The end of India

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Hello everybody,

Finally we are on a computer that we can spend a bit of time on. Thought you might like to hear what we've been up to. The last time we wrote this was way back in the Indian Desert.....right, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin!

After getting ourselves back to Delhi, we flew down to the south of India for some sunshine. Em's mum and dad came out to join us for a hilarious three weeks in Kerala. We had such a great time them chilling out on the beach in Varkala and discovering the well kept secret dessert that is "Hello to the Queen"! If you've never heard of it it's a taste sensation (crumbled biscuit, warm banana, ice cream and melted chocolate.....I'm drooling just thinking about it). Probably my favourite moment of Varkala was Chris (Em's dad) shouting....'oh my god there's a shark fin out there'. This turned out to be the sail of a boat just a long way away...ha ha.....priceless.

Over the next three weeks of traveling in style (in the luxury of air conditioned 4 x 4 taxis) one of the highlights was the beautiful town of Munnar in the highlands, surrounded by tea plantations. Walking in the hills and cramming four of us into rickshaws was great fun. We also met a guy called a 'human swiss army knife of knowledge' who gave us tips on what best to do in the area and tried to sell us a house. Fort Cochin was next and the unbelievable heat that forced us into a lovely air conditioned cottage for four nights. I also blame the heat for the number of hot chocolate fudge cakes we were all forced to eat to keep our sugar levels up. Honestly, the things we've had to cope with on this trip has been horrendous. The other method adopted to deal with the heat is the legendary 'Cormorant' pose (apologies for the spelling). This involved Chris the Elder standing up straight with his arms in a kind of scarecrow type position to 'increase the air flow' therefore looking like the Cormorant bird that we'd seen drying it's feathers.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Mummy and Daddy Williams and move on to the next part of the adventure. We couldn't have wished for two better travel companions. It was with heavy hearts that we lumped our backpacks into the rickshaw and belted off to the train station waving goodbye. Thanks again for everything you two 😊

We spent the next three weeks busily doing nothing much at all in Goa. Although the thought of Goa can conjure up images of package holiday larger louts , it is absolutely stunning and we didn't want to leave. The pace of life compared with the north of India makes it feel like a completely different country. Palolem in particular was a real favourite. In order to avoid noise polution they even put on a special clubbing night where everyone wears headphones after 10pm!!....funniest thing ever. So lazy days on the beaches, walking through market stalls and eating cheap curries became our temporary existance before the onslaght we knew would come once we hit Africa. We even had a few beers.....too good to refuse at 20p a bottle!

Our final stop in India was the amazing Mumbai. After the terrorist attacks of November 08 there has been a massive decrease in the number of visitors to the city and we heard some pretty scary stories of the events of the day it all happened. We fell in love with Mumbai almost as soon as we arrived. It's beautiful buildings, crazily busy markets, gorgeous promenade walk along Chowpati Beach and the worlds best kebab stand in Colaba were just some of the reasons we can't wait to go back. We even treated ourselves to a posh meal where the 'stars' go to eat on the rooftop of the Intercontinental Hotel. It was just stunning and the perfect way to end our stay in India.....or so we thought. The perfect ending was just about to happen..........Bollywood came knocking.

We were wandering through the market in Colaba when we were approached by an Indian guy looking for extras to be in a Bollywood movie shooting the following day. We'd heard that this type of thing happened so we thought we'd go along to see what all the fuss is about. It turned out to be a wicked day. We were picked up and taken to the film set where we were given chai and biscuits and told to wait. It wasn't the most glamorous of places, seeing as we were in a dusty warehouse sat on a box next to the toilets.......but we were pretty excited. Our 'agent' (ha ha) sat with us for the whole day and he was completely star struck by the people who were (also) starring in the film. They are massively famous and we've since seen them on tv and on loads of magazine covers. The moment finally came for our big scene and we were ushered away to our own private caravan type changing room thingy. Transformed into debonair, sophisticated art gallery visitors with the use of scratchy, polyester suits we were ready for our film debuts. It must be said that the suits would have kept you warm on a winter day in England so we were pouring with sweat in the 40 degree heat of Mumbai. What an experience though. There were only four of us on the stage....us two and the famous dude and dudette. We did the scene a few times and then the director wanted it shot from a different angle. After they'd prepared the camera angles we went to get back on the stage when the leading lady asked for there to only be me (Chris) in the background.....she didn't want Em on the set. How cool is that, she was jealous that she'd be outshone and nobody would be looking at her with my foxy little minx of a wife walking around in the background 😊 This turned out to be a bit of an added bonus for Em as she got to sit next to the director and watch the screen as it was filmed....cool. All in all it was an awesome day and this really was the perfect way to end our India adventure.

Hope you're all well. We're looking forward to seeing a lot of you in June. Africa to follow soon.

Love Chris and Em xx

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