28/02/2012

Today was traveling day as we were off to Kanyakumari, the southern most point of India.
As the train was due to depart at 9:20 we got up early and packed, showered and checked out from Mango Villa. We walked up to the helipad and despite it being a day with millions of striking Indians across the country we managed to find a rickshaw that would bring us to the railway station for Rs.100,- which was too much really but we didn't have a choice apart from walking more than 2km with full backpacks and bags.
The train left nearly on time and after an uneventful journey where we could spot plenty of palm trees, some backwaters etc we arrived 3.5 hours later in Kanyakumari.
There we had a rickshaw driver cheekily quote us Rs.250,- for a 2km ride to the hotel to which I simply snorted and walked off, didn't even bother haggling with him but instead we found a cab driver who took us for Rs.100,-. Lesson is that cab drivers can be cheaper than rickshaw drivers and don't necessarily take the piss to the same level, something we also learnt in Mysore and when getting to Varkala.
The hotel was Sparsa Resorts and was OK boasting a swimming pool and gym - but it was tired looking and in need of a facelift, including the gym where the aircon was out of operation causing me to quickly overheat after a 30 min trot on the treadmill, shortly after we arrived and checked in.
Claire went to the pool in the meantime and I eventually came down - but it was too hot for me lying in the sun as I was still hot from my run and instead we decided to have a quick lunch in the hotel before we went for a walk to see the tourist attractions nearby.
Afterwards we returned to our room and relaxed for a bit before walking down to the watch tower lookout point for sunset. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and misty in the horizon and so the sun was well gone before it hit the horizon. So we returned back to the hotel again and relaxed before going for dinner in the hotel restaurant. The food was nice'ish, Claire had the fish curry and I had the lamb Rogan Josh, the latter had some pretty hard meat and a fair bit of oil swimming on the surface but was otherwise OK.
At 21:00 we returned to our room where we relaxed for a bit before going to sleep early as we need to get up early to see sunrise.

Claire on a bench in a park where you can view the sunrise and sunset, as well as the two structures in the background

Same park/view point with the two structures in the background

27/02/2012

Today was a bit of a lazy day as it was the last full day here. We got up late and went down for breakfast in Cafe Del Mar where Claire had eggs and I had a very nice tuna sandwich.
Afterwards we walked into town in search of a cash dispenser but I didn't keep an eye on the satnav and we ended up way off course. Never mind, we took the opportunity to visit town, walking along the railway, which was nice. After 1.5 hours of walking and taking out cash we got a bit lazy and took a rickshaw back.
After a detour to our room we went to the beach where I stayed for an hour before having had enough while Claire lingered on for another hour until 16:30.
We showered again, relaxed and then went for dinner in Abba where I was back on Indian food with a chicken Manchurian while Claire went for spring rolls and Pakoras.
We returned to the room on a mission. Declan, Claire's brother, had indicated that he'd like to meet us for Easter as he's in Hong Kong and is off on the 5th-10th of April. So we went on a planning session as our aim is to perhaps meet him in New Delhi in a nice 5* hotel with a pool - and take him on a day trip to see Agra/Taj Mahal. We got Darjeeling planned including booking train to New Jaigalpur and a cheap and cheerful hotel in Darjeeling with good TripAdvisor reviws.
Then it was bedtime...

26/02/2012

Today we got up and had breakfast in Cafe Del Mar again. It appears to be the best spot on the strip of beach/cliff for breakfast.
We then returned to the guesthouse and visited our host downstairs in order to print out our itinerary and tickets for the journey ahead. While doing so we had a nice long time talking to her - she's from the French part of Belgium but lived 16 years in Congo in Africa.
She recommended that we walk northwards along the beach to see the area and sea and we did that, which turned out to be very nice walk. On the way we met Tanja from Switzerland and she joined us on the walk. She had just said goodbye to a bunch of friends this morning as they were heading off. We talked to her while walking for just over 2 hours after which we returned to the helipad in Varkala by rickshaw together.
Afterwards we went to the Chillout Lounge where we talked further about life and travelling. As she is a keen photographer (with a Nikon D7000, which she didn't bring) I also fetched my laptop and showed her the pictures I had taken on a very sunny November day in Dublin along the canal and in Stephen's Green. After just over an hour there we parted ways with contact details - and Claire and I returned back to the guesthouse.
After a bit of lazing around we decided to go down for an early dinner and just went for the Western options of pizza, burger and chips. We bumped into Tanja again and said hello and goodbye, before returning back to our room for some more Burn Notice.

Varkala beach view from the cliffs

The path we were walking on north of the beach

Us by the palm tree on the path

25/02/2012

After downgrading my dosage of antibiotics to 2 pills a day I no longer have a sick feeling stomach and I can sleep at night, while I think the original problem is going away too - wahaaay for medical science! ;-) Only downside is that relaxing alcoholic drinks like King Fisher or cold Port ;-) is not allowed in the foreseeable future until 48 hours after I'm off the pills to prevent projectile vomiting (can act like Antabus), which is still more than a week away - you got to give the liver a chance to break down this stuff.
Anyway we got up, showered and went down for breakfast. It was stifling hot and afterwards we just relaxed for a while and were booking the onwards journey further while waiting for the temperature to come down and the sun to be less intense. At around 14:30 Claire went off to the beach and I finished up a few things and joined her half an hour later. We spent until just before 17:00 on the beach and literally got cremated while listening to our own music; but it was nice.
However, the water was quite treacherous and we witnessed two separate incidents: a guy had been hit by waves and fellow swimmers had to pick him up and get him further in - the life guard was also involved to get him ashore - but he didn't suffer any lasting effects. The second incident involved a girl some distance away from us on the beach who appeared to have broken her arm at sea - we found out because in the evening her friend was on the phone and talking about it and how she couldn't leave for up to 3 weeks. So safety first around here when in the sea - I went out too and was body surfing for some time in this waters, which really was good fun - I have got the hang of it and can move quite far with the surge.
Afterwards we returned to our room and showered before heading out for something to eat at the Sunrise restaurant. There we met Jack, a 74 year old man from Yorkshire, who is travelling around India on his own. He was a great character and we spent the meal talking to him about our travels and experiences. Unfortunately it kind of came to a halt when the staff "discreetly" put a Reserved sign on our table for 20:00 at 19:56 and told us people would be coming soon - we were quite miffed by that and left only a tiny tip with the promise of not coming back. Up until then it had been a great place. Claire had a red Thai curry and I went for a Chinese dish with chicken, mushrooms and bamboo shoots - which was nice and not very spicy; good for the stomach!
As always we ended up returning to our room where we watched some more Burn Notice before finally going to sleep.

