Highs & Lows

Delhi to Uttarakhand

6000m Himalayan peaks above Gangotori

After leaving Hampi we took a cheeky flight from Hyderabad to Delhi, avoiding a 27 hour train. We spent 5 days in Delhi, and were surprised to find a well organised and clean city, with beautiful parks and quiet streets. It was a welcome relief following the bustle of all other cities we have visited so far. In particular we enjoyed the planetarium, Lodi Gardens and the immaculate, British built New Delhi. There was also the most efficient Metro service we have ever seen, built for the commonwealth games in 2010. However, despite the pleasent areas of the city it was 45C hot in the daytimes, and little less at night. By far the hottest place we have ever been.

 India Gate - New Delhi

From Delhi we travelled north to Rishikesh - The spiritual home of yoga and guru's. It is beautifully situated at the foothills of the Himalaya, and is considered a holy town due to it's location on the river Ganges. Many Hindu pilgrims make their way here to live at Ashrams and bathe in the surprisingly cold and turbulent waters of the mighty Ganga.

 Hindu pilgrims bathing in the Ganga

There are two famous suspension foot bridges here, high over the river. We use the term "footbridge" loosely, hugely busy with pedestrians, motorbikes, cows and disturbing evil monkeys, these overloaded bridges sway sickeningly in the wind and cause 5 minute post-bridge nausea. Needless to say we had a terrifying experience in a storm. We had dinner on the opposite side of the bridge when another giant Indian storm brewed, and we knew that we had to cross to swaying, 100ft bridge it in howling gales and blinding lightning. We had to literally cling on to avoid being blown off and Emma had a big cry.

The infamous bridge in Rishikesh

Emma spent a few days of morning yoga, but soon after we both became ill with the apres "Delhi-Belly". So we spent a few days in our room recovering and reading. Emma has been studying Ashtanga yoga from the bed, and Guy has nearly finished the 5th Harry Potter! The landlady was so homely, and gave us aryuvedic medicine and cooked kichiri, nusring us to health.

Feeling well enough to venture outside, we spent a lovely day at some crystal clear waterfalls feeding the Ganga, took a mountain shower and decided we were better. Following a Ganga tributary uphill, we came across a range of beautiful flora, and some scary forna. Emma found the path lined with blossoming Budleigh and thought of "Mon-Papa" and we got scared by the monkeys; if you look them in the eye they bear teeth, and pump up and down - occasionally pretending to pounce on you. We could really do without a monkey bite!

 After the rain, the smell was like Mon-Papa's Butterfly house

There are some wonderful tropical birds here, and walking through the damp jungles, their other-worldly calls and cries give a jurrassic park-esque adventure sensation. The trees in the North of India have become familiar deciduous forests, with the addition of hanging vines and moisture absorbing lichins. Another plant native to this area is that of the cannibis and hemp plant. We now understand where the common name "ganga" stems, as it grows in the hills surrounding the vally of the river Ganges - known to Indians as the river Ganga.

Guy "healing" in waterfall near Rishikesh

That evening we met Michael and David, two doctors from Canada. They inspired us to join them at 05:00 next morning to embark on a trek to Gomuk - the glacier source of the Ganges. So we hurridly packed our trekking packs, leaving heavy items with the lovely landlady and took the most trecherous ride in a jeep. For 12 ridiculous hours we bumped, clattered and flew up the Himalayas of Uttarakhand, with respite only when a landslide had brought several buildings into the road! It was an unbelievable journey, with vast chasms inches from the tyre as we squeezed past busses, sheep and boulders. The main thing on our mind was knowing we would have to return the same way!

 This landslide caused at least an hour delay

Herd blocking the road - Emma loved the brown face one with the fringe

We passed through many inspiring mountain villages, hanging with Tibetan prayer flags and built hanging off huge cliffs. The terraces among the hills were a beautiful sight, and each small terrace was a miniture farm in a mountain side, to support the many small communities built up on the impossible slopes. Finally we reached the Hindu pilgrimage site of Gangotri, only accessible for 6 months of the year in summer. It was at an altitude of around 3000m and for the first time, we put on several layers and shivered ourselves to sleep in a little freezing room.

Gangotori - Uttarakhand

The boys woke us at 06:00 am and the trek up the mountains began. Following the river through the deep V-shape canyon we hauled up over 14 km and gained 1000m in altitude. We were all feeling the effects of the height - with headaches and shallow breathing causing difficulty. But all along, tantalising glimpses of mighty, huge 7000m snowcapped peaks of the worlds greatest mountain range kept us trekking to the basecamp.

