We caught a pretty rough looking bus to Kollam which is the start of the Kerala backwaters. The pace has really slowed down now, although the towns are still dirty, dusty and hectic, with a mix of huge trucks, auto rickshaws and ox and carts. Once it had cooled down we were able to head down to the beach - not a great one for swimming but the sea breeze was cool and we could stroll around picturesque Keralan fishing hamlets. Unfortunately our hotel room was basically on the main highway. The noise, all night long was unbelievable. The backwaters have been described as the emerald jewel in South India’s crown and we would have to agree. Our first canoe-boat trip from Kollam was through the peaceful canals of Munroe Island. We had a local guide ... read more

We flew from Delhi to Chennai hoping for warmth and that is exactly what we got. It is hot and sticky in the south and the mosquitoes are out in force (which is very unlucky for me). We spent a very uncomfortable night in Chennai in what can only be described as a pretty grubby oven. Luckily we were only here for one night before catching the train to Puducherry, a lovely French/Indian city, with tree lined streets, a beach and delicious Indian cuisine with a French twist. We did absolutely nothing here apart from move from our balcony to a great air conditioned café every day, our first real coffee since we left London. Puducherry was a lovely little place (by little I mean by Indian standards, it still has 300,000 people) and pretty easy ... read more

We finally arrived in Delhi although our train was delayed by nearly 4 hours, one and a half hours of which was spent just outside the platform waiting for a train to move. Brrr, Delhi was freezing cold and foggy. Stupidly we did not expect India to be this cold, we can’t wait to head down south where it is still in the 30s. We stayed on the Main Bazaar, just down from New Delhi train station which was handy. We headed to yet another fort, this time Red Fort before wandering around Chandi Chowk, the main market street in the Old Town and feasting on delicious street snacks. The Jama Masjid (Mosque) was stunning and set in a really cool Muslim area crowded with street vendors and hawkers. The spice market was fascinating, all the ... read more

We caught a bus from Bundi to Jaipur which took 5 hours. We had read that the bus rides out of Bundi were bone rattlers so we booked ourselves tickets for the private bus (as opposed to the local bus - bit more comfortable for an extra 1 dollar) and made our way to the bus stand. The bus arrived roughly on time but to our surprise the bus drove on without stopping. The owner of the travel agency jumped on his motorbike in pursuit of the bus. That was the last we saw of it. The owner insisted that we get the next bus out of town. About an hour later a local bus turned up: the agency owner had a few words with the driver (and slipped him a 20 and gave us a ... read more

This is where India holidays - the place is packed with Indian tourists. Udaipur has two beautiful palaces on islands in the middle of the lake. We visited the large city palace which rests next to the lake before going for a boat ride to look at the other palaces which have now been turned into luxury hotels. A nice bottle of Cloudy Bay wine was $250! This afternoon we did a cooking course - but don’t worry, we just watched while Kala cooked. It was absolutely delicious. Matt took numerous videos of how to make naan bread so hopefully this will be an improvement on his last attempt and we now have the delicious recipe for chai! We stayed in a lovely guesthouse with views over Lake Pichola. 29 December - We met a lovely ... read more