Mango Villa - the guesthouse we are staying in

24/02/2012

I did sleep better than the previous 2 nights, clocking up perhaps 6 hours of sleep - given that I had skipped one of the antibiotics pills at dinner time on purpose because I wanted a night's sleep. Claire didn't sleep so well - I think the aircon kept her awake. But we got up just before 9:00, had showers and then went down to talk to Vinciane, our hostess.
She showed us the direction to the cliffs where all the shops and breakfast places were and we were quickly on our way for some grub. We decided on Cafe Del Mar for breakfast and it was very nice as we had more European style fruit salads, eggs, toast, muesli etc - and nice coffee too.
Then we went shopping for mosquito repellent and water and surveyed the whole row of shops along the cliffs on the north beach of Varkala. We returned back to our room with our purchases and then relaxed for a bit until 14:00 when we down to the beach, via the cliffs.
The beach is not particularly long but very nice with nice soft sand, with the unusual aspect of cliffs roaming over it, and not a lot of people - but it's quite hot at that time of the day to the point that you're breaking a sweat after 5 minutes. We were sunbathing and relaxing there for 1.5 hours before taking a dip in the sea, which proved to be fun - but dangerous for the unwary as the under-current/tow is very strong. We had plenty of opportunity to body surf the waves and you really did move considerable amounts of distance towards shore when you got it right.
Afterwards we headed back up the cliffs and went to the Chillout Lounge for a quick refreshing drink while relaxing and talking for a bit. We agreed to return there, possibly to watch a movie as they provide a nightly "movie theater" on a big TV screen there.
Back in our room we had showers and then headed back to the Chillout Lounge where I had pizza and chips and Claire had a vegetarian curry - neither dish was much of an inspiration so we won't be returning there for food; just drinks.
We returned to our room and then watch the movie The Inbetweeners, which turned out to be quite funny in screwed up kind of way. Afterwards we watched a bit of Burn Notice before going to sleep.

23/02/2012

I had very little sleep last night because of the pills and my stomach, only about 1.5 hours. But I/we were determined to have a great day. We got up at 7:30, had showers and packed as much as we could.
Last night I had asked for some Western food in the form of Omelet and toast bread for breakfast this morning - Claire joined in and ordered the same. We got it as ordered and it turned out to be a great idea. My system seems to have craved some solid food and my stomach actually calmed down, even after I popped yet more antibiotics with my meal.
So we finished our packing afterwards and then came the really sad moment - our driver arrived at 9:30 and we had to say goodbye to our great hosts at Breeze Homes. Both sides seemed quite emotional, although I didn't spot any major tears, and we even got a nice small lamp (for oil) off them with the name Breeze Homes engraved. That did it for Claire I think - and she is going to work on sourcing an Irish horse shoe to hang up over the door for them, something she had spoken about with them over the last few days here. Annette watch out, you're going to be involved in this little project! ;-)
We went off in the car but were soon after stopped in the middle of the road by one of the co-owners who shook hands with us - he too, was quite emotional. He really enjoyed talking to us and sharing information about what to see on our journey through India throughout our stay. Shortly after we were on our way - to Alleppey, where we had booked a very nice house boat for a day trip (the company is actually called Elite Houseboats).
It only took about 45 minutes to get there and after a bit of path finding we finally found the Alleppey Finishing Point (Nehru boat race) and got hold of someone who knew where the house boat was - there were literally 100's, not just next to each other, but behind each other as well. We ended up climbing our way through 4 house boats (deep) before we got to ours. After a 10 minute introduction and wait we were on our way.
The shores and plantations along the lake are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen - simply amazing. I have taken many pictures and I will share them later.
At around 12:00 we stopped at a shop on the backwaters and did a bit of shopping. There we also met a bunch of very happy-go-lucky Chinese tourists, one of which was an elderly man who was great craic. In fact, he stood on a stone in the water and let the small fish in the lake do a fish pedicure, i.e. gnawing away at his dead skin, all for free in Kerala - as opposed to paying 20 for it in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin ;-)
Then we had a bit of a photo-war with the same guy, trying to get pictures of each other and our house boats to share on Facebook - all good-spirited fun! ;-)
After 10 minutes there we were on our way again and sailed for another 30 minutes, before we came to a lake where all the house boats seemed to "park up" while making and serving lunch - ditto on our boat. We were served a small grilled local fish, Keralan rice (just as big/thick as Risotto rice), a type of fried cabbage, a spicy dal, potatoes fried with mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric, as well as a yoghurt/raita with what seemed like mango and ginger - all really nice stuff in huge quantities and variety. I tucked in mainly to the rice and yoghurt and had some of the potatoes and fish too, which seemed to do me some good. Claire tried it all and was well impressed too.
After about an hour's lunch and relaxation we were on our way again for a couple of hours - the backwaters are very impressive and well worth a visit. House boat was a nice addition too - but you didn't really need to see the backwaters on a house boat for a day trip, a bit of an overkill really for only a couple, although you did get near total peace and privacy. There are other and much cheaper boat options too with a roof and recliners instead, although you would probably not have gotten lunch.
As we returned we met Joffy from Elite Houseboats and had a quick chat with him. He ordered a rickshaw for us, which arrived a couple of minutes later. We were off to the railway station and were there for 1.5 hours before our train was scheduled to depart. This time we had booked Second Sitting (no aircon, but lots of fans in the ceiling all a full speed - and a natural breeze coming in from the open, but barred, windows) because there were no better classes available on the train. We did however have designated seats and the seats were fine and about 1/2 of the price of the next class up. As the journey was only 2 hours and 108km we were fine.
Towards the end and as we got up, got our luggage and moved to the exits, I even met a young, local and chatty Indian who had just started studying to become a mechanical engineer - although he wanted to become a manager and not doing an actual engineers works, weird but, well... We were talking for a bit about travelling in India and about Europe too and he was very interested and asked very direct questions such as age, occupation etc - very Indian, as a Westerner you nearly feel like you're under interrogation - but that's the Indian way, they're very "nosy" ;-)
We got off at the station about 10 minutes late, which is pretty good going here, and immediately bumped into a local cab driver who offered to get us to Mango Villa for Rs.100,-. As both of us were tired we didn't really try haggling and we knew it was a decent price so we jumped at the opportunity and were soon on our way. About 15 minutes later we arrived, after the driver had navigated through a bewildering array of very narrow and windy streets, some with tall walls on both sides and room only for a car and at a(n Indian) stretch a scooter on the side.
As we arrived at the villa we were very impressed with what we had booked. The hostess is from Europe and very nice and the villa was very nice and clean - the room was very clean too and had a nice sized bed and very Italian style (open) wardrobe and facilities. There is even a nice imitation marble floor and a relatively big balcony with chairs, as well as a tiny garden in the front.
We spoke for a bit to the hostess and then closed the door, had quick showers and at 21:00 went to be and watched some Burn Notice before going to bed.

