It has been a long time since the last blog - been very busy! But I can now update the blog with the last bits of India.
Goa - was a lovely little resort town and was very much needed after the hectic nature of Mumbai. Was great to chill for a few days but it started to feel a little holiday-y and so we moved onto HAMPI!
Hampi - an incredible place and still remains a highlight of the trip. A tiny place located somewhere in the middle of Southern India, it seemed like the town of Bedrock from the Flintstones. Amazing temples everywhere, monkeys walking the streets, limited electricity and really friendly people. The walks were amazing and we attempted a bike ride to other places on the second day. Unfortunately, I was still getting over a chest infection I caught from Tanya and ended up collapsing by the side of the road nearly passed out. Luckily I managed to collapse on the doorstep of the only hospital for miles so I was able to be saved! Ended up having a blood test etc in a tiny little run-down lab... funny looking back but a bit shit scary at the time!
But Hampi was generally a great place and would recommend everyone to go there.
It was also our first experience of the famous monsoon rain. We got caught in it one day and got absolutely soaked! We ended up running in the door of some elderly couple's house. Tanya assures us they invited us but I really think we just terrified an old couple! And when attempting to run back to the hotel both Tanya and Lorna managed to fall straight into a pile of puddle-shit-mud. Was very funny but Tanya had the camera so I wasn't able to get a photo!
Mysore - a wonderfully colourful, clean city but not really 'India' as we thought it would be. The palace was gorgeous and huge and when lit up at night time was one of the best sights we have seen. We met a really friendly man called San who just stopped us in the street. It was bit cringing though. We had been telling people we were from Wales because noone knew where it was and so we avoided the cockney slang and 'awright mate' that the Indians seemed to do all the time. Funny at first, but not after the thousandth time! Anyway, so we are from Wales. Except when I said this to San I didn't know he was extremely well educated and taught by a Brit. He started asking me info about Wales and asked for Welsh words. I had to blag some Welsh (not easy, by the way!) and make up information about the place. But he seemed content and we had a lovely couple of meals with him - and the other day got invited to his wedding!
We also saw our first Bollywood film here. Bodyguard! Was amazing, even though we couldn't understand a word. The cinema was filled with men, but everytime the hunky male lost his top or did some fight scenes the place was filled with wolf whistles. You can smoke in the cinema! and talk! and use your mobile phones! You can also touch up unsuspecting tourists apparently. A man sat next to me and tried to touch me in a naughty place, but ran off when I shooed him away!! Was not a nice experience! But the film was great!
Ooty - this is a very green place in Tamil Nadu. Typically people only come here to do hill treks and that's all we did really. It was very cold. Very wet. Very British. But a lovely different place for a couple of days. We also met fellow tourists for the first time since we got here. So it felt good to be social again.
Alleppey - this was our first taste of Kerala, famous for being the 'nicer' part of India. This is also the jumping off point for the famous backwater trips into the villages. After checking out of the Lonely Planet recommended Johnsons homestay (manager was a rude arse and we had met some much friendlier managers at the bus stand), we did the day trip. Was again Incredible (although I'm realising how much I'm using that word in this blog). Just lovely to float through the villages with lovely scenery and see a bit of real India - although this is one of the most touristy attractions in India so how 'real' it is I don't know! But a nice relaxing day and LOADS of food!
We stayed with a couple of young guys called Sanil and JayJay for the remaining time and had some quite heavy drinking sessions with them. The place we stayed in was some very simple but nice bungalows quite near to the backwaters and in it's own space. We felt secluded from everyone and it was great!
Also in Alleppey we found an amazing restaurant called Dreamers. The staff were really friendly and it was the best curry we had in India. We also got to experience the drinking beer out of a tea cup for the first time! Was warm, flat and generally not recommended.
Alleppey was also our first experience of teaching in India. We spent a day helping out at a boy's school. It was a good experience although very different to what we're used to. Really rammed home the point of how spoilt we are in our country and in our schools. Their book corner was just a wall with a few magazines and they used pencils instead of pens. They were very grateful to get our donation of a few hundred pencils as they're seen as quite expensive over there. For more details Tanya has written on her own 'teaching blog' so check that out.