 

 David, Michael and Emma hiking up the mountain pass

 Crossing the sketchy bridges over ice cold streams

Guy trekking among 6000m + Himalaya peaks

Basecamp -A very welcome sight

We spent a well earned night beneath clear skies of a million stars in a tent with many blankets, and rested through to the morning where we all felt more acclimatised to the altitude.

 Our cosy basecamp tent with David and Michael

At 05:00 we embarked upon a 4km trek to the Glacier of Gomuk. Wearing every layer from our bags we trudged shrough the sleet and snow along with scantily clad pilgrims (Orange-Men) to the highly holy and dissappointingly bland muddy glacier. Unfortunately one km from the glacier snout, Emma had another bout of the Rishi-Belly and we made the urgent trip down the mountain - Thus the high and the low begun - 4000m emergency!

Gomuk glacier - one of the holiest places in the world. Not such a pretty face!

Orange Men - Sadhu on a pilgrimage

Emma should be commended as we made it 22km down the mountain in cold wet weather to Gangotri, stopping only for "emergency poos". The majority of tourists, Indian or western hire a mountain guide and a sherpa brings their equipment. Some really lazy ones even get a donkey plus sherpa. We were proud to carry all our gear, and still overtook the slow wheezing unfitties! However we are no match for the incredible sherpas - effortlessly carrying enormous loads, hauling it up at great speed with a strap around their forehead! Michael decided that if you took 1x sherpa and taught him to ride a bike - you would result in a Tour-De-France champion! I can well believe it too.

Any guesses as to what this sherpa is hauling up the mountain?

Upon reaching the town we learned that there is no place to stay with either hot water or heating, and took the group descision to return to the jeep for another 6 hour ride through the dark to Utterakashi where a warm room could be found. It felt like one of the longest days of our life. The medical advice from Michael and David helped us both, prescribing Emma antibiotics and helping with Guy's septic foot. Thanks dudes! While all we could dream of was a relaxing day off - the extreme Canadians were at it again, waking us early for the trecherous second half of the jeep journey to Haridwar, and when we thought it couldnt get any worse, an immediate night train to Amritsar - the next leg of the journey to Dharamasala, home of the Dalai Lama in the Himachal Pradesh. We experienced a new class of train travel - pay for two seats and get just one on a fully booked train - such is the surprising way of all things in this country. Well at least we have finally had a day off, and found time to do the blog (It has taken 4 internet cafe's and about 7 hours to complete due to Indias unreliable electrical and internet connections)! The antibiotics seem to be working for Emma, and Guy's foot abcess is healing.

Bonus pictures, as usual: More on our Flickr page; namasteindia2011

Present, Past, Future machine - Obviously. Guy got hassled for using it and we ran away!

Incredible clouds above Rishikesh - Dad - please consult the book and let us know what this formation is called.

Hampi Potter

Vitthala Temple - Hampi

Hampi - Karnataka.

The moment we arrived in the mysterious boulder-strewn landscape we knew that Hampi would be a great experience, and that we may have to stay for some time. Remembering advice by a friend from Bristol (Emmy) and Flo, we set out to find and stay with the Hampi Childrens Trust, with a mind to volunteer for a few days. Well two and a half weeks have passed and we are still enjoying work with the 36 children every day. We have taken every afternoon/evening session doing various crafts with them. Juggling balls, mosaics and kites to name a few, along with visiting temples, playing cricket and going for picnics.

Flying Kites

Making Juggling Balls

The trust provides the children (aged 4-14) with the chance to attend school, have healthy meals and enjoy activities. They take in children from the poor areas of the town, and encourage learning and discourage begging from tourists. The trust very much encourages volunteers and welcomes new ideas, activities and resources. We provided a good deal of all of these and feel most at home here, indeed, we regret having booked our tickets moving on from here later today. The children have even just managed to cope with Guys one syllable name, usually the just called me "y-EMMA" also. We will never forget the cries "Yemma, PATCH!" when tape or a plaster is required, or "BOAT!" when Guy has to make an emergency on-the-spot origami boat!

