place called Blue Tao, they have a chess set and book shelf, and awesome breakfasts. Last night we sat there playing chess over a pot of Chai. Today we drove the scooter to Baga and Calungute, usually I drive out and Kieran drives back. It was pretty crazy busy once we got into Baga, reminded me a bit of Victoria, but possibly more traffic and hectic.

We didn't stay long except to run some errands, as it was no fun on the bike... Disappointed not to see a fish market! I found a little local electrical stall by the side of the road, and managed to negotiate an alarm clock for only 160 rupees, it's big and clunky, but all the more cool for it! So we're back on time keeping which is helpful. The drive to Baga however, is really cool, we went through local streets and back lanes. It's so Seychellesque the way people live here, washing hanging everywhere, little old bungalows! Must take my camera out on a bike trip one of these days and do some journalism. Getting plenty of photos though already, fear not.

Wish I could remember better what Choppies (on La Digue) was like, but it's all reminiscent of places I've been before, and the lady who owns the guest house reminds me of someone too, just not sure who! Her son is really nice, and helped us get started with the scooter. Very homely and friendly.

Looking at the phone, the battery or sim card aren't the problem, but it seems like there's salt clogging up the general electronics of it, you can see it in the charge sockets, they're full of gunk. I've sort of given up, it's quite depressing! Dad did show me how to use the wallet, and it all folded down and buckled up as tight as possible. From looking at it, I'd guess it seeped in little by little through a seam... Oh well, we have a kitsch alarm clock, and e-mail!

Oh and rocket waves were when the wave sort of formed a window over my head yeah, like I was driving a spaceship. I think it only happened the once on Cousin (Island), and never again! Indeed we were warned about rip tides and back-pull, but the far corner sheltered by rocks is where we've swam and it seems fine.

Arrived in Goa

We're in Anjuna now, weather is amazing here, it's very very beautiful! Reminds me a great deal of Seychelles. Churches and neon crosses everywhere also. Bad news though, that waterproof wallet is not so waterproof! My phone got damp while wading in the water and doesn't seem to be working. I'm letting it dry some more, but I'm not holding out much hope. Silly me. I asked in a store that sells phones and they didn't think my simm card would work in an Indian phone. I could buy an Indian phone and simm card, but it would probably cost an arm an a leg to text back home.

There's Internet everywhere around here, so it shouldn't be much problem to get in touch, but we will have to find a new time keeping device. Big pain... oh well. I can also call you if I feel like it, there's loads of tourist facilities in Goa.This morning we got off our train, which wasn't too bad. An Indian girl introduced us to "How I Met Your Mother" and American TV show on her laptop! We picked up a cab to Anjuna, and we're staying at the Sunset Bar and Guesthouse at least for tonight and tomorrow night. It's right on the beach! We've rented a moped from them too! It's pink and very easy to get around with, we've only explored Anjuna on it so far, but we'll probably visit Vagator this evening. It's really nice here actually, should have no problem being occupied for 10 days. Pretty bummed out about the phone though, it was very comforting having you guys so easily reachable... We'll be fine though, don't you worry.

Spotted striped fish in rock pools, and lots of crabs everywhere.

Two days on a train

Kieran:

We awoke to cloudy skies, which extinguished our hopes of seeing the Taj at sunrise. Still when we got there, the gloomy atmosphere certainly added something to the experience. The great marble structure seemed haunting against the dramatic backdrop of grey morning fog and cloud.

It hurt our pockets a little to pay 750 rupees (8 pounds) to get in but we didn't think that the Taj would be an exception to the rule that India milks every last rupee they can out of their heritage.

Anyway, we then visited the city palace, which was a little disappointing but maybe it was because it was the last thing we would see in Rajasthan. We got some snacks for the train journey and got dropped off at the station by auto-rickshaw with our rucksacks. Sure enough, the train came and we spent the next 36 hours in a sort of space capsule of a carriage, but a little more like prison.

Luckily, we met an Indian girl on the train who we watched films with on her laptop, so time went a little quicker than it would have.

