Round the World

Hello everyone, again sorry for the overwhelming slackness on our part not updating the blog for an eternitity, like our school reports we "must do better"!

Right from Palolem we took the train to Trivindrum (capital of Kerala) which was a plesent 14 hour overnight journey, this time we chose to downgrade to a cheaper class, not quite 'chicken and goat' class but a downgrade all the same, we passed some of the time playing our new game 'spot the turd' which can be played by two or more players on any railway track in India, simply spot a stray dropping on the track and yell 'TURD' that gives you (and/or your team)one point it's amazing how the hours get eaten up playing it!

Trivindrum was o.k, we just spent one day there visiting the Zoo, zoo zoo. Along with some temples and an old palace. After such a franticly hectic day we thought it was time to take things a little easier so we caught another train, played some more 'spot the turd' and got off at Varkala, a beach resort perched on some deathly high cliffs. After 2 days of relaxing and generally festering in our increasing wiffy clothes we moved onto Allepey which is the home of the houseboats.

The houseboats are like giant motorised whicker baskets, although that description does them no justice at all. If anyones interested google - houseboats, kerala, backwaters. we hired an extravigantly (sp?!) luxurious boat for 22hours and it took us around a series of lakes, streams rivers etc... for the princely sum of RS3500 (about 32quid) the price included all the food drinks and the company of 3 ridicuously helpfull boatmen, or seamen as we preferred to call them.

From Allepey we took a 6 hour bus ride to Kumily, the town just outside Periyar wildlife santuary. we organised a day gentle treking through the park (or at least we thought) when we saw an Indian version of Daily Thompson arrive to pick us up at 5:30am our concerns began. These concerns continued to grow as 'Daily' set of at world record pace (for the 400m) after 10 minutes we were pleased to see leeches sucking the blood ot of our legs......it gave us a chance to stop and take on water! Good old Daily then provided us with leech socks which allowed us to continue on at our monstorously punishing pace (Great!) Thankfully about 40 minutes in we spotted a family of elephants (Mum,Dad,Baby) and it gave us a chance to stop for a while and take some photos (hopefully uploaded from Singapore next week) we also got glimpses on Bison, Deer, giant squirells, monkeys, numerous creepy crawlies (tania loved that bit) and of course the obligitory cow (it is India after all) A fantastic day, and i'm sure if we had got a chance to get used to the conditions and had, had some altitude training we'd have faired much better with the hiking! (well thats our excuse and we're sticking to it)

Next stop was Munnar, about 5 hours North of Kumily and about 5000ft above sea level (even raising a bottle of beer there leaves you breathless) this place was stunning, steep hills and moutains covered in tea and spice plantations, with lots of lakes, rivers and waterfalls dotted about its just about the most beautiful and tranquil place either of us has visited, its certainly a far cry from Bombay!

We've now arrived back on the coast (Kochi) we we're staring to get withdrawal symptoms from not being able to go to the beach and we're here for 3 days before getting our very last train in India (*sob*) to Bangalore on Wednesday.We'll be sure to savour our last week in India but i'm sure we'll return here again one day, it's such an amazing place!

TTFN, we'll update again soon (we'll at least think about it anyway!)

Love from Anthony and Tania xx

Hello everyone, it's been a week or so since we've dragged our sorry butts off the beach to update you all on our Indian escapades, for that we apologise. Being honest the frequency of updates we imagine will continue on this same path as we realise that sitting in an internet shop whilst the sun beats down through the window and we loose half of our body mass in sweat isn't as much fun as sipping cocktails and frolicking in the sea, but we'll try our best!

Bit of a mixed week, after our early confidence in the local food we were brought down to earth with a bang (well an explosion of some description) I think we just got a bit cocky and started ordering just about anything on the menu that was meat or seafood based. The straw that broke the camels back was the shark and chips and Tuna and chips we shared for breakfast last Sunday. Even as I (Ant) started to eat it I thought 'hang on a minute, theres something fishy about this ummm fish' and low and behold about 6 hours later we were both suffering from acute rapid vomiting and explosive diarrherea simultaniously (sorry for the graphic description if youve just had your lunch, especially if it was a tuna and mayo sarnie! yuck). We've chalked it up to experience after a few days in bed we're just about back on form.

We've moved a few times since our last update, from Anjuna to Baga which is like the costa del sol on India absolutely 'orrible place with 'orrible British people taking in some "Indian culture" LOL. We made a sharp exit from there onto Benaulim which was a quieter town again on the beach but nothing too exciting to report from our 2 days there just lots of sunbathing, swimming and drinking (how is the weather back home?!)

We are now in Palolem which is the beach featured on most of the pictures you see of Goa, it's stunning! we're staying in the cozy nook beach huts and they're bloody great, slightly more pricey than what we've been used to (about IRS900, which is 8 quid(ish)) but well worth the extra, theres a coconut tree growing through our main room (looks lovley but can be a pain when you get up for a wee in the middle of the night),a bed outside in our own little garden area, along with comfy chairs and chair hammocks just in front abd its dotted with lots of candles and seashells, it's proper like! oh and most importantly its faces the nicest beach we've been to yet! Unfortunately our budget wont allow us to stay here forever but we're going to enjoy the few nights we've got there before we move back to another cheap cockroach infested fleapit (cant wait!)