22/02/2012

This morning we got up early - I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours. My stomach troubles and the pills I'm on are causing some nausea. So we've agreed that once we hit Varkala I will visit a doctor there.
Anyway after breakfast, where Claire sampled the usual south Indian compliment and I stuck with a bit of fruit as I had no appetite, we decided to do something. So we walked to Kuthiathode, about 3 km. away from Breeze Homes. We did a little bit of shopping there and said hello to the locals and then returned back to Breeze Homes.
There we had lunch, after which Claire had a snooze on the hammock while I spent some time looking at hotels in Pondicherry, Chennai and Kolkata. I got all the Kolkata hotels sorted out, as well as the train from Chennai to Kolkata. We have 13 days to spend on our way(s) between Kanyakumarai and Chennai and we reckon we will spend 3 nights in Pondicherry, then onwards to Tranquebar (Danish Fort - yes, we were here too ;-) for a couple of nights and finally up towards a week in Chennai, unless we find some nice beach or stuff to see on the way.
Then I spent some time taking pictures of Breeze Homes with my Nikon and phone on behalf of our hosts as a favour. We even ended up posing on some of them, while on the sun loungers/recliners - so it will be interesting to see if we end up as marketing material over the next while ;-)
For dinner we had a nice chicken curry with chapattis and fresh vegetables - it was very nice and although I didn't have much of any appetite I did manage to eat some of it.
Afterwards we went in to watch some Burn Notice - unfortunately for me the pills really are upsetting my stomach, which is really upset already, so I was feeling rather nauseated, resulting in very little sleep in the end.

21/02/2012

Today was a day of relaxation and planning of our onwards trip.
We got up at 8:00, showered and had our breakfast with Mark, Jane & Amelie, their last here as they're going to Alleppey on an overnight stay on a houseboat.
After saying goodbye to them we sat down and started planning our overall trip and we now think we have a globe strokes plan for the rest of India, in particular the north as we have had a pretty good idea about the South for a while.
Then we had a lunch, a light one for me with mostly fruit while Claire was tucking in to a full Indian.
Afterwards we booked trains and and accommodation down to the bottom of India where the 3 seas meet (Kanyakumarai) and then up to Villuparam, 40km away from Pondicherry.
This took much longer than anticipated as Internet connectivity and web sites were playing up and we didn't finish our bookings until just before dinner.
At dinner we had vegetarian food, consisting of chappatis and dal as well as some fresh sliced vegetables.
Then we retired to the room and watched a couple of Burn Notice before sleep.

20/02/2012

This morning we got up at 8:30 and went for breakfast, which included the usual compliment of Indian dishes. Afterwards we had a canoe trip across the backwaters booked and were on our way just after 10:00. It was a really nice and relaxing 3.5 hour journey in which we saw a lot of paddy fields and water ways. We also saw countless birds including plenty of King Fisher in various sizes (generally classified as small, medium and large). I even joined in in the sailing of the canoe by pushing us along with the large bamboo stick that they use for propelling the canoe.
The hosts here are incredibly nice and they told us a lot about the area, the bird species etc during the trip - on reflection, we have been very lucky with the places we have stayed, barring the Aurangabad hotel and Shanti in Goa.
After our trip I was tired because of my gut infection - I now believe I know the nature of my stomach problems because I contacted Dr. Simon Collins, Dublin a couple of days ago with my symptoms - he is the doctor who inoculated us for the journey. He responded yesterday and told me it was most likely a gut infection and that I should start a course of Metronidazole antibiotics for 10 days, which means no (!!!) alcohol for 10 days as it will mostly likely result in projectile vomiting, which is also Claire's thoughts.
So I went off to bed for a couple of hours and then got up at 16:30 where we were booked to go to a Hindu festival on the other side of our lake by canoe again. So we went off with the other couple here (Mark & Jane and their daughter Emily) and had a nice time while watching and listening to the rituals, which included a horn, drums and an elephant at the temple there. I also managed to pick up the antibiotics there.
At 19:00 we returned and about an hour later we have a nice meal with the other family here. Afterwards fireworks on the other side of the lake started and we joined the hosts here in watching them by the lake. I also showed the family the Google Sky Map and pinpointed Mars, Jupiter and Venus for them - Emily, who is 9, was very interested and I told here to ask her dad for an Android phone and that it should be a Samsung; the iPhone she has does not offer the ability to download Google Sky Map - and naturally her parents "thanked" me very much for this ;-)
Then we went in to watch television (and saw that the King Fisher airline accounts were frozen by revenue here and loads of flights were cancelled - employees had not been paid for 3 months etc).

Spot the King Fisher

The backwaters between Kochi and Alleppey that we traveled down

The local water feature - a loo out in the open ;-) There used to be a shack surrounding it ;-)

Yours truly in front of a coconut palm tree

My feeble attempts at propelling and steering the boat - after about 5 minutes I had enough - and so did the owner I think ;-)