But now we are in Goa, in a little guesthouse on Anjuna beach. We have acquired a moped, which is good fun and get us round where ever we want to go, and we are gradually slowing down our pace to fit with that of the Beach lifestyle, but its not that easy!

Good news; the beer is cheap, the water is warm, the skys are blue and the palm fringed beaches are endless!

This is where we are staying. http://www.andrewgreen.biz/sunset-bar-restaurant-guest-house-goa.html

Nick:

Train is still cool, but starting to get bored. Bags are all locked up in the bed with me.

Talking to a boy about tigers, is funny!

We can walk round, but there's not much to see, and its not all so clean! The boy is a bit annoying, now trying to teach me Hindi!

He's on my bunk! Everyone in this class is pretty well off though; ipods and laptops; first we've seen.

Food not brilliant, might survive off all our snacks!

He's gone. I told him I was asleep. We've met a nice student girl our age we're chatting with now. Can see out the window now too.... Not much to see.

We would like to visit Hampi, but not sure how easy it is to get to. 'Hope we like Anjuna. If not, we'll move south! Might rent mopeds, that would be fun.

Getting off at Madgaon, then we'll get a taxi to take us up to Anjuna. This be the plan...

Agra

Kieran:
We left Jaipur early the next day, as we had two stops to make on the way to Agra. The first was Bharatpur, where we wandered and rode (by cycle-rickshaw) round the wildlife park for a couple of hours. We were lucky to see a variety of animals and birds including; antelope, white-faced monkeys, mud-shell turtles, herons, kingfishers, spotted owlets, a night jar and swarms of colourful butterflies to name a few. Shortly after leaving Bharatpur we arrived in Fatepur Sikri. This is an old mogul ghost town with yet another fort. There was loads of interesting information about this place but I won't rattle on about it now.

The place was heaving with scamsters and numerous people trying to sell us chess sets, which was a new one! Supposedly the fort in Agra is symmetrical to this one, so we wont be going there! We were hounded into a Muslim sacred temple, carved out of white marble, in which we had to wear funny plastic caps to cover our heads. I couldn't believe that there were yet more scamsters in the temple itself! We ended up in Agra in the evening and got an early night as we had a very early morning start, a small price to pay to get to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.

Nick:

I am in Agra now, we visited the Taj Mahal at 5.30 this morning in misty weather, shortly before the sky began to pour with rain! No sunrise sadly, so the marble adopted a sort of grey colour. It was impressive, but no more so than I imagined it would be, very bare and small on the inside! Agra is painted very blue, some amazing looking hardware stores full to the brim with junk and black dirt! Quite a dark city though, not seen much charm yet.

Bharatpur bird sanctuary was a good stop yesterday. The guide pointed out a pair of small owls, and a Scop's-eared owl, small green bee-eater, some gold back (I think) wood peckers, storks, a stilt, jungle babblers, a very rare supposedly grey night jar, lizards, turtles and antelope.

After that we stopped by Fatipur Sikri, which is a ghost fort outside of Agra, abandoned due to short water supply hundreds of years ago. Sounds cool, but it was much like all the other Mughal architecture we've seen, and that's a lot! Also full of beggars, and people pushing sales, our guide was also particularly boring/pointless, not to mention the pouring rain...

We're looking forward to hitting Goa! Our driver says not to book a hotel in advance, as it's off season, we'll be able to get really reduced prices by showing up in person. So we've got a list of places in the Anjuna area to try out. We'll likely do the same in Kochin.

Train journey is at 5.50, on the Goa express, we'll stock up on snacks shortly! Starting to feel the effects of all the Indian diet by now, got all my meds on hand just in case... I've charged my phone so I should be contactable on the train, but you never can tell. Train should arrive on the morning of the 12th.

Hope you guys are still good, mbuhs for all! If you want to edit down my e-mails into travel blogs for family do feel free.

As for the shops that we go to, sometimes they're big establishments, like the painting school in Udaipur or the Tailors in Jaipur, but other places are essentially peoples homes and friends of the driver, such as the rug place and a silver smiths we got ushered in to. We're getting a lot of insight, but only because people think there's prospect of a sale! Interesting conversations generally only spring up where a tip might be expected, though I also think that people's English is sometimes limited to what they need to make a living and not much more.