Guy climbing a tree with children from the trust

It has been great to live in one place for a few weeks, and it has been a very different travelling experience, almost becoming one of the locals! We have found that although it can be exhausting working with the children in the 40 C heat of the day, we have also found much time to enjoy relaxing activities. We spent some days making our very own travel version of the board game; Carcassonne. Then, as always, we had to make the expansion packs too! We introduced a long-term volunteer from the USA - Matt to the game and enjoyed many evenings gaming. Matt - I hope we meet up again in North India, and if not - Nebraska soon! Guy had to find a new book to read, and at the children's trust, found Harry Potter I & II. Sheepishly, he sneaked them back to his room and read them both in three days! Undercover Harry Potter addict!

Handpainted Carcassonne Game

A little about the amazing Hampi. Former capital of the Vitthala empire The strange land of huge, impossibly balanced boulders was originally brought here by an army of monkeys, preparing for battle with Sri Lanka, legend has it. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of temples built among the hills and rocks, with the Tungabhadra river flowing gently in the valley. Indeed this is where Lakshmi the Vitthala temple elephant receives her daily wash!

Lakshmi's bath

Currently it is the hottest time of the year, daily temperatures exceed 40 C and it does not get much cooler at night. Locals tell us all the rocks absorb the intense heat of the day and radiate it at night. While this is possibly the finest place I have ever seen for climbing, it is not really possible in this season as the rock is scaldingly hot to touch during hours of sun. Though we have enjoyed some bouldering whenever possible.

Bouldering with Cherry on Matanga Hill

Emma had her birthday last Wednesday. We celebrated with the children all day, who sung a rhythmically peculiar version of Happy Birthday and made her beautiful cards.

Coracle boat ride

We met with Pia and Ena again for a few days, and went in a Coracle boat - a sort of circular tub made from palm fronds and covered with tar, walked among the rocks and took what turned out to be a disastrous moped trip in which we had no less than 7 punctures! We also met with Cherry again, whom we last saw in Gokarna. We enjoyed a trip to the local cinema in the nearby city of Hospet to watch a Tollywood (Tamil Nadu version of Bollywood) film. The experience was very funny, and very different from the expected silence of an English cinema. In true Indian spirit there was much commotion and continuous whoops and cheers whenever the love story became a little racy. It made for a really enjoyable show and we think that audience participation should be incorporated into cinemas back home, though without the huge rat that we thought was a dog!

Sina and Issy meditation pose

We once again met with Issy and Sina from Switzerland who we met around a month ago in Munnar. They kindly gave us a his & hers Swiss Army knife each, in order to cut mangos, predominantly. In exchange for these lovely gifts, we guided them to an old temple full of bats! We spent all night deploying all the different knifes and tools. y-Emma mainly enjoyed the mini tweezers and shaped her eyebrows for the first time in 8 weeks!

Bats in old temple

So this evening we embark on a delightful 10 hour bus journey, arriving 06:00, then have a day in the city of Hyderabad before flying to Delhi in the evening. Inspired by working with the children, we would like to head to Uttarakhand soon to work with the orphans in the Himalayan region of this state.

Saved the best until last - Another storm from our rooftop above the Vitthala temple

Ocean Stars

Emma at the headland - Om Beach

Om Beach, Gokarna. We arrived at Om Beach and met up again with Ina and Pia around one week ago. We have completely lost track of time in this beautiful part of the west coast of India. Om beach is so quiet as the season is drawing to a close, for the monsoon is imminent. We met a good deal of travelling friends at this beach, and for a week or so we were a friendly group from all across Europe:  Love and Sabina from Sweden, Flo (short for Florence) from Austria, James from France, Nunu from Portugal, Cherry from the UK and more who’s names have escaped me.

The beach has two small sandy bays that meet in the middle to form the Hindu Om symbol. The perfect beach is lined with little beach shacks serving great world cuisine,  the Tandoori King Fish may well be the finest delicacy I have ever eaten. The atmosphere here was so laid back, little happened and days passed unnoticed. Swimming, relaxing, reading etc were the order of the day, and we felt, a well deserved break after many hours of overnight bus and train traveling. We ventured through the jungle along the cliffs to reach other bays: Half Moon and Paradise beach, all of which were serene and perfect, isolated from roads with access only by a short trek. Often during the day, dolphins can be seen in the bay, tails in the air and sleek fins gliding through the water. I wished I could hear their “chattering” beneath the waves.

