Category Archives: India

Due to repairs being carried out at the airport, all flights leave either very early morning or late at night and during the day they work on the runway. So for our one hour trip to Cochin we were up before the crack of dawn. We nearly didn’t make it on the flight as weContinue reading “Welcome to India.”

We had purchased SIM cards yesterday and after a form filling out process were expecting them to activate late last night but by the next morning they hadn’t. We also remembered that we hadn’t paid for them by mistake as the shop was crazy and we got passed around to a few people and soContinue reading “Bus to Alleppey”

Some of the prices we had been quoted for various trips on the backwaters behind Alleppey had been quite high. We weren’t sure whether we wanted to spend the money to stay on a houseboat so instead we opted to go on a canoe tour offered by our excellent host Matthew. There was a veryContinue reading “Cruising the Backwaters of Kerala”

All the tuk tuk drivers in both Cochi and Alleppey kept telling us we needed to go to Marari beach so we thought we should check it out. After a late start where we watched some of the last day of the test cricket between India and Australia we were heading the 14km north inContinue reading “Marari Beach”

While some things we get to experience are easy to find out about, others are somewhat harder. There was meant to be a 10 day festival called Thirunakkara Arattu Utsavam happening at nearby Kottayam, the highlight of which was to be a parade of 22 elephants. We had found out some dates and had askedContinue reading “Elephant Parades in Kottayam”

We awoke pretty lethargic after our crazy temple experience yesterday so needed a hearty breakfast. We found an Indian Coffee House right next door which is series of cafes all throughout India which have been set up as worker co-operatives. The prices are ridiculously cheap and the food is great. We actually went for ourContinue reading “Varkala”

It was actually quite a nice mix of Indian and western here in Varkala. The setting of the restaurants and hotels sittting atop the cliff top surrounding the beach meant that everything was easy to reach and that everywhere we went we got a cooling breeze off of the ocean. The atmosphere was also beautifullyContinue reading “Relaxing in Varkala “

We both had a bit of an upset stomach after our last spicy meal in Varkala but neither of us were regretful as it was delicious. But not the greatest of starts to the day as we were reluctantly leaving Varkala and traveling to Kumily, where we were hoping to do some hiking in theContinue reading “Varkala to Kumily to Kodaikanal”

Kodaikanal sits at about 2000m above sea level and is centred around a star shaped lake which is surrounded by forests of Pine Trees intermingled with Eucalyptus. It’s a holiday destination popular with Indians looking to escape the heat and gaze over the plains of Tamil Nadu below. It a bit of a hodgepodge ofContinue reading “Superb Views in Kodaikanal “