Jaipur

Kieran:

We arrived in Jaipur in the afternoon of the 7th. After checking in to our hotel, we went to view the water palace and a temple complex by the lake, but not before riding an elephant! The next day we got up early to lose ourselves in the maze of courtyards, corridors and narrow stairways that is the Amber Fort. We then dived into the old city (where most things are painted a hue of pink). We visited the City Palace, which after paying 300 rupees to get in, was rather disappointing. Though there is the possibility that our judgement is a little jaded, after seeing so many similar structures throughout Rajasthan.

We finished the day by going up to the old fort, situated in the hills that tower around the city. Up here, our eyes beheld the largest cannon in the world (made of eight metals, weighing over 240 tons, and manouvered by 4 elephants, it could shoot a 50kg ball 22 miles off into the horizon.... and it only fired once.) Though, the views over the city and beyond were what really made it worth the visit. Anyway, after sunset we walked to the water palace, this time to see it lit up, casting colourful reflections over the pitch black, placid waters.

Nick:

Jaipur:

Hey Guys, worn out today! Rode a poor elephant; a bit depressing actually. Not like I expected. Jaipur not really my kind of place so far, but we’ll see more tomorrow. Hope you guys are doing OK, very hot day! We are up and down all the time, usually worst in overly touristy bits.

Bats all over fort ceiling this morning. Not too bad today. Just not our favourite! Looking forward to moving south. We'll ask driver for train advice also. Should be an experience....

Hey Guys, just been round bird sanctuary! Saw grey nightjar, bee-eaters, storks, antelope and more! Not good year for park though, quiet for birds. (Most birds arrive for the winter, from late September)

They don't do bike hire any more. We got a cycle rickshaw and a guide to show us around . Just visited Fatipur Sikri; was pants. (I remember her from school, she was pants then too, Dad.) Can't wait to escape to Goa!

Train is at five in the evening. we're in second air-con class. Hope its pretty good. We'll get snacks tomorrow before we go. 'Night!

A Hindu Pilgrimage Town

Kieran:

We arrived today in Pushkar, a holy hillside town beside a holy lake. Hindu's flock here in huge numbers to bathe in the ghats, cast flowers into the waters and say prayers.

It was also the place where Gandhi's ashes were scattered. It seems to have quite a relaxed atmosphere (for India) but for the moment we seem to have lost our driver, so are waiting for him at the hotel...

Nick:

Hey guys, we've got some time to kill at the hotel here in Pushkar, not sure where our driver's got to?! Oh well. We're kind of worn out today anyway, stayed up a little later last night talking to a young Australian couple at our hotel, who're on a round the world trip, they're hitting most of the same places as us with their driver. Nice people! Not seen much of Pushkar yet, but it's very quiet and serene, a supposed Hippie destination. We just took a walk around down a path, and photographed some parakeets, also ran into some Monkeys! Photographed an Indian roller from afar too. Also a pair of black birds with very long forked tails. hmmm

Our hotel here is one of the nicest so far, spacious and with pool, but it looks pretty murky!

Kieran's travel blog is here, he's got it mostly up to date I think! www.travelpod.com/kiza88

Last night we attended a folk dance, with live music which was really cool, but packed out with tourists in Udaipur! I got some cool sketches of people dancing. Then as we went to leave we were stuck in night time gridlock, which felt like a very Indian experience, hoards of people and motorcycles, with cars unable to move! Other than that not much to report since last e-mail. One favourite sight I forgot to mention, was a few days back in the desert, we came across hundreds of shoes, mostly black rubber sandals dumped by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I asked if a container had dropped or something, but apparently it's people making a walk to the temple without shoes. They all leave them in the same spot and finish the (presumably very long!) journey by foot. It was really cool I thought...

PS Staying in Pushkar tonight, not seen the lake yet, still waiting on driver, hope to catch it for sunset! If not we'll see it tomorrow morning. Looking at pictures I believe we have a pair of Forktailed Common drongo. Not racket tailed sadly. Cool all the same!