The local Hindu festival's star, the bling elephant

The local "band" of the Hindu festival

19/02/2012

This morning we woke up early as Claire had been invited to mass in the local Catholic church, at 8:30. So we got up at around 7:30 and while she went off for mass I had a quick run in the area - however after about 25 minutes it quickly proved too hot and humid for me to continue and I had to pack it in. Even after a break and a shower I was still sweating an hour later - phew!
We had breakfast, which consisted of Indian dishes: coconut with a bit of flour steamed in an cylinder to make nice round "logs" of puttu (not to be confused with the word uttered by Star Wars's Sebulba when things didn't go his way during the pod race (Poodoo ;-) with a lightly spiced curry sauce and plenty of cut fruit and bananas - very nice and refreshing meal.
Shortly after breakfast we were invited by two of the owners out on a walk around the neighbourhood, consisting of many houses grouped together and owned mostly by families. They even brought us in to meet some of the people in the houses and showed us a lot of plants, fruits etc. They included tamarind, mango, coconut, fresh pepper (hot/spicy!), lady finger (Okra) and snake gourd. They even took down two fresh orangey colored coconuts (sweet version - there's at least 3 kinds here) and first let us drink the juice and then chopped them open and let us eat the fresh flesh - yum! They also showed us a local wood work shop and a weaving shop, which was using the fibers off the coconut shells.
It was all very impressive and part of the real India that we would not otherwise have seen, had we not gone to the real backwaters rather than the touristy areas - and with an added bonus of a bit of banter with the locals - Breeze Homes is definitely a gem here in Kerala and must be visited if you come to the south of India!
We opted to skip lunch as we were both wedged from breakfast and had some fruit leftover - instead we relaxed on the veranda for a while and read before I brought out the camera to photograph the bird wildlife - while Claire was acting the spotter.
We also saw one of the locals climb up one of the palm trees in our establishment and later come down with coconut leaves, from which syrup is extracted and used for Indian Toddy - Claire had a full shot while I took a quick taste of it - horrid stuff! Like eating moths, I would imagine... Yuck ;-)
After a late afternoon while watching the sun set over the backwaters we had prawns for dinner with rice and curry sauce, as well as fruit for dessert. We had previously asked to try some Keralan wine and they had conjured up a red wine looking cloudy and tasted like a mix between port and mulled wine, which included the rich cinnamon and cloves smells and taste - very tasty and sweet, definitely up our alley - unlike the toddy!
Afterwards we retired to our room and watched a couple of episodes of Burn Notice before going to sleep.

Chinese fishing nets on the backwaters

A kite swooping over the water, looking for a nice little unsuspecting fishy snack

A woman making thread from dried coconut shell fibers

The man is weaving mats from the thread of the coconut fibers

Snake Gourd

Claire with her coconut and straw

18/02/2012

Today I woke up early as someone was brushing outside the door - Claire was soon to follow. So we went for an early breakfast at 7:30, which took a long time coming with half-boiled eggs etc - not impressed, and afterwards had showers and packed.
We had booked a car to take us to Breeze Homes - and it was on time at 11:00 - so we checked out and were quickly on our way. The journey took only about 45 minutes before we landed there. We were well impressed - the buildings are completely new and in good nic. They are facing the back waters, where shore is only about 10 meters away from the buildings - very impressive!
Not soon after we arrived we were served a very nice lunch, which consisted of prawns fried in a spice and onion mix, salad, rice and fruit salad. Very nice indeed. Afterwards we just rested for a few hours - apart from myself hand washing some clothes - with books outside on recliner-loungers with arm rests long enough that you can put your legs up on them - quaint but very comfortable design! Claire also spent an hour on the local hammock, which is tied up between a couple of palm trees - this is definitely a haven, pure bliss!
Around 17:30 the proprietors needed to go for a bit of shopping in their mini house boat and asked us if we wanted to come along, which we couldn't of course decline. So off we went on the boat, with a guy pushing it along with a very long bamboo stick. After about 30 minutes we got to a market, which turned into a small town, surrounding the NH47 road, and they showed us stores and the local temple there, where they had a visit from an elephant as they were currently having a festival (as I write this, I can hear the fireworks going off on the other side of the lake). After about 30 minutes there we returned to the boat - this time they brought us directly to a Chinese fishing net where Claire and I had the experience of using it to catch (small) fish at night time (it had gotten dark at 18:30) - very interesting experience, although there wasn't much to catch. Apparently the net had only just been built and they were aiming to finish it tomorrow and asked if we wanted to come along tomorrow to try again ;-)
We returned to our place and soon after we were served dinner, which consisted of chapattis, chicken in a very nice sauce, some very spicy pickle, a yogurt/cucumber mix (to cool) and fried potatoes in what appeared to be black mustard seeds with a couple of curry leaves. For dessert they served water melon and we were well stuff when we left the table ;-)
We then returned to the room where Claire spent an inordinate amount of time fixing the TV, which turned out to be unplugged - as I didn't want to get involved, given that I was quite happy with the peace and quiet and a book ;-) Amazing how (some/all?) women can suddenly become very determined when a TV is involved - and unfortunately she managed to fix it - on the upside all the channels were in various Indian languages, putting a dampener on her enthusiasm after fixing the telly ;-)

17/02/2012

After a good night's sleep we both woke up early and got ready for breakfast early as we expected to have a long day ahead of us, visiting Ernakulam via a boat service. At breakfast things however were somewhat slow and we ended up spending nearly an hour there until 9:00 before we had everything served and eaten, plus the coffee drank. They must have been under-staffed in the Fort House restaurant - but being tourists we are not in any real hurry and you just have to take these things in your stride and enjoy the view or read the newspaper instead of fretting - not something our couple of girls at the table next to us seemed to grasp as they were constantly at the staff - not that that mattered at all as regards delivery time - the waitresses were pretty good at the good ol' trusty first-come-first-served paradigm ;-)
Afterwards we walked (slowly! It's sizzling and really humid here even at 9:00!) down to the ferry and were quickly on our way given some lucky timing on our part. The boat ride only took about 20 minutes before we arrived at the peer at Ernakulam.
I quickly plotted out a rough rectangular route for us, which obviously included M.G. Road where all the shops were, that we followed around. Went to the pharmacy for more tubes of Nadoxin, went into a phone shop and bought 5GB of data over 60 days for €20 (yes, pretty pricey - but Vodafone has excellent coverage and given recent experiences we really want good coverage for Google Maps, WikiTravel etc ;-), then off to CitiBank for cash withdrawals (the only bank we have found so far that will allow withdrawels of more than Rs.10K - thereby minimising our Moneybookers €1.80 withdrawal fees) and finally into the D.C. Books store on Banerji Road, which incidentally no traveller should miss. It is stacked with loads of really interesting books, from Gandhi biographies to various fiction, from Stephen Hawkins&Richard Dawkins to Arnold Schwarzenegger's encyclopedia on body building - this book shop has it all. If you ever come here and have any interest in books then you can easily spend 1-2 hours in this place.
After finishing our tour around town Claire decided that she wanted to spend some time in a shopping mall. I had a look for one on the phone and found the Oberon Mall. It was about 6km away and after negotiating with a bunch of auto-rickshaw drivers we finally found one that would do it for Rs.100,-.
The place wasn't really very big but it was quite new and we found that at the top was a food court. So after having a look around in the shops we went up for a lamb pizza (yum - although no thin crust) and then had a dessert in the form of a dark chocolate cake and a white chocolate cake - both lazed in chocolate and a black and a whie coffee, made to perfection - not bad India, not bad... ;-) Claire even bought donuts to go...
So at around 14:30 we finally succumbed to tiredness from shopping and eating and found an auto-rickshaw outside the shopping centre, which brought us to the boat. Again, we had a bout of good timing and got on the boat immediately as we arrived and returned to Fort Kochi in 20 minutes, then walked back to the hotel where we relaxed - Claire reading out on the veranda and I on the bed, before I succumbed to a snooze - the heat really knocks you for six...
Afterwards I had the 2nd shower of the day and afterwards we went down to have something to eat at around 19:30 in the hotel, which is rated second for the dining experience on Fort Kochi. I had a tomato&tuna pasta, which was really nice with fresh fish - Claire had a fish curry, also with really fresh tuna.
Afterwards we simply retired to the room and watched Burn Notice before going to sleep again.

