Hi again, I'm currently in Palolem, supposedly the most idillyc beach in Goa and it's not so much a party place like northern Goa, it's got more chilled out beach bars and restaurants like Varkala. We've found a good place to say and that's about all there is to say, I've only just got here. I have treated myself to handing in a load of clothes to a laundry woman who has a machine, I feel like I haven't worn any properly clean clothes for ages, and it's almost a fortnight since I even handwashed them, and I couldn't be bothered to hand wash almost everything I had with me. After Periyar we went to Kochi. The bus took about 7 hours which was much longer than expected. In Kochi we spent 2 nights, although the ... read more

Hi again We arrived in Varkala yesterfay afternoon, and just like Sri Lanka it looks awesome. There's an excellent view from the long cliff along the sea, with some steps down to the beach. There are shops, restraunts and bars all along the cliff top, as well as guest houses and hotels. We're staying in Bamboo village, in 2 very comfortable bamboo huts, which are clean and have proper toilets and showers and large beds, even if the rooms are a bit small. They're cheaper than the hotle we used in Trivandrum where Nicole and Eileen were attacked by bedbugs. I'll take some photos of everything, but for now I've put up some photos from Sri Lanka and Eileen's birthday last night. For Eileen's birthday it was decided to use Nicole's eye liner to draw moustaches ... read more

Just a few significant things have happened in the last 24 hours. Firstly today was hot and sunny, we got a small boat through some rivers and even went for a brief rainforest walk before going back and crashiong on the beach. I have some amazing pictures, but I don't have the time to put them up now. Now the bad news. Visa appears to be down accross the world for the time being according to the helpline I just called, and would you believe it because it's a Sri Lankan New Year festical tommorow, the banmks are also closed for a week. Nicole is with Mastercard, so she's got a load out which we're re-paying online, but she has a limit. So we've got enough to last a few days, but mainly we've just got ... read more

Hey all I'm currently in a small Sri Lankan town called Ambalangadu, about three quarters of the way down the west coast. I'm not totally sure where to start. After Bangalore our 12 hour bus to Trivandrum actually took 17 hours. We didn't get much sleep and were knackered in Trivandrum. but we got by and it looked a nice city, we'll have a better chance to look at it next time after the return flight. Then we had to get up relatively early to get to the airport the next day, and the flight to Colombo was comfortable and only about 45 minutes. When we got to Colombo it was tipping it with rain, and we've been so long in the heat with no rain for 3 months we were happy to see it. Colombo's ... read more

Hi all I'm almost finished here in Kanji (by the way, this is being written in Kanji, there is an internet cafe here now that does my head in it's so bad, but I had to e-mail Eileen in the off chance that she uses the net between now and meeting us tommorow.) Tommorow Maria will pick us up from the hostel and we'll get a bus from Tiru to Bangalore at about 9am, where we'll meet Nicole and Eileen. From there it's Sri Lanka! I'm ready to leave now. I've packed my rucksack up, and since the chain lock thing we bought in a rush on New Years Eve once again drew blood from my hand as I tried to do it up, just as it did in Chennai, I have managed to find a ... read more