Might have seen a spotted owl. There were lemon and mango trees all over! We have great views of hills here. Hot but peaceful, rocky and green. Give Dan an Mbuh.

I got a photo of our boy guide, and some kids who were following us. Just about to visit the lake in Pushkar.

Seen kingfisher, hornbill and small owl. Night Night!

The Venice of the East

Kieran:

The scenery from the car on the short drive to Udaipur was really beautiful, climbing and falling, following the road around the green, forested hills, taking in more lakes and a few rivers.

Once in Udaipur we visited the gardens and the Udaipur art school (famous for its traditional miniature painting), where both myself and nick bought some art painted on silk.

Udaipur is set beside a large lake (made in the shape of India..) and contains a fair few bridges (thus tagged "the Venice of the East"). We visited the palace, which had nice views over the lake and the green hills hemming it in.

For the evening we watched some traditional dancing and music in an old haveli and, on returning to our hotel, we got chatting with another pair of travellers long into the evening.

Nick:

Just heard from my bank. They say keep an eye on my Visa account as it’s active here for ten days, but it’s high risk to use an ATM supposedly! Saw kinfishers, heron and I think also a hornbill. Got photo.

Hey guys, you would love it here in Ranakpur. Green hills full of birds and butterflies. Nice temple also. Got money from cash card too. Relief!

The bird we saw wasn't a hoopoe, the crest was more straight like a cardinals, but body wise it was very hoopoe like, but grey. Hmmm... I've seen Bulbuls now, got a good photo. Beutiful little owl by our restaurant last night, sitting on top of a pole. White breasted king fishers everywhere! Also I think (i hope!) a grey hornbill sitting in a tree. Got picture, but not so clear. Certainly had the double beak thing going on though. Ranakpur was very special, luscious and green and full of wildlife. For 50 rupees a boy took us on a walk round the ponds, and through some gypsy villages. It was so nice, and rained pretty crazy on us just as we were finishing up! Saw at least 3 kinds of heron, swallows, terns, probably indian rollers, and more... Possibly a fly catcher? Would need Jo's bird guide when I get back!

Yeah foods good, not too hot, no stomach problems, but we're following all the eating advice! Usually have rice, chapati, plus a different vegetarian curry/dal option! Loving the dum aloo potato dishes. Food in Ranakpur was best yet. Our driver knows all the room numbers in hotels by heart, so he's always checking to see that we get good ones, and if we don't he takes us to another hotel! All have been comfortable, affordable and good food.

Quick dry pants are brilliant, love em. All washing dries over night, no problems, and that soap stuff is great! And nope we've not got time to head north, we're gonna take 8 days relaxing round Goa, might be nice to see one place for a while! And then Kochi, and then Bangalore for flight. We think we'll book it through our driver, but we'll check price is right first! Let you know plans as they update.

Rain isn't much of a problem down here, it just serves to give us a nice cool down when it happens! We're in Udaipur right now, driver says he'll show me the painting school, just have to not get suckered in to buying anything!

Yeah we saw Bulbuls with black heads, grey bodies and a red patch under the tail, but that's not what we saw in the desert... totally different shape, still a mystery! We've seen lots of black faced monkeys this morning really cool! there should be more to come, and white faced ones too according to the driver. More of these kites, both kinds I think, some unknown large rugged white hawk int he desert alone in tree. Maybe a vulture of sorts? Got a good close up photo of a kestrel (might be something else though), and also an elegant medium sized all white hawk, but quite far way! Wish i'd brought bird book, but oh well.

Visited the painting school where they make amazing Indian miniature paintings, got to see people working on them, and showed them my sketchbook, think they liked it! Also managed to buy some of their tiny brushes off of them!

Music wise, our driver has only one CD and poor radio reception, we know the Cd back to front by now! It's from a Bollywood movie apparently... We were performed to on the night of our camel safari by a three piece Indian folk band, they were quite cool. Awesome castanets.

Oh and you're quite right about temple and fort pictures, everyone takes the same ones, and they also all look the same when I flick back through them. trying my best to get city pictures and more unusual scenes, sometimes hard where there are lots of people, you cant safely get a camera out... Got some nice ones of a small festival in Jodhpur for Ganesh, people throwing pink and orange powder paint around in crowded streets.