16/02/2012

So today we got up rather late after last night's ordeal, just after 9:00, then had showers and breakfast while I was getting a bit stressed over the fact that we needed to find new accommodation as the guy on duty last night said that there were no rooms available.
After breakfast I sat down with laptop to start researching rooms but asked Claire to go up to reception to double check availability.
Thankfully it turned out that there had been overnight cancellations and after a couple of viewings of other rooms and some to'ing and fro'ing we actually ended up being able to hold on to our current room - phew! Didn't much fancy a day of running around for a room.
Instead we went off first to a Cafe and had a pot of coffee while sweating like crazy-it is so humid and hot on Fort Cochin, as it's surrounded by water! The hotness-humidity factor is the second worst I have ever experienced - in Darwin, North Australia, where you had the same humidity but close to 40c - here it's more like 31+c.
Afterwards we went sightseeing by foot (baby steps in a vain attempt to minimise exertion) all around the top half of the island and visited the Dutch Palace, saw the Jew synagogue, St. Francis Cathedral, had a walk on the West side and finally saw the Chinese Fishing Nets in action, which were quite impressive contraptions. We also happened to bump into an upcoming Hindu wedding of the day and met the mother of the bride - we spoke (term used loosely - a lot of hand-movement was involved to getting points across) with the female entourage (minus the daughter who wasn't there yet) for about 5 minutes and took a picture before moving on.
At around 15:30 we were well drenched from sweat and returned to our room where we succumbed to the heat, turned the aircon on full whack and had a nice 1 1/2 hour snooze.
Then we had the second shower of the day (really needed!) and got ready to go out for dinner. Earlier in the day and during our walk we passed a restaurant called Oceanis, which we thought looked really nice. Claire looked it up and it turned out to be the best rated restaurant on Fort Kochi island. So naturally, we had to try it out. After about 30 minutes of walking to get there we were well hungry - and the restaurant didn't fail to deliver! To use an American term, which I usually avoid, it was awesome! Claire had a fish curry and I had a fresh tuna steak dipped in Keralan spice mixture fried to order, i.e. medium. With it came a yogurt/raita based sauce, which really kicked arse, and some risotto rise, nicely sculptured on the plate - yum-yum! We also had chapatti like constructs (didn't catch their name) on the side, which were excellent for ripping to shreds and using for scooping up the sauces. To drink we had Lime/Ginger soda, which we have both become very fond of, as a refreshing drink - and crucially it calms my stomach, the fresh ginger really makes a difference to any sickness or stomach upset; comes highly recommended.
Afterwards we walked back to the hotel room and then did some planning. We have more or less decided to make our first real compromise on the trip - we may skip the Andaman Islands due to the fact that it's a real scooba diver's and snorkeling joint. A lot of the accommodation is either very expensive (as in €100/night for a hut) or less pricey but comes with sub-standard-to-average accommodation and the requirement that you have to sign up for diving courses (also expensive). While I do have my PADI (+ the Adventure diver bolt-on) the trip to the Andamans was meant as a holiday away from the sightseeing holidays - not an action packed or expensive de-tour. And especially the quality of accommodation did concern us somewhat. Instead we are considering to "splash out" on a nice hotel for St. Patrick's day, perhaps in Kolkata, for 3 nights. The runners-up are: ITC Sonar (has an "Irish" pub called Dublin - but no Guinness - WTF?!), The Oberoi Grand (wow, really nice!) or the trust ol' Taj Bengal Kolkata - all of them suitably oppulent to make up for the fact that there will be no Guinness ;-)
Anyway after much talk on the subject we also sent off an email to Breeze Homes and effectively booked for 2 nights, with the option of extending for up to 5 nights, including pick-up.
And at 23:00 it was off to sleep...

The start of a Hindu wedding

Kochi beach - not that you would swim there...

Chinese fishing net in operation

Picture of our breakfast area with backdrop of Kochi's waters and a giant yacht

Chinese fishing nets at evening time

15/02/2012

Today was big travel day as we were leaving Wild Haven for Kochi. I woke up at 6:40 but stayed in bed with Claire until after 8:00. Our initial efforts to have a shower failed as there was no water and instead we went down for breakfast and got them to fix the water in the meantime.