Varkala - officially the most touristy place in India. But extremely bloody lovely all the same. The weather was hot all the time, the drinks and sea food were lovely and cheap. There was a beach. There were coconut trees. And somehow we managed to spend nine days there although we didn't realise it at the time and can't now tell you what we did there!! I can tell you that one day we spent by another hotel's pool, one day we walked to the end of the tourist track and met some fishermen that climbed trees to get us fresh coconuts. One day we walked to Varkala town to see what was there. Not much. And one day I spent watching rugby all day (...) It was all very pleasant and again we met some nice people to spend time with. And it went extremely quickly.
Kanyakumari - back to travelling after the mini holiday! a lovely little fishing village located right on the tip of South India. The most southern place of the sub-continent and overlooking three oceans coming together - the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and Bengal Bay. We visited Gandhi's ashes, saw the sunset over the three oceans, visited some monuments and statues and things and saw some fishermen in action. It was really good and was nice to see a bit of village life.
Kanyakumari is also the starting point and terminus for the famous Indian railway line. If you went from here to Jammu in the North it would take about 60 hours.
Enarkalum - we only went here and it seemed to take forever. The place was just a stopping off point but seemed alright. The hotel was expensive but pleasant and we went for a really nice meal. The city seemed like a nicer, cleaner version of Mumbai.
Munnar - another of the favourites! We stayed in a gorgeous little cottage place called JJ Cottage. The place was like a sunnier, happier version of Ooty and it was Incredible. Lots of hills, trekking, eating and sightseeing occured here. This place was also a bit of a bonus because we didn't think we would fit in another place before flying on so we were extremely happy to have come here (thanks Michael and Annie for the tip) The sights were lovely and the walks were knackering! Another one we would recommend to everyone!
Kochi - Fort Cochin is a lovely little colonial type place with a big fishing culture. You could walk around the whole place three times in a day. We ended up doing a tour where we visited Chinese Fishing Nets, a Dutch cemetary, a Dutch museum, spice markets, Jew Town, a beach where the Tsunami hit, Portugese museum and a ginger factory. We also saw some Indian martial arts which were really impressive and of course ate loads. It was a pleasant place to finish our trip of India and all that was left to do was to look forward to Indonesia...
We loved India and would definately return. It was so huge and everywhere was just so different. It's definately a lot more westernized than we thought it would be but there is so much to do and see. The people also make it what it is and they're extremely friendly for the most part.
We have already started planning our return trip!
Goa - was a lovely little resort town and was very much needed after the hectic nature of Mumbai. Was great to chill for a few days but it started to feel a little holiday-y and so we moved onto HAMPI!
Hampi - an incredible place and still remains a highlight of the trip. A tiny place located somewhere in the middle of Southern India, it seemed like the town of Bedrock from the Flintstones. Amazing temples everywhere, monkeys walking the streets, limited electricity and really friendly people. The walks were amazing and we attempted a bike ride to other places on the second day. Unfortunately, I was still getting over a chest infection I caught from Tanya and ended up collapsing by the side of the road nearly passed out. Luckily I managed to collapse on the doorstep of the only hospital for miles so I was able to be saved! Ended up having a blood test etc in a tiny little run-down lab... funny looking back but a bit shit scary at the time!
But Hampi was generally a great place and would recommend everyone to go there.
It was also our first experience of the famous monsoon rain. We got caught in it one day and got absolutely soaked! We ended up running in the door of some elderly couple's house. Tanya assures us they invited us but I really think we just terrified an old couple! And when attempting to run back to the hotel both Tanya and Lorna managed to fall straight into a pile of puddle-shit-mud. Was very funny but Tanya had the camera so I wasn't able to get a photo!
Mysore - a wonderfully colourful, clean city but not really 'India' as we thought it would be. The palace was gorgeous and huge and when lit up at night time was one of the best sights we have seen. We met a really friendly man called San who just stopped us in the street. It was bit cringing though. We had been telling people we were from Wales because noone knew where it was and so we avoided the cockney slang and 'awright mate' that the Indians seemed to do all the time. Funny at first, but not after the thousandth time! Anyway, so we are from Wales. Except when I said this to San I didn't know he was extremely well educated and taught by a Brit. He started asking me info about Wales and asked for Welsh words. I had to blag some Welsh (not easy, by the way!) and make up information about the place. But he seemed content and we had a lovely couple of meals with him - and the other day got invited to his wedding!
