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Published: December 3rd 2008
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Panic not! We are fine... just logged into my emails and found some worried comments about our safety - we are ok - the mumbai attacks have not really affected us apart from a little bit of shock as we obviously went to a couple of the place that were targetted. We flew out of Bangalore the morning after the attacks and sat and read the paper about all the terror - freaked us out a bit esp that the next target could be Kerala (where we are now!) but you can't let stuff like that stop you....
So since our last blog we enjoyed the splendors of Hampi -gorgeous place ... everyone should go - its so peaceful full of natural and man made beautys and considering how touristy it is there weren't too many touts (except when we first got there) but maybe we are just getting used to it....
we went out with our guide for half a day (after finding out how much he wanted to charge us for two days...) - Pilch got to drive a rickshaw and we saw lots of wonderful temples and religious sites. We went looking for Lakshmi the elephant
at the big temple but never found him - for an elephant he was very elusive! 😊 Pilch had his haircut by a local barber too.. the power cut half way through and they continued by candel light - turned out quite good considering! 😊
Hampi was amazing also for the wildlife- we saw herds of goats, chickens, lizards, chipmonks, eagles, cows (of course)... and MONKEYS!! Lots of monkeys... there were loads of them at this temple and Tanya eagerly brought a bag of nuts to feed them - then one of them chucked a coconut at her head and jumped down and stole the nuts! So no terrorist threat - just monkey trouble!
We spent our last day in Hampi sending another parcel back to england to lighten our bags... this took a total of 2 and a half hours! Shocking!
So then after promising ourselves we would never again get a night bus we boarded one at 10pm and head to Bangalore airport for a flight to Kerala. This turned out to be a mistake... why did we not learn the first time round and allowed 4 days in Hampi to change our minds about
how bad it had been? We did this time have beds at least but being shook internally for 7hours is enough to make the calmest person alive loose it slightly!! When we got to Bangalore it was raining and horrible - we sat up in ours beds ready to get off and went over the biggest bump in the road - we both hit our heads on the ceiling hard enough to give concussion and Tanya managed to whack her back on the ceiling too... not impressed - we repeat: WE WILL NEVER GET A NIGHTBUS AGAIN!!
So when we got off the bus in the rain we were totally vulnerable to being ripped off... a rickshaw man approached us and asked if we wanted a taxi - he then said he would call one and we should sit in his rickshaw and wait until it arrived (it never crossed our minds to hail one ourselves - to tired and concussed!) - then he started driving us around in his cold wet rickshaw saying he was looking for a taxi for us. When he had stopped twice it became apparent he wasn't getting us a taxi and intended on
driving us the 40km to the airport!! We told him to stop, then he hailed a taxi - we got in and they started arguing over money ... this went on for ages with us trying to tell them we just wanted to get to our flight... eventually we went off... horrible rickshaw man even asked for a tip after taking 300 ruppees off us for driving around in the rain!! We got to the airport expecting to pay a load more to the taxi man but he saved our faith in honest people when he said "so sorry for what happened. I don't want more money"
So we arrived in Kerala to blistering sunshine (yippee after crappy Bangalore) and head straight to Fort Cochi, where we spent two days (went to a Kathakali performance and spent one day by the pool!) before going on a Backwater adventure on a house boat. This was one of the most relaxing things I have ever done - a whole house on a boat pushed along by two men and a bamboo stick!! We got taken on a smaller boat too through the narrow backwaters and shown how coconut toddy is made
(another use for your coconut book Chloe!) - we both had some but couldn't manage too much!
We spent the night on the boat -when we came out from our room in the evening to have dinner we discovered a whole village (well almost) stood on the bank next to the boat staring at us! This continued most of the evening with other village members being called to come and inspect!! It was very amusing... but a little freaky too! 😊)
We got a bus in the morning to Varkala (where we are now) - didn't quite expect it to take 5hours (forget how big India is sometimes!) - we are staying in a lovely bamboo hut (and we even have a tv!! ) .. we plan to stay here a while as we have been moving around quite a bit - we also need to figure out what happens next and we have found a tailor who seems to want to make us a whole wardrobe of perfectly fitting lovely cheap clothes!! Bangkok have to wait for now coz of the airport problems .... may go to Malaysia...
Love to you all - keep in touch
and let us know how you all are... hope xmas shopping is not too stressful and cold - ENJOY!!
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Hayshe
Hayley Telling
:)
Ive been catching up with your blogs and photos, sounds like youre having an amazing time! Keep enjoying xxx