After a plain but nice breakfast, my stomach is still causing hassle, we had our showers and packed. We then checked out and said our goodbyes to John and staff-and as it turned out, joined Shaiza and went to the other White Haven to say goodbye to her and her parents after talking to them for about 30 min. We bonded really well with them and were a bit sad to leave.
Then our driver took us to Ooty where spent 3 hours at the station, minus a 15 min shopping trip by me for essentials, where we met a group of 13 people plus Indian guide, 2 of which we spoke to for a bit before the train arrived. They were probably in the 70s and good craic, as Claire would say, one from Dublin and the other from Sussex.
When our train finally arrived Claire and I had a bit of a mishap as we got into the wrong carriage with some people from Bristol but our social interactions quickly came to an end as we were moved by the staff to first class.
From then on we had a literal/lateral cliffhanger of a journey as we were decending nearly 2km down to Mettupalayam on a 46km track for 3 1/2 hours in a toy train along cliff ledges and countless adhoc bridges - where there was no ledge. Scary and thrilling at the same time, while the big steam engine was puffing along and throwing up soot, some of which even ended up on my pants despite us being in closed carriages - the air we breathed certainly couldn't have been healthy... ;-)
We arrived in Mettupalayam on time at around 17:30 and after unloading took our next risky step - it turned out that there were no restaurants in sight around the station other than on the station itself where they had a vegetarian restaurant with a limited menu and not the cleanest of places. But we needed to eat and it was about time that we dipped in to the real India, rather than all these touristy/fancy restaurants. So we ended up ordering Ipply and Dosas (of the latter they had none, but they found something similar that I never caught the name of, which looked like thick mini-naans or chapatti's) with a curry sauce on the side, 2 bottles of water and a coffee - all in all it came to Rs.69,- - which is just over €1, which had our jaws drop. The food turned out to be really nice and the portion sizes were just right, not too big and not too small - served on metal plates without cutlery, but thankfully I had two sets of hiking metal cutlery with me from Ireland that we could use.
Afterwards we sat down and waited for the sleeper train to Coimbatore, which arrived on time at 19:30 and departed on time too at 19:45. However, I hadn't paid attention as the sun was setting at the station and given my affinity to mosquitos quickly got "rewarded" by 3 mosquito bites in minutes before wisening up and applying the 100% deet spray on top of the 15% I had been carrying for a few hours until then - bloody thirsty bastards! I wonder why they love me so much while they never go near Claire?! I suppose one theory is ease of entry to my veins on my feet, which are quite prominent...
We were only 45 minutes on the train before reaching our destination and got off without incident, while texting Jacob the travel desk guy to make sure that we had a driver waiting for us in Coimbatore.
And this is where the fun started... The driver didn't understand one bit of English - no sentences, just a few very select words. So it took nearly 15 minutes before he found us on the station. Afterwards we got to the car and loaded our gear and were on our way but it quickly became apparent that our driver, despite having made it to Coimbatore from Kochi, hadn't a clue where he was going - I repeat: not an inkling! So after 30 minutes of him trying to get out of town and onto the right road while asking random strangers and petrol stations I finally took over, connected my phone to the rechargable USB port on my laptop for power as it was nearly drained - and booted up Google maps + GPS - and then guided him out of town and onto the right road towards Kochi, which ended up being NH47 (National Highway 47).
Things went reasonably well for about an hour of scary traffic and potholed roads that could swallow a super truck for the unwary, while I guided him - but then his behaviour started turning rather eratic. Despite the roads getting considerably better and the fact that they even became dual carriage ways, he would slow down the car to 40km an hour for no reason whatsoever; he also stayed mostly in the outside lane or between lanes (swerving a bit), which rewarded him with lots of beeping and "cutting off" from the inside lane in front of him from other cars; he would also scratch himself, sigh and fiddle a lot, as well as rub his eyes and beep at nothing at all when the roads were empty in front off us - and I asked him if he was OK on a couple of occassions to which he was quite positive, but didn't look it. To top it off he didn't go to buy water and didn't have anything to eat, so we fed him banana and water while wondering whether he was quite sane, on drugs etc. My theory is that he had bad night vision, but this is something I would rather not know about really - we did take the pragmatic attitude of helping him as much as we could during this 5 hour ordeal on 220km of roads (as opposed to throwing our arms up and screaming and yelling) - stepping out of the car in the middle of nowhere at 1:00 in the morning simply wasn't an option, nor was calling for another driver really given the distance/time involved.
Anyway, as we got to Kochi he finally seemed to settle and drove much more confidently as well as a fair bit faster through town - and we could finally start to relax... AND breathe a major sigh of relief and thank whatever gods were listening that we were alive, as we finally found the hotel at 1:40 in the morning. Easily the scariest bit of our India journey so far!
At the hotel the front gate was closed but after a couple of heart sinking minutes while listening to a dog barking insistently for a couple of minutes, someone finally got to the gate and let us in. After then we quickly got our room allocated, knackered as both we and the night attendant was, and we were quickly off to bed while reflecting on our scary journey...

So - notes to self for the future:
- Make sure to ask the cab companies for an English speaking driver with plenty of night driving experience
- Make sure that you have a Google phone with Satnav/GPS
- Make sure that that same phone has Internet connectivity at all times, your life and sanity may depend on it! We have found that Vodafone has excellent coverage mostly everywhere even if it's not 3g most of the time - the GPRS/Edge connections work really well too with Google Maps
- Do not be afraid to intervene if you feel that your driver doesn't know where (s)he is going

Our toy train from Ooty to Mettupalayam

A close-up of the train

Some of the surroundings that awaited us on the way down

14/02/2012

Last night we mostly slept well except for some commotion between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning. Claire thinks that one of the 17 other guests went sleep-walkabouting while calling out for someone called Judy - this spurred on a lot of activity with people getting out to find the offender and get her back in to bed again - quite funny really, if it wasn't for the fact that we are in the middle of the jungle and that the last thing you want to do is go outside in the dark on your own in the middle of the night ;-)
Anyway we got up at 8:00 and I did feel a lot better this morning, energetic and ready to take off - and for Valentines Day of course, although none of us had any preparations or cards made for the "event" ;-) So we went for breakfast just after 9:00 and then arranged with John to go trekking. He called up his minions and found both a driver and a guide (called Maury?) who certainly looked authentic, with his simple wrap-around clothes, his bottle of water and a slash-hook, while chewing tobacco and constantly talking to everyone who cared to listen - even those that didn't (I am glad that we didn't much speak the same language as that would have been complete information overload ;-) - quite the character!
At 11:00 we took off for a 45 minute drive in the jeep, which turned out to go up the mountains and we ended up at around 2100 meters, which was really nice and cool at probably around 20c - it was funny to see all those Indians wrapped up in big shirts, jumpers, thick pants and actual shoes (as opposed to the usual compliment of sandals) while we came up in shorts and T-shirts, feeling nicely at home at this moderate temperature.
On the way we came across a water reservoir near the top with a dam, with surrounding trees, which looked really nice with all the colours and greens to rival Ireland. Will upload pictures later!
On arrival we actually ended up in a tree plantation called the Dunsandle Estate (Bombay Burma Trading Corporation) and the surroundings were incredibly picturesque. However, after about an hour's walk through the plantation I got stopped by a security guy on a motor bike who told me that taking pictures of the estate was not allowed - that really got my blood boiling; we oftentimes find that we are not allowed to take pictures in India or that you have to pay separately (sometimes up to €10) to bring cameras in to see places. Which is stupid because tourists undoubtedly get fed up and pissed off with it, which gives India a bad reputation. So after 10 minutes of ranting about it and seeing the security guy disappear down the road I took out the camera and got a-clicking again; a Buddha image on a wall - next thing we heard a large yell by a boy and the guide actually had to turn around and tell him that we were only taking pictures of the image - so we were being actively watched and came to the conclusion that the security guy only knew to come looking for us because someone had snitched up there. Interestingly, while walking through the estate, we also came across the onsite tea factory, which had huge fences and lots of security around - and they were pumping Kerosene (?!??!?!), i.e. jet fuel, from a fuel truck into containers. If I was a paranoid person I'd say something sinister was going on up there - after all, it's just a bloody tea plantation and not a military complex (or is it....?!)
When we got out of the Dunsandle Estate we hit the town of Sholur, which seemed largely Muslim. But they did have a Hindu mini-temple there and the locals seemed friendly enough, despite the fact that Claire wasn't really appropriately dressed - we didn't realise we going to walk through villages - in a top that didn't properly cover here shoulders. But lesson learned...
After about another hour's walk through the mountainous scenery we spotted a very nice building on a hill out in the horizon, which I said looked like a guest house. About 20 minutes later we actually came to the place with our guide and it turned out that this is where the Swiss couple and their daughter (Shazia) stayed as they came out to say hello - this was Wild Haven 2. Now, the really interesting bit here is that two nights ago Claire and I had a conversation, after meeting them all, where I said that I bet that the Swiss couple had been part funding Wild Haven 2 together with John from Wild Haven and that the daughter was managing the place. Turns out I was right - this was exactly the case.
Anyway, they invited us in, while our guide was outside drinking coffee, to see the place and gave us coffee, Ooty & Swiss chocolate as well as red (!!!) bananas - they were really nice and hospitable there and we spent nearly 1.5 hours talking to them and seeing the place, which looks really nice and luxurious - but about 7 months behind schedule so far, which doesn't surprise me one bit here.
Afterwards we went off again with our guide only to find that 5 minutes down the road our jeep was waiting for us for the pickup. So we made it back down for about 17:30. We then sat on the veranda of the main building and spoke to John for a bit - and he gave us a beer and Claire a glass of Irish Whiskey for Valentine's - very nice of him.
After sitting there for a couple of hours with a couple of beers we were finally fed and then went back to the room where we watched a bit of Family Guy before going to bed after an eventful and very social day.

