Thats pretty much all that was going on for us in Fort Kochin. We stayed in a cute little guesthouse in a cute little lane. It was a cute little room for a cute little price. But the cute little mamma who ran the place somehow forgot to mention to us that because of the cute little window in the room...THAT WE WERE GONNA BE COOKED ALIVE. We have NEVER been that hot in our lives. We were truly in a a desperate situation. The days were bleeding hot, walking around, in the sun, coming back to our room, our clothes [View Full Entry]

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Our first destination, sans Jasmine. It was hard to go on but we had to, for the memory of the team!! Yes, yes, it was brief encounter, our visit in Allepey. I do believe that we only stayed two nights. The main attraction is the "backwaters boat rides". There is a system of beautiful and calm canals and rivers that run throughout the countryside. And tourists have been MAJORLY taken care of here as there are hundreds of fantastically gorgeous house boats meant for cruising through the waters on multiple night excursions. With as many or as little amenities you desire. [View Full Entry]

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And so it was, the last stop on our fabulous journey with our beloved friend Jasmine. After Kannur we would be parting ways. Jasmine was on her way out of the country, infact. And we would be carrying on further south. We thought that Kannur would be a great place to end things off as it is famous for the traditional Hindu Theyyam ritual.We were really interested to check it out. It is, supposedly, performed every night either in Kannur or just outside of it. And it turned out that there was a temple RIGHT next to our hotel that was [View Full Entry]

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What a fabulous little Garden of Eden that we found ourselves in. Oh boy. We surely enjoyed our time spent at the Honey Valley Estate. Not the easiest place to get to, but definately not the hardest either. Just a few bus transfers, a bit of waiting around in random small towns and then finally waiting at the junction at the bottom of the hill for the Honey Vally jeep to pick us up. Once we got there we knew that it was all most definately worth it. The owners, husband and wife team, are the most welcoming hosts you could [View Full Entry]

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Yes, its true. And we were definately interested. So we went to Bylakuppe, not so far from Mysore. Its a bit of land that the Indian government gave to Tibetan exiles in 1959. Its an incredibly interesting place to visit and unfortunately we coudn't stay for very long. The village requires any tourist wishing to stay longer than 24 hours to have a permit. That we didn't have. So we arrived in the afternoon, a bit pooped from the trip there, and we relaxed oh-so much in the afternoon (wasn't it relaxing to have me do some henna on you, Jasmine?) [View Full Entry]

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We liked Mysore, we really did. Its just unfortunate, the events that transpired during our visit. First and formost, we took a night train from Hampi to Bangalore. It was a most pleasant ride and seemed to pass in a jiffy. Lovely. Though, obviously, it wasn't a very hard or restful sleep. When we arrived in Bangalore at 6am we were a bit tired, but needed to find a bus to get to Mysore, since we weren't planning on sticking around. It wasn't hard to find a bus, almost every bus in the lot seemed to be going to Mysore. The [View Full Entry]

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The three musketeers set forth unto a new adventure. Well, sort of new, for some of us. In our absence, Jasmine had visited a few places and decided that she liked it so much that she wanted to go back to Hampi with us. Were were really happy to hear that since it was definately on the top of our list of things to do and weren't sure how we were going to convince her to go back there with us. Things just work out sometimes. The train ride from Goa to Hospet is beautiful. With rice paddies and palm trees [View Full Entry]

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Have you ever dreamt of a place where tropical, colonial, beachy, hippy and russians co-exist? If so Arambol is the place for you. Arambol is one of the last bastion of hippiness in the world. I can tell you as a witness, that this movement is defenitely on its last breath and morphing into something quite strange. Notheless it was really awesome for us to arrive there. Jasmine was browner than aunt Jemima, the beer/seafood was cheap/plentiful and the free spirited hippy vibe that we found there was a nice contrast to the kokan coast where we had just arrived from. [View Full Entry]

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After Mumbai we headed for a little visited area known as the Kokan coast, where palm trees, neglected medieval forts and golden beaches dominate the landscape. Our first stop was Murud which is about 5 hours south of Mumbai by a combination of boat, bus and rickshaw.The place exudes a relaxed summer-cottage-by-the sea vibe, indian style of course, which means kids are playing cricket on the beach instead of volleyball and people are not munching on potato chips but papadums. Many people come down from mumbai on the weekends to eat sea food and drink beers but the rest of the [View Full Entry]

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Arriving to Mumbai by train is quite a shock, even for 2 people who have been traveling in India for 3 months and think that they have seen it all. The shock comes in the scale. Sure weve seen poverty in India up to this point, it is omnipresent, but seeing the amount of squalid slums that surround Mumbai is truly heart breaking and baffles the mind. It is pretty much a continuous sight for 2 hours as the train is speeding along. Youre debating whether you should just shut the window and look at something else but then you feel [View Full Entry]

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