I would like to start today’s entry with a little gloating, never a good way to start I know. I’m sorry to start off in such a rude manner but I’m afraid it really must be done. I would like to let all of you in cold, wet and windy Britain know that to this date it has only rained once since I arrived in India and I don’t believe we have had a single cloudy day. Yes your right, I am a smug ****. The one time it did actually it did so at night so we didn’t even get wet, no surprises for guessing where it rained, my favourite Indian town ever (not), Cochin. Would be wouldn’t it. Anyway it’s pretty damn amazing that in over a month I haven’t seen a drop of ... read more

Driving around Kerala one of the things you immediately notice is the amount of communist iconography that is hung, pasted and tied throughout the towns of Kerala. In most towns the majority of houses and shops will have at least one communist flag hanging proudly on display, bill boards with posters of local communist politicians, Lenin and Che Guevara are also commonplace. Posters of Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong Sung (North Korea) are noticeable in their absence, guess though tyrants don’t make such good poster boys. Kerala is India’s one and only communist state, though what this means in practice though I’m not sure. It struck me as very odd that an extreme left wing ideology that is anti capitalist and anti democratic would find any major support in a very materialistic, very capitalist and very democratic ... read more

I would like to start today’s entry with some information completely unrelated to Cochin but nonetheless of great importance. I would like to let all of you (yes all 2 of you that read my blog) know that today is my one month in India anniversary and I’m happy to say that the relationship is still going strong. So strong infact that I still haven’t had even the faintest sign of Delhi Belly and I’m still eating and LOVING Indian food on a daily basis (maybe there is a correlation between the two?). I’ve never lasted this long on local food only in any other country, I can happily now announce that Indian food is officially my favourite cuisine in the world. Sorry Thailand. We left for Cochin very early knowing it would be a long ... read more

Leaving Palolem and Goa behind we began our journey to the remote and ancient ruined city of Hampi, an upsettingly long 400km drive away. Whilst driving up a hill and approaching a blind bend, a bus which had previously tried to pass us gave it another try. As the bus drivers cab just about passed ours the bus driver swung violently left and directly into us. Fortunately we managed to stop very quickly but the bus had by this point scrapped past the right hand side of our truck with some force. In the panic and shock of the situation, my first thought was that I must immediately eat the piece of chicken in my hand, I felt sure the situation could not be resolved until I had done so. As you can tell I (along ... read more

After a long, hot and arduous 11 hour drive we arrived in Mumbai. We stopped enroute at the only fully fledged western style motorway service station we would stop at in all India. Normally none of us or anyone in their right mind would be excited about stopping at a motorway service station, however ub this instance the Indian services gave the group their first opportunity (and last for a long time after Mumbai) to eat McDonalds. Predictably (myself included) we all ate at the golden arches, some going back for seconds. I ate a fiery chicken burger, fries and coke. I was disappointed, although not surprised, to see that beef wasn’t served here, strictly chicken and paneer only. My meal was like all McDonalds meals, shit. However, I did enjoy the build up throughout the ... read more