A peacock - there were loads of them around

"Wild Haven 2" - Shazia and parents staying there

Tea plantations - the surroundings were really picturesque

Rugged landscape as we were walking around the area

Another picturesque tea plantation on our way

A dam at the starting point of our walk

A ginormous tree stub - great picture

Wild elephants with baby

A rare monkey (species) - pontificating life and generally just ignoring us

Claire washing a baby elephant - orphaned, from the sanctuary

Our guide - wearing a bandana - scarred from previous encounters with panthers, or so the story goes...

13/02/2012

We got up "late" this morning, around 8:30, after what was a really nice and quiet sleep - the silence here, apart from the sound of nature, is absolute bliss! First thing we went out on the balcony where we just sat and enjoyed nature and watched birds and cats flittering about on their business. Total relaxation...
Just after 9:00 we went for breakfast in the dining room, where Claire had Omelette and I had boiled eggs - with fruit, toast, coffee, butter and jam - basic but very nice!
However, as the day passed I started feeling really tired and fatigued; I went for a sleep, while Claire was out and about and on the balcony, but it didn't do much. In the end I managed to persuade myself to get up and go on the government bus safari. We were driven by Kumar down to the government facility in Theppakadu where he arranged tickets for us and got us on the bus to see the parts of Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve where only government buses are allowed drive - before then he did take us down to the river just before the town where he showed us a small tamed elephant being wash in the river and we did take a few pictures before handing over a bit of money to the head washer - and went on our way again to the bus. While on the bus, on what turned out to be a real "out-back" ride along very bumpy and loosely defined roads, we did see a number of wild animals including elephants, a giant squirrel, (rare, uni-coloured) Sambar deer and the usual bunch of peacocks - Claire and another guy on the bus even spotted a (very rare) Leopard, which caused quite the commotion in the bus - but unfortunately it remained an unconfirmed sighting as the Leopard was on the move and they didn't get a picture in time before it disappeared.
The bus journey took only 45 minutes after which we were offloaded at point of origin in Theppakadu with ticket in hand, which we then used to get in to the elephant feeding grounds. We spent about 30 minutes there looking at tamed elephants, including an orphan and a grown one used to transport food for the others in its trunk. There were also plenty of peacocks about there, as well as wild boar.
Then at 18:00 Kumar took us on a 1.5 hour drive on the main roads around Mudhumalai where we saw more wild elephants, peacocks - and as day turned to dusk, even a black bear with its small offspring, which Kamur scared away by getting to close to them with the jeep with lights on so that we could spot them. But we got to see them, although we don't have the documentary evidence in the form of pictures.
Returning to Wild Haven at 19:45 I was still feeling really fatigued and didn't much fancy sitting around a camp fire with 17 people who had just arrived on the day. So instead I retired to the room for a bit until Claire texted me to let me know that our dinner was ready in the main dining room (buffet style dinner). We then had dinner and then returned to the room and watched a couple of the Big Bang Theory before going to sleep.

