Munnar is set up in the mountains - 1,600 metres. The town of Munnar isn't particularly pretty. The real beauty of Munnar is the miles and miles of tea plantations that surround it. Every hill side has been taken up with beatifully manicured tea plants. The plantations are owned by TATA, who employ 12,000 people in Munnar. We stayed 20 miles outside of the town, in a resort called Dew Drops. It was absolutely beautiful. Set in 240 acres of forests and lakes, we'd finally found a quiet place. No horns beeping, hawkers selling or beggers asking for money. It was really peaceful and relaxing. We spent 3 days there, and went trekking each day with our local guide, Nithin. He took us up through the mountains, to the waterfalls and smaller tea plantations. We managed ... read more

We left Palolem as the place was shutting down for the monsoon and with the intention of going to Cochin in Kerala. But we couldn't get on a train and decided to go by night bus to Bangalore. This was truly horrible. The "sleeper" bus was 1hr 45mins late. When we got on we were shown to our cabin which was too short to lie down and too low to sit up. To make matters worse the lights went out 30 seconds after the bus moved off and we found ourselves bouncing around the rear axle in a small claustrophobic cell. The aircon was also on to the max and we had shorts on. Never again until we have to!!! Still we met a nice chap from Holland called Mau (short for Mauritz i think) ... read more

We arrived in Delhi on Tuesday morning, and after having to get a 'letter of permission' from the airport manager (as we didn't have a print out of our so called eTicket), we managed to get to the domestic terminal. From there we boarded a plane to Mumbai. We had to take a 2 hour dusty, hot and hectic taxi journey, finally arriving in the Colaba district of Mumbai, and checked into the Hotel Volga II. The staff were pretty rude, the hotel looked like a grubby prison, but it had a bed and A/C - which given the heat, felt like heaven! Our first meal was in the trendy Leopolds Cafe, which is under the hotel. Mid-meal we noticed the bullet holes scattered throughout the cafe - windows, walls, ceilings and pillars!! Unfortunately 10 people ... read more