We also saw our first Bollywood film here. Bodyguard! Was amazing, even though we couldn't understand a word. The cinema was filled with men, but everytime the hunky male lost his top or did some fight scenes the place was filled with wolf whistles. You can smoke in the cinema! and talk! and use your mobile phones! You can also touch up unsuspecting tourists apparently. A man sat next to me and tried to touch me in a naughty place, but ran off when I shooed him away!! Was not a nice experience! But the film was great!
Ooty - this is a very green place in Tamil Nadu. Typically people only come here to do hill treks and that's all we did really. It was very cold. Very wet. Very British. But a lovely different place for a couple of days. We also met fellow tourists for the first time since we got here. So it felt good to be social again.
Alleppey - this was our first taste of Kerala, famous for being the 'nicer' part of India. This is also the jumping off point for the famous backwater trips into the villages. After checking out of the Lonely Planet recommended Johnsons homestay (manager was a rude arse and we had met some much friendlier managers at the bus stand), we did the day trip. Was again Incredible (although I'm realising how much I'm using that word in this blog). Just lovely to float through the villages with lovely scenery and see a bit of real India - although this is one of the most touristy attractions in India so how 'real' it is I don't know! But a nice relaxing day and LOADS of food!
We stayed with a couple of young guys called Sanil and JayJay for the remaining time and had some quite heavy drinking sessions with them. The place we stayed in was some very simple but nice bungalows quite near to the backwaters and in it's own space. We felt secluded from everyone and it was great!
Also in Alleppey we found an amazing restaurant called Dreamers. The staff were really friendly and it was the best curry we had in India. We also got to experience the drinking beer out of a tea cup for the first time! Was warm, flat and generally not recommended.
Alleppey was also our first experience of teaching in India. We spent a day helping out at a boy's school. It was a good experience although very different to what we're used to. Really rammed home the point of how spoilt we are in our country and in our schools. Their book corner was just a wall with a few magazines and they used pencils instead of pens. They were very grateful to get our donation of a few hundred pencils as they're seen as quite expensive over there. For more details Tanya has written on her own 'teaching blog' so check that out.
Varkala - officially the most touristy place in India. But extremely bloody lovely all the same. The weather was hot all the time, the drinks and sea food were lovely and cheap. There was a beach. There were coconut trees. And somehow we managed to spend nine days there although we didn't realise it at the time and can't now tell you what we did there!! I can tell you that one day we spent by another hotel's pool, one day we walked to the end of the tourist track and met some fishermen that climbed trees to get us fresh coconuts. One day we walked to Varkala town to see what was there. Not much. And one day I spent watching rugby all day (...) It was all very pleasant and again we met some nice people to spend time with. And it went extremely quickly.
Kanyakumari - back to travelling after the mini holiday! a lovely little fishing village located right on the tip of South India. The most southern place of the sub-continent and overlooking three oceans coming together - the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and Bengal Bay. We visited Gandhi's ashes, saw the sunset over the three oceans, visited some monuments and statues and things and saw some fishermen in action. It was really good and was nice to see a bit of village life.
Kanyakumari is also the starting point and terminus for the famous Indian railway line. If you went from here to Jammu in the North it would take about 60 hours.
Enarkalum - we only went here and it seemed to take forever. The place was just a stopping off point but seemed alright. The hotel was expensive but pleasant and we went for a really nice meal. The city seemed like a nicer, cleaner version of Mumbai.
Munnar - another of the favourites! We stayed in a gorgeous little cottage place called JJ Cottage. The place was like a sunnier, happier version of Ooty and it was Incredible. Lots of hills, trekking, eating and sightseeing occured here. This place was also a bit of a bonus because we didn't think we would fit in another place before flying on so we were extremely happy to have come here (thanks Michael and Annie for the tip) The sights were lovely and the walks were knackering! Another one we would recommend to everyone!
Kochi - Fort Cochin is a lovely little colonial type place with a big fishing culture. You could walk around the whole place three times in a day. We ended up doing a tour where we visited Chinese Fishing Nets, a Dutch cemetary, a Dutch museum, spice markets, Jew Town, a beach where the Tsunami hit, Portugese museum and a ginger factory. We also saw some Indian martial arts which were really impressive and of course ate loads. It was a pleasant place to finish our trip of India and all that was left to do was to look forward to Indonesia...
We loved India and would definately return. It was so huge and everywhere was just so different. It's definately a lot more westernized than we thought it would be but there is so much to do and see. The people also make it what it is and they're extremely friendly for the most part.
We have already started planning our return trip!