Just been brought a chai by someone in the hotel staff, hooray! I didn't order it, and they'll probably put it on the tab, but oh well! Kieran and I are going to pretend to be Swedish from now on, and not understand people who keep pushing guide services on us!

We've been playing cards and kicking back in the evenings, starting to settle in and relax a bit more now. Some lie-ins in Goa will be nice, we've had a lot of long days so far! We saw the botanical gardens in Udaipur and the city palace. The city palace was a bit underwhelming once you've seen Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, but the lake is nice here. The botanical gardens reminded me of Mahe's (Seychelles) gardens. Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Palm and fountains.

The Blue City

Kieran:

We spent the morning travelling south-east to Jodhpur, named the blue city because all the houses surrounding the fort there are painted blue. This city was far bigger than Jasisalmer and you could definitely tell that you were back on the main tourist trail. Even so, the fort, again situated on a rocky hill high above the city, gave terrific views of the surrounding landscape, mostly dominated by blue building sprawl, with a small lake, and an ornate clock tower hiding amongst it.

We looked round the fort and then went into the city below, where we visited a tea and spice seller in the market, and were shown more teas and spices than i can remember, but I didn't leave empty handed, buying a few packets of tea (one in particular being chocolate tea!) before we left.

Today was a long day.

Nick:

Sorry I haven't texted, not much signal here for some reason! So much to say, you may have to wait for all the details until we get back.

Since last e-mail I've visited Deshnok, the temple of rats! Jaisalmer was our first city day tour, turned out our driver isn't guiding us, he's just arranging guides for us, and it turned out to be very good. Beautiful Jain temples, that a monk showed us around by candle light. Then Camel tour was incredible good fun, and sleeing under the stars. Woke up a bit sandy though! Yesterday was easily the best day, hard to top Jaisalmer and Moonlit Dunes all to ourselves!

Today we hit Jodhpur, which is very beautiful, buildings painted blue with a huge hill fort in the middle. A bit hot and tiring to walk around the fort. Jodhpur is a very big and busy city, like Delhi it's a bit daunting! A bit zapped today, but doing good. We tried to take out some more money earlier, and didn't have any luck, but it was probably the ATM. Both Kieran and I got "wait 24 hours to activate card" messages, not sure what that means?! Will try again tomorrow. Next time we can take out money I'll take out a lot to last me I think. Apparently ATMs can be a bit unreliable... It also didn't like my cash card, maybe have to withdraw on Visa... we'll see tomorrow.

Anyways, animal list update: More birds to identify, low flying grey woodpecker like bird with crest in desert. Big lizards, monkeys, and a man taking an elephant on roundabout!

Would love to talk more, but some people are waiting on the computer in our hotel. Driver is doing good for us, and we're fine. Speak more soon, no Internet tomorrow apparently. We're staying in Ranakpur instead of Udaipur tomorrow, chance of crocodile!:

A hill-station retreat

Kieran:

On our way from Jodhpur to Ranakpur we stopped off at a villagers house, who made rugs. We were invited into their home, where they showed us the process involved, offered us some chai and then showed us some of their handmade mats in the hope that we would want to buy one. well, lucky for them, Nick did.

We left the desert behind us and moved into greener territory and eventually started climbing up into the hills. We ended up in a place called Ranakpur, a hilltop retreat situated amongst lush green forests and quiet lakes. This was a welcome change of pace from the hectic atmosphere in Jodhpur and the climate was dramatically cooler. The hotel was rather quaint with nice garden surroundings and we ate our meals under a canopy outside.

We arrived at about midday and so after lunch we went to check out another Jain temple. But not just any temple, this one was made up of 24 large halls containing 1400+ ornately carved pillars (it had an air of Tolkien's "Mines of Moria" about it). From there we returned to the hotel to then embark out on a short walk to view a few of the surrounding lakes. The place was full of life. Out on the walk we saw loads of birds and some local sheepherders and their huts. In the evening we watched an owl (no idea what one), happily perched on a pole maybe 10 meters from our table, which was there for a good 15 minutes.