We've booked to go on 2 boat trips, one to spot dolphins on Monday and another to go snorkelling on butterly island we've realised that sitting on a beach all day isn't all we can do! we'll let you know how they go.

We've found the camera cable that Tan lost but the connection is slower than Bob is putting his hand in his pockets for a round (just kidding!) so we'll have to wait until we get to probably Singapore (26th March) before we can upload any pictures.

Speak to you all soon, Anthony and Tania xx

Having a bit of a problem with the photo's someone naming no names (tania) forgot the USB cable we need to upload them, so we're going to have to wait untill possibly Thailand before we can buy one. (T-maybe I wouldnt have forgotten it if someone (no names!) had put it back in the right box!).

The introduction of meat and seafood into my diet has yet to have any dramatic potentially explosive consequences so I dont know if thats down to my iron stomach or the lack of hygine in our home cooking but so far so good, Tan's still not ventured outside the world of fried cottage cheese and lady fingers (we have no idea what these things are but they appear in every vegitarian meal here) but she did say that the rat kebab and dog hair in pitta sounded almost irrisistable so she may yet be broken.

We're spending our second day in Anjuna which is picture postcard stuff. The beach is miles long and the waters crystal clear (jelous anyone? sorry) theres lots of beach bars and cafe's pumping out techno from about 10am and loads of stalls selling rubbish hippy clothes (Eric would love it) it's like a small Glastonbury by the sea, but with beatiful weather (again sorry)

Looks like we're going to stay here for a few days and i might have to show Tan my moves on a scooter which there are millions of locally, (I wonder if they have Scarabeo's?)

There are far few beggars here only the odd Blind man and one legged cyclops about on the beach but the shop owners are still more pushy than Ian Huntley at bath time.

Right we're off for a dip in the sea (sorry once more people) will write once we've done more than just laze about eat and get drunk ..........which could be a while.

Anthony and Tania xx

O.k it's been a few days and a fair bits happened. The first day in Bombay was how can I put it, how about Hell on earth! the heat was ridiculous the people stare at you the whole time like you've just crawled out of your own arse, and the worst bit of all is all the poverty and namley the beggars. Hundereds of little kids, OAP's and disabled people accost you almost permenantely asking for change or something to eat, Tan found it pretty hard to cope with initially and after a few hours in the city we both wanted to bail ASAP. We went out for food the first night and we're convinced the grub would guarantee us sh*tting through the eye of a needle the next day, so much so Tan got her sewing kit out so we could prove/disprove this theory. Thankfully the food was great and as yet (touch wood) we've not had any cases of the trots to report. Although as yet meat and seafood are unchartered teritory!

We got talking to lots of different Indians and they all have been some of the friendliest and most genuine people we've ever met, our first impressions were most definately way off the mark. The staring thing is apparantely down to them being inquisitive about us and they also find it strange that 2 white people are on holiday in the armpit of the sub continient! and to be fair they have a point Bombay isn't the most attractive city we've ever been to, in fact Merthyr is more asthetically pleasing, but it does have a lot to see and do and it's impossible to be bored there for even a minute. We're both glad we visited and ended up staying for 4 days.

In our 4 days we visited lots of impressive (some tired looking) buildings from the colonial days, Elephanta island and we got to watch the last day of the England Mumbai cricket match which Tania was ecstatic about, to be honest she's still brimming with excitment even today, 3 days later! we've got quite a few photo's already so will have a go soon uploading them.

We left Mumbai on the train yesterday, we thought as it was our first train journey we'd splash out and get 1st class A/C which was about 18quid each for about a 1000 mile journey which we had been led to believe took 8 hours, 13 hours after getting on the train we arrived at old Goa sweaty tired and suffering slightly with cabin fever, the trains here are straight from the 1960's and are using a different clock to the 24hour one the rest of the world uses. The toilets on board were interesting, basically 2 foot rests and a hole to aim into which evidentally went straight onto the track, nice! (im just suprised that someone has the time to scoop all of it up and take it all the way to central Mumbai to drop off)

Went to our first beach today Mariman wich was really nice only spent 2 hours sunbathing but we both managed (even with factor 25 on) to get frazzled we'd only need to order egg and chips and a pint of carling and we'd be the quintessential British tourists!

We passed a resturant near the cricket stadium which we had to eat in, from what the owner says they do a cracking toad in the hole and the sausage curry is not to be missed.....the photo will explain all.

We're off now to have a go at uploading some photo's then im going to bite the bullet and have some tiger prawns which are a bit of a speciallity down this neck of the woods.

Speak to you all soon, Anthony and Tania.

Well we're here, flight was fine weather's nice and hot and its pretty much as we imagined it to be. Coming into land we flew over what can only be described as Blaen Y Maes X1000 hundereds of shanty houses packed together like sardines how people find there way home from the pub after a few Cobra's is anyones guess. We then caught a pre-paid taxi to our hotel (about 2 quid 50 for a 40 minute white knuckle ride) Either India is full of lots of very good drivers or they are just very very lucky, we certainly wont be hiring a car anywhere on the sub continent thats for sure its bazzerk!

Not done anything as yet just been checking out our view from our hotel room, its of an off white dust wall, and very nice it is to.

Off now to soak up some culture and have some sort of chicken dish at the local fast food joint i think its called TajDonalds!

Will write more soon, Ta Ta for now.

Ant and Tan.