We got a tuk tuk here, had breakfast and sunbathed on the loungers outside the place we were staying. This time we were staying in Agonda and had a beach hut on stilts which was funny when one of us was sat on the bed and the other walking around – it started shaking! The beach here was so nice, probably our favourite since Lopez Mendez beach in Brazil. We had a walk up the beach and went for lunch before heading back to our sunbathing spot (it’s a hard life). In the evening we went to one of the restaurant/bars by the beach.. it was very quiet with not much night life but it’s still very nice to sit on the beach having a drink, I don’t think we will get bored of it!

The next day we walked over the island to Cola beach which was a small rocky beach which had a lagoon on the other side. It was very nice. We spent the day here and then walked back over to Agonda beach where we sat on the beach having a beer and were accompanied by lots of dogs! In the evening, we went out for food and Kerry ordered her first vindaloo which was surprisingly, very tasty and spicy but not as spicy as we thought!

We spent the next day on Agonda beach. We were going to do some planning for the next part of our trip but instead, got chatting to two couples; Tim, Andreas, Paul and Jen. We were drinking with them for most of the afternoon and then met up with them in the evening for food and more drinks. Earlier in the day Jonho lost the key for our room, in the sea, so we had to climb through the window on our way back in.. We were leaving in the morning so didn’t want to tell them and get charged! Haha!

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We got a train here from Gokarna which took around 1 hour 30 minutes. We checked into our little beach hut which we were very happy with, on our own little beach (Columb beach) with only 3 other huts. We were staying inbetween the two bigger beaches, Patnem and Palolem so we walked to Patnem beach for lunch which was only a couple of minutes away and then spent the rest of our day there, sat outside a beach bar on our sun loungers having a few beers! In the evening, we came back to our beach hut and had a couple of drinks on our balcony and then went back to Patnem beach and had a nice meal there!

The next day we got up early and sat on our balcony for a little while and then went to Palolem beach and spent the whole day there. We came back to the hut towards the end of the day as we felt like we were getting a little sunburnt, had a couple of drinks and went back to Palolem beach to a restaurant in the evening where they had some live music on which was good. Afterwards, we went to another bar where we sat on bean bags by the beach having some beers.

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The bus here was supposed to take 7-8 hours. It actually took 14 hours as the bus broke down and a wheel had to be changed. We arrived, had a quick sleep and some food before heading to Kudle beach. We were staying in the town, which did have a beach but it wasn’t as nice. We spent the whole day at Kudle beach and in the evening lots of hippies were around doing yoga/ selling bracelets, chai and food. We sat at one of the restaurants on the beach which was a good people watching spot haha!

The next day we got up early and went to om beach which was very nice and hardly anyone on the beach. We found it funny to see a few cows strolling along the beach past us and one even sat on a girls sarong which was hilarious to watch! We spent the day there and then headed back to Kudle beach in the evening.

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No sleep for Jonho again on the night bus… at least he wasn’t sick! We arrived and had a little sleep before lunch. We hired scooters off the homestay owner in the afternoon and went driving around everywhere, through villages, towns and rice fields. We were loving it just driving around aimlessly and beeping our horn at every opportunity, as the locals do! In the evening we had food at the homestay which was quite a cool place with low tables and mats/cushions on the floor and a view of the rice fields.

The next day our plan was to drive the other side of the island where the ruins and temples are but as we got there, we were stopped by the police and told that we were not allowed to be there on the scooter/ the owner should not be renting it out to people. We were taken to the police station where we had to lie to the police and say we have borrowed it and havent paid anything and then bribe them to let us take the scooter back. 2000 rupee later, we were free to go and take the bike with us. So, we headed back to the homestay for lunch and went to the monkey temple nearby where we were staying instead. To get to the monkey temple we had to climb 575 stairs and on the way up there were so many monkeys. At the top everyone was feeding them and having them jump onto their shoulders. We didn’t let them jump on us but Jonho fed them! The view from the top was really good so we stayed up here to watch sunset before heading back to the homestay.

On the next day, we drove the scooter to the boat departure point and crossed a small river via boat (and left the scooter behind this time). We visited lots of temples and ruins which were really nice to see. Some of them were built over 2000 years ago and it wasn’t really busy with other tourists so it felt like we had stepped back in time, in the middle of nowhere with nothing but old temples and ruins around us. Afterwards we had a late lunch in Hampi Island which is more of a hippie place and chilled out there. In the evening we climbed up some boulders to the sunset viewpoint.