Our walk ended with rain and we wandered back to the hotel.
We played some cards and listened to some music and feeling the most relaxed and comforted we had since we left the UK, we fell asleep.

Nick:

Hey guys! Thanks for getting back to me, that was helpful to know, and nice to get an update from you. What was the easyjet refund for I wonder? Anyways, not sure about it being a Bulbul, the bird looked vaguely familiar to me, like I've seen it in a book or film before, but that doesn't help much!

And yeah our driver is doing good, I think his company may have been a little exaggerating about the weather in the north, and preying on our Jet Lag and New Delhi shock to get us to do thier more extravagant route... however, now we are here our driver seems like a good guy, very helpful, if a bit hardened by a the tourist routes. He's been driving round Rajastan for 18 years or something, so he has a tendency of making things sound a bit plain or unexciting, when actually they're pretty breathtaking when you get there! It's also very hard to do things local style, more like we planned, using busses and what have you. You're just treated like a tourist everywhere, no hope in hell of blending in! Especially on the route we're on now. We've met quite a few people doing a similar journey, they keep popping up!

Anyways, I'll keep in touch, phone signal is almost always good, but sometimes I have trouble sending things, if you're ever worried, you can always try calling. And our driver's name is Yunis, his company could probably reach him for you.

Jaisalmer

Kieran:
We left Bikaner early in the morning, headed for the Temple of the Rat, a sacred Hindu temple complex, where people go to worship the thousands of rodents that reside within its walls. I believe that it was the first temple we had been in so far that had a truly spiritual vibe. The temple was packed full of Indians praying and leaving food on walls and the floors of the temple for the rats, which we everywhere. We had to leave our shoes at the door and so walked round barefoot and the smell was pretty potent.

After this we drove onwards to Jaisalmer. A small desert fort town, with a large sandstone fort perched on a hill. We arrived here in the evening, just in time to see the sun set over the city. We ate that night at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the font (which is lit up at night a nice orange colour).

Nick:

See next day

Camel Safari

Kieran:

In the morning we went exploring the old fort, making our way through the maze of old alleyways, discovering numerous crumbling haveli's. The wonderful thing about the fort is that it's still used by the Indian people and has not been turned into money making tourist attraction, with an extortionate entrance fee and busloads visitors. In fact, Jaisalmer was only discovered as a tourist destination 20 years ago and many people don't make it out here because it's a bit off the main tourist circuit. But it was well worth the drive.

The views from the fort walls were amazing and you could see for miles over the baking desert.
Inside the fort, we stepped into our first Jain temple. We were guided by a monk and led round by candle light.Our guide enlightened us on the Jain religion while the light played upon the intricate carvings on the walls inside the small dark spaces. It definitely felt very special.

We then retreated to the city sprawled below the fort, where we were welcomed into a sliver maker's home and learned how to differentiate between real and fake silver, using a touch stone. We then went on to explore the market and bright street, where nick bought a scarf for the camel safari. We were also introduced to an Indian man disguised in sunglasses, sporting a turban, who said he would let us see his 4ft moustache if we gave him 10 rupees! so,of course, naturally we said "yes please"!

Ate some lunch before leaving Jaisalmer for the desert dunes where we would be saddling up on some camels.

The desert safari was good fun. we rode our camels out onto the dunes, stopping at a small village along the way and having a song sung for us by some local kids. We got to a great point on the dunes for sunset, where we met a cute Belgian girl, also on safari.

We returned to the camp to eat a dinner under the stars, whilst watching some live music. To finish off the day, we were whisked away by camel cart to sleep on the dunes, below the brightest moon I have ever seen, illuminating everything a blue grey. (We chased some dune bugs with a torch before hitting the hay!)

Nick:

No gerbils today, but we met a nice Belgian girl and a Japanese guy here. 'had a good chat.

Ridden to dunes , sitting on them now with drink. Amazing day! The city is beautiful.

Off to bed under stars, big moon-lit sand pit all to ourselves. Chasing beetles with a flashlight.