Hello everyone weve made it to Nepal! Sorry for the late blogging but weve been emerssed in the Himalayas (we now call them the 'Himal' as were cool) for the last 10 days with no electricity or means of communication so apologies to all that were hoping for texts/phone calls!. Well before we started our trek we had to get a bus ride from Kathmandu to Dunche - a public bus ride - an 8 hour public bus ride with no suspension and very little cushioning on the seats and a very bumpy road! As you can imagine it wasnt the most comfortable 8 hours of our trip - i managed to be propelled out of my seat and hit my head on the metal bar above me a number of times! ouchie! The bus itself ... read more
into our next state now...Karnataka! took us 5 hours on the blue mountain express (2nd most scenic railway in india!) by steam train to reach the lovely town of Ooty, 2,600m ASL. its surrounded by lush mountains and the air is fresh - nice break from the humidity! and there are carrots growing! we havent seen carrots in india yet its weird! spent a couple of days chilling and taking in the mountain scenery. we took a 3 hour hack on horseback through the rolling hills and through eucalyptus forests, which was amazing! have suffered saddle sore ever since tho! as its a bit colder here (still hotter than uk) the indians arnt used to it so as well as still wearing their traditional sarees, they have an additional bobble hat to keep them warm. they ... read more
well what can we say - pure hell! aarrrgghh! we had our first long train journey today of 7 hours going from Alleppey to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu (we are on our way to Ooty so had to go via Coimbatore to catch the mountain express). we decided to take the cheap option and go sleeper class unreserved with all the locals. hmm. for a start the whole train had a stench of urine wafting through from the toilet. nice. we spent 2 hours with a seat each near a window which wasnt too bad, but then had to change trains....the next one we got on was already full to the brim so we had to wonder through many carrages with all our luggage and the few seats we did spot horrible men shouted at us ... read more
Next stop - Alleppey. we were in 2 minds whether to go to Kollam or Alleppey to sample the backwaters as we heard they were both brill but Alleppey was more touristy and Kollam was not and had more natural beauty. so going for au natural we opted for Kollam, but changed our minds very last min to head to Alleppey (as pursuded by locals) - good choice tho! Alleppey is a lovely little town with lots of workshops and factories and old men fixing stuff on the street. it wasnt touristy at all - didnt see any westeners at all in town! all the children were so polite and enthusiastic and ran up to us shouting 'Hi'! not asking for pens or anything they just wanted to say hey - so sweet! we were like ... read more
Joy oh joy we are in actual paradise on earth! found a lush place called Varkala on the west coast, it was not on our list but talking to an old toothless man in a bar where women are not meant to go, he told us about this magical place, so we thought why not! and he was right its beautiful! it set on cliff tops overlooking the arabian sea with lots of bamboo huts and coconut palms lining the cliff, and eagles swooping over our heads! there is a sandy beach with a huge crashing waves which are really fun to jump into and get washed away! we planned to stay for 1 day but we love it so much we stayed for 3! not been doing much, chilling all day and sipping cocktails over ... read more
oh my god i cannot cope anymore....! yesterday we flew from Mumbai to Trivandrum...again with a very near death experience trying to land through monsoon clouds - this one was worse! so we thought 'oh yes the south will be chilled' as flew over acres and acres of coconut palms and backwater rivers...but how wrong we were! as soon as we landed the monsoon heavens opened and drenched us completley! we arrived in trivandrum, we wanted to do the cheap option and travel by local bus for Rs5 but we couldnt find the bus station and the roads were soon flooded to almost knee high with monsoon waters, so a autorickshaw took us into town for a more expensive fee of Rs50!! thats almost 60p! drving into town the roadsd were more busy and hectic than ... read more
hello! or namaste i think i need to say now. well we finally made it to india after about 20 hours travelling, now sleep, dodgy spicy food on the aeroplane, and scary turbulance desending through giant monsoon clouds! plus after all that we had been told horror stories of mumbai airport and how it would take us at least 4 hours to get through passport control with no aircon, and then at least another 2 hour drive to where we wanted to go..... but how wrong was that! we passed through customs straight away and before we knew it we were in a taxi heading to our destination - although it was rush hour through mumbai centre and they do NOT have any rules of the road! we witness a few crashes and nearly had some ... read more