On out final day we walked to the waterfall and swimming spot which was close by to the place we were staying. We sat on the rocks around and chilled out for most of the day/ had a swim there. Afterwards, we headed to Hampi Island area again where we had lunch and sat in the chill out area there before our night bus to Gokarna…

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We got a bus from Bangalore to Mysore which only took a few hours. When we arrived we were surprised to see our room as it was only £7 a night for both of us and it was so nice! We chilled out in the room and then headed to KFC (we are just having a little break from curry). After this, we went to the Devaraja market where they sell lots of colourful flowers, spices, powder for the bindi, fruit, oils & inscents and other random stuff! It was quite interesting to see but there was alot of miver. We ended up both having some awful henna drawn on our hands, luckily it came off!

The next day, we visited Mysore Palace and both came out with a Bindi dot on our foreheads. The Palace was huge and very nice. Lots of people wanted selfies and photos with us here. After this we went to Shree Chamundeshwari Temple but didn’t realise it closed early so we were rushed in amongst lots of Indians who were pushing and shoving so they could do their prayers. It wasn’t a very peaceful temple. When we came back out, there were lots of monkeys running around the temple so we just stood and watched them for a bit before heading back into the town for some lunch. After lunch we decided to visit the zoological gardens where we walked through and saw lots of animals – tigers, lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hippos, deer, monkeys, sloth bears and more! In the evening we went out for a curry and came back to our luxury hotel to watch breaking bad!

The next day was our check out day so we left the hotel and got on a 3 hour bus to a town called Sultan Bathery so we could visit Wayanad Wildlife Sanctury and do a jeep safari. When we arrived, we were told the park was closed until April due to the heat and risk of forrest fires. We were so annoyed as this is the only thing we came for, so we got some lunch and headed back to Mysore. So we spent our whole day on a bus but luckily, we did see some wild elephants and monkeys whilst driving through so we were happy about that! We got back to Mysore after a long day and headed to Dominos (again, haha). We had a chilled out evening and didn’t do much.

The next day we didn’t have a plan as we didn’t intend to be here another day so we had a walk to a restaurant for breakfast and on the way got chatting to an Indian man who then invited us along to his friends wedding. It was the 3rd day of the wedding so it was only a couple of hours long. We went with him, got stared at when walking in by everyone. There were around 300 people at the wedding, it was so busy and it wasn’t really a nice venue – more of a warehouse with loads of plastic chairs. We were then invited to have some food with them so we did, which was really good! Up to now, we have managed to eat with knives and forks or even a spoon in restaurants but we had to eat with our hands here. It probably sounds easy but you can only use your right hand for eating so it’s quite hard to rip a chapatti and it’s discusting getting rice and sauce all over your hands. Jonho finds it especially difficult being left handed. After food, EVERYONE wanted to talk to us, take photos, take selfies, wanted us to sit with them. It was quite nice but after a while, our jaws were aching from smiling for all the photos and it got a bit much haha! After this, we chilled out back at the hotel and then went to Mysore Palace as they illuminate the whole palace on a Sunday evening.. It was pretty cool!

Next stop, Hampi! Hopefully Jonho will be ok this time as it is a lie down night bus again…

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We arrived in Bangalore after a 14 hour night bus. We had a double bunk bed (top bunk) on the bus which we thought would be alot better than the buses we’ve had so far (seats that recline). Kerry quite liked the bus and slept ok apart from the odd pot hole here and there. Jonho however, felt sick the whole way and was nearly rolling off the bed so didn’t enjoy it. We checked in and had a sleep before heading to dominos for our pizza fix. As we were walking there, we were saying to each other how the city is much more modern and seems a bit nicer than the other cities…. and then we looked up and there was a man with his trousers down weeing infront of us. Maybe not so nice. We enjoyed our pizza though. Afterwards we went to the botanical gardens which was nice to walk around and escape the madness as cities in India are just crazy. We did get stopped a couple of times for selfies/ photos with people’s baby’s – this is becoming a regular thing now! After this we treated ourselves to a Starbucks, had a walk around and then burgers and a beer for tea. We really took advantage of all the western food!

The next day, we decided to go to Wonderla which is Bangalore’s theme/water park. We were the only white people in the park and were told when we got there that we had to have 100% nylon ‘swim wear’ which wasn’t your usual bikini… Kerry had to buy a whole new outfit and Jonho had to get some new shorts too! We had a really fun day on all the rides and water slides!!

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It took us 5 hours to get here from Kochi, changing buses twice. Once we arrived we had a walk around the town which isn’t very nice – you come here for the tea plantations. We went to a cafe called ‘taste the brews’ where we got a selection of tasters. Five of them were black tea and the other five were milky tea. The flavours were strange but some were really nice! Some of the flavours were; Cardamom Honey, Vanilla, Ginger, Cinnamon, Masala and Whole spice. We didn’t do much else on this day apart from go out for some food in the evening, where Jonho didn’t realise he picked a spicy curry and had to order 2 liters of water to wash it down!