Wild Haven - our quarters, top right

Wild Haven - main building

12/02/2012

We got up early this morning at 6:45 because we had a bus to catch to White Haven near Theppakadu, a wild resort near Bandipur National Park.
After showers, packing, breakfast and check-out we got our usual rickshaw driver who brought us to the Central Bus Station.
We met 2 English couples there and were chatting on and off with them while waiting for the bus, which turned out to be an hour late-but no problem, on holidays you're not really in a hurry - and instead we watched and laughed over some of the other tourists we noticed that are obviously not taking as laid back approach to things as we have acquired on our 5 weeks in India.
When the bus finally arrived around 10:30 we even managed to get the driver and his minion to agree to stop and drop us off in Theppakadu, rather than bringing us an hour further down the road to Ooty - and when we got there at 12:30 they wouldn't even accept a tip, which was quite interesting. They're probably not allowed and so can't be seen in public to be taking "bribes" perhaps..?
Anyway a jeep and driver was waiting for us there and we quickly got underway through the park to Wild Haven, roughly a 15km drive up a narrow and potholed, but mostly tarmac'ed road. On the way we even saw an elephant - very promising! The driver told us that we would be very unlikely to see tigers, as expected, but that if we're lucky we may spot leopards.
On arrival we spoke to John who turned out to have been travelling a fair bit in Sweden and he had even been to Copenhagen by boat. He also gave us the room that Ajith&Laika had previously been staying in, which has its own balcony overlooking some of the park - very nice view indeed.
After a bit of conversation we were shown to our rooms to relax before going to their artificial watering hole at 16:30, which can be spotted from the roof (well 1st floor of an uncompleted building) - with chairs and a concrete barrier. The watering hole is located at the edge of their premises and is like a small clearance where deer (well, they're every where), birds and a few monkeys were spotted.
Just after 17:00 our driver Kamur returned to Wild Haven with another batch of tourists from Switzerland. On arrival he came over to us and asked us if we wanted to to see a black bear to which we jumped off our chairs and came with him in the jeep a couple of kilometers down the road towards Ooty. While the bear had been sleeping when he had last passed it, it was now very much awake - but unfortunately there were plenty of noisy Indians around in their cars and so it was a mad rush to pull out the camera and take pictures before the bear disappeared in under the trees and shrubs. But it was well worth it, at one point I was no more than 10 meters away from it - but it was obviously somewhat used to people because it lingered longer than they probably normally would.
Afterwards Kamur took us to a partially dried out river but we didn't spot anything there and instead he brought us through the village nearby where he turned out to be living - and we said hello to his daughter, mother and wife from the jeep before continuing onwards past a "Happy Home" orphanage where we said hello to the local kids. Then we returned to Wild Haven where we got up unto the roof of the building again, which overlooks the watering hole, but we didn't spot anymore wild life and instead we returned to our hut to freshen up before going down to the dining room sometime after 19:00.
There we had a nice meal - John was previously told by Claire that my stomach is a bit of a mess - so he had arranged with the kitchen to serve Western style food, including vegetable soup for starters, barbequed chicken with roast potatoes and buttered vegetables - and even a dessert in the form of some cake formed as a ball and partially submerged in syrup. Very nice.
While there we met the Swiss tourists that arrived earlier, a daughter and her two parents. It turns out that the daughter was not so much a tourist as she's heading up a new Wild Haven for/with John nearby, which is due to open soon. My suspicions are that the parents are there to stay for the opening - and that perhaps they are part investors...? But who knows.
Anyway, it turns out that the dad has been in Ireland a few times for work purposes and that he is fond of the Irish whiskey, specifically Jamison. He had even managed to bring a bottle with him, which he brought out and asked if we wanted some - of course, Claire wasn't going to say no and had a shot of it with the dad while we talked around the table.
Claire also enquired the staff about whether it's possible to donate to the Happy Home orphanage and they said to talk to John about it - we explained that we'd already decided to donate perhaps to the Mother Theresa foundation in Colcatta when we arrive there. But we shall see...
Anyway, at around 21:00 we returned to our room and watched a couple of episodes of Chuck (the last ever episodes) before going to sleep in absolute and utter silence, baring a few animals. How blissful, away from all the usual civilized madness... ;-)

A black bear captured just before it ran off

And here's the picture for those with maternal instincts - pesky monkeys that would swoop in and still your stuff in a flash! ;-)

11/02/2012

Today was a day of relative relaxation. My stomach was still somewhat upset and I decided to go for a run at 7:00 to help things along. I ran to Kukkarahalli Lake, about 1.5 km away, and then ran around the lake and back. It was a very beautiful trip - even if I had countless Indians staring at the white devil, wondering what he was doing there - they're obviously not used of the like of me running around like that ;-)
When I got back we showered and had breakfast. We then relaxed for a bit before starting our onward planning from Kochi - we also had very nice cake and coffee/tea in the hotel, which the hotel apparently is quite renowned for according to the Lonely Planet guide - and I must admit that my nutty Chocolate cake was second to none, wow!
After some more planning (Alleppey, Kollam, backwaters, cookery classes etc) we then walked down to Kukkarahalli Lake again because I wanted to show Claire the lake. However, it turned out that the place is closed between 10:00 - 16:00, which was a bit of a let-down. So we returned to our hotel room and had a wee snooze instead.
We got up at around 16:30 and went down for an early dinner snack at around 17:30 - we wanted to catch the sound&light show + 96.000 light bulbs in the Mysore Palace - after all this is why we stayed one more night. Afterwards we got a rickshaw with the guy from yesterday's cousin into the Palace, paid our entrance fee (R.40,- for the show - so not bad compared to full entry for foreigners) and took some pictures before the show started.
The light/sound show was impressive enough but it was narrated as a story and we didn't obviously understand the language. So instead I spent the time experimenting with my camera in the dark and taking some night shots, some of which came out relatively well. After the show they turned on the 96.000 or so light bulbs for 5 minutes, which was quite impressive too. Afterwards we went outside and found our rickshaw and then returned to the hotel. We were tired and just watched a bit of Chuck and Family Guy before going to sleep.

10/02/2012

Today I wasn't feeling great - my stomach is causing me all sorts of discomfort - gotta lay off them hot curries for a bit, methinks - and maybe get running again, as that generally does help matters.
Anyway, we had breakfast just before 10:00 and then went on a rickshaw ride to Chamundi Hills with a rickshaw driver who appears somewhat affiliated with the Green Hotel. His rickshaw was very new looking (turns out it's a month old) and we asked what the story was - just over a month ago he had completed a 1 month journey with a couple (Bill and Elizabeth) who in return for him taking them around bought him the rickshaw outright (!!!), which is a 1.5 lakh (Rs. 150.000,- outlay, approximately €2.300,- at today's exchange rate) investment - it's named "Bill always well" and inside there's loads of pictures of the driver and Bill&Elizabeth and a few of the monuments in Mysore. Talk about helping local Indians where it matters - that is some investment/donation indeed... But then they did have the luxury of the same driver for a month - and he couldn't really say no or scam them either ;-)
At Chamundi Hill we traversed the 300 steps up to the temple and took a few pictures - but there was such a crowd that neither of us were particularly bothered about spending money and time to go in and see it. So after a bit of walking around at the top and after having a Chai tea and buying some water we returned down the steps to the rickshaw.
We asked him to stop at the new Mysore Mall where we had a 30 minute walk-around (Claire bought a magazine) before we got into the rickshaw again and asked him to take us back to the hotel.
At the hotel we spent some time resting and planning our onwards journey in Kerala - and I think we have the beginnings of a birds-eye view plan for direction and what we would like to see and do. Now we just need to get into the nitty-gritty stuff of details and bookings etc.
As I wasn't feeling great we just walked down to the Pelikan Pub and Grub, a 10 minute walk down the road, for something to eat. However we think we ended up in the wrong location there (in the men's section as opposed to the family section where women are allowed) as I think they were trying to explain this to us. Anyway, they gave up and just let us sit where we wanted (there was noone else around anyway) and we had a very nice meal - I had the Chicken Saagwala (spinach) and Claire a Chicken Biryani - both with plenty of Raita, due to my stomach issues.
After an hour there we returned to the hotel where we watched a movie (Kung Fu Panda 2) on the laptop and then an episode of Chuck before going to sleep.

The temple on Chamundi Hill

Outside the temple on Chamundi hill - busy...

Our rickshaw driver with his new rickshaw and Claire at the controls - scary!