The next day, we got up early (6am) to start our full day trek around the tea plantations. We started by going to the top of a mountain where we had a view of the plantations and had breakfast up there. Then we made our way down through the tea plantations and through a forrest where there was different spices growing so our guide picked certain ones and let us taste them/smell them. As we were walking through the villages, the locals wanted to talk to us and have photos taken with us. The hike was 18km in total and at the end we went for lunch at a cottage before the jeep came to pick us up and took us back to the hotel.

The next day, we had some time before our bus at half past four so we decided to hire a tuk tuk for four hours in the morning. The driver took us to two lakes, a dam, an elephant camp where you could ride elephants (we didn’t ride them) and up to the ‘top station which is basically the top of the hills and was a really good view. We stopped off at each place and took photos/ had a walk around and then headed back down to the hotel. On the way back we saw a monkey just chilling by the side of the road, lots of cows which is becoming normal now and then we saw some wild elephants in the forrest which neither of us have seen before so we’re really happy! We had lunch and then chilled out before our bus.

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We arrived at the train station and got a tuktuk to our homestay. We went out for lunch and then had a walk to the beach and to see the Chinese fishing nets which is a popular tourist spot. This place was not as expected, it was dirty, there was rubbish every where and it just did not look very nice. We went to a cafe for a drink before heading back to the homestay and then out for food in the evening.

The next day we had a bit of a lie in to make up for all of the early starts we have been having. Then we went to Jain Temple which was recommend to us by a random Indian man that shouted us to go into his opticians. The main attraction at this temple is ‘pigeon-feeding’. Everyday, hundreds of pigeons are fed here by the old man at the temple. He came out with the bag of mixed grains and called out for the birds and hundreds of pigeons came to the courtyard to be fed. They gave us some of the grains to put in our hands and the pigeons ate from our hands. (It was pretty minging but something different we suppose). We had lunch, a walk around the city which again, wasn’t a very nice city. In the evening, we went to watch a Kathakali show which is one of the major forms of classical Indian dance and popular in Kochi. It was actually a story play where the actors were wearing exaggerated and colourful make-up, using hand gestures and movements instead of words to act out the play… We had no idea what was going on! Neither of us were impressed by Kochi. Next stop Munnar..

We arrived in Alleppey via train from Munroe Island. We booked to stay on a house boat for the night so made our way to the boat. The boat was really nice, we checked in and at 1pm it departed and took us through some big canals and lakes to see a different part of the backwaters of Kerala. We stopped off in the middle of a huge lake and had lunch on the boat and then continued through a village where we could see lots of women doing their washing in the canal water. Later, we stopped off for the night so we got off the boat and watched the sunset over the rice paddies. We got back on the boat for the evening meal and went to bed. The next morning, we had to get up early as breakfast was 7.30am and headed back to Alleppey for 9am. On the way back through the villages, we saw the people who lived there brushing their teeth and washing their hair in the canal water. We went straight to the train station to catch the next train to Kochi.

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We started our day early with a 7am train to Kollam and then from there, a train to Munroe Island which is made up of a cluster of 13 islands, separated by small water channels and lakes and is a good way to see the backwaters of Kerala, which is one of the highlights here. We booked to actually stay on Munroe Island in a homestay where we have our own little chalet but a family look after us and cook our meals. When we arrived, we chilled out on the balcony for most of the morning and had a sleep (we did have an early get up). The host made us our lunch and then we sat on the balcony drinking chai which is pretty similar to tea but a lot sweeter and more milky. Later in the afternoon we cycled round the island which was really nice and because it’s not very touristy here, the locals were all saying hello, waving as we went past and asking for photos. We felt like celebrities, especially when we stopped off to watch sunset and around 20 students were around us asking for selfies and taking sly photo’s of us. Their teacher was asking us questions and they were all videoing us, it was like we were being interviewed! Later in the evening, an English couple arrived at the homestay so we had our tea with them.

The next day, we had an early start again – 5.30am! We went on a backwaters canoe cruise where we were taken down all the small channels and could see the people in the villages getting on with their day to day jobs and through the big lakes which were very pretty also. We stopped to watch sunrise and then continued for around two and a half hours in total. On the way round we saw a couple of otters in the water and stopped off at a local place to get a Chai to take with us in the boat. We had a really good time, so it was worth getting up early for! We came back and had breakfast made for us, chilled out on the balcony again until after lunch and then went out on the bikes to explore more of the island. We stopped off at a little local place which looked like a fruit and veg stall but was busy with locals stood outside. We stopped off and they were making fresh fruit drinks so we both tried one. They were very nice but very different, we picked a fruit we wanted and it was mixed with different spices and ginger! In the evening we sat and chatted to the English couple, had a couple of beers and had our food cooked for us!

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