Sunset over Om Beach

Our good friend Flo from Austria provided us with much amusement, and each morning we would be up at around 06:30 to go through a session of five elements yoga, of which he was a superb teacher. This was a mixture of tai-chi and Yoga, with a Chinese heritage. It was less strenuous than Emma’s chosen Ashtanga yoga, and just perfect to do to the sunrise in paradise. Guy might have to become a five elements convert, though I can only recall two: Tone and Colour… Flo, I hope that we meet again before you leave India, as I’m currently three elements unwise! Oh, and I’ll never forget your phrase “this is one of the songs”. I hope that we will meet you near Saltzburg in the near future, and we’ll post those spices along the way.

 Bull and Calf at Om Beach

During the night before we left, we all enjoyed the most spectacular natural phenomena:  We swam with stars in the ocean. There was a huge bloom of luminescent plankton. The sea glowed turquoise around the body and glimmered like distant stars. One could see their whole body in the water illuminated by tens of thousands of tiny “stars”. The harder you swam, the  more intense was the eerie, beautiful light. The sky was full of stars, and the ocean too. I don’t expect I will ever experience such a unique event again, and we were all awe-struck. Emma likened the experience to "Faeries of the Sea".

 Luminescent Plankton (not my photo)

We headed from Om Beach to Goa – Palolem beach. Well though we thought we had to see Goa in all it’s touristy glory. On arriving at 02:00 am (travelling in India is often through the night, in order to cover large distances asleep – rather like teleportation) the beach at Palolem reminded me of Newquay in it’s appearance – predominantly British tourists watching huge screen football match and drinking on the beach through the night – Emma thought it was akin to Magaluf and agreed with Alabama 3 when they sung “Ain’t going to Goa”, if you haven’t heard it before it sums up the scene pretty well!

                          

Looking beyond naff party time glitz, one can see that this would have been a most beautiful place before the package tourist invasion – perfect crescent, white sandy beaches and an ominous looking island; Monkey Island that there may still be time left today to take a canoe across to visit. Pia and Ina have headed to the dog sanctuary to help with the stray dogs at a widely respected charity here. The dogs trust put on an outdoor cinema in a little bay around the corner last night, with delightful table service tandoori food and a great movie – Three Days Later. It was a superb evening and Guy got out of his general misery “I’ve come here to visit India, not bloody Newquay” mood, and apologise to Emma. Well on the plus side, we leave Goa at 05:00am in the morning and are heading to Hampi. We plan to do some voluntary work at the Hampi Childrens Trust for a week or two. So tomorrow we wave goodbye to the ocean, plankton, beach huts, paradise and Newquay for the lunar landscaped Hampi – and Scott Roberts – I think I will regret not bringing my climbing shoes…

 This is Pervy Frog - He spent the week in our bathroom watching us with those pervy eyes!

As always - some more photos on Flickr - There is one for you Mr Kyle.

Tea in the Clouds

The mountains and tea plantations of Munnar

We traveled from Periyar to Munnar with Pia and Ina, our German friends. Munnar is also a national park and contains Indias highest peak outside of Himalaya - Ana Mudi 2695 m. So naturally Guy got all excited about climbing it. The trouble is, in India, such things are just not really possible. As with Periyar, the entrance to the park was extremely expensive and you were only permitted to walk for 1km! So Guy dragged Emma up the snake infested mountain (we actually saw no snakes) and we broke into the national park. Liberation? Not really: With no maps available we could only guess as to which was Ana Mudi. Well several hours of trekking through jungle, tea plantations and along dry rivers, we got to around half way up the sheer rock sides of the mountain. And there we were in the tea plantations, in the clouds. It was very beautiful and we felt pleased to have a self guided trek in the mountains. Emma saw a puma sprinting through the jungle ahead, after 5 minutes discussing the possibility of it eating us, we proceeded forth, discovering it was just big jet black monkeys!

Top Station, Munnar with Pia and Ina

We really enjoyed the cool climate of Munnar and could have stayed longer, but it was time to travel back to the coast; Fort Kochi. We stayed with Pia and Ina for a couple of relaxing nights and ambled around the town, enjoying good food and games of Hearts!  We also ticked another box of "things to do" in Kerala and went to see the Katakali dancing. A very interesting experience - from the men applying their make-up, demonstration of eye movements and gestures to rhythmical drumming, to a 40 minute performance (these performances usually last for 7 hours).  The photo really cannot capture the whole atmosphere of the drumming, singing, bell ringing, conch blowing, eyball-jiggling and dancing!

Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi

The evil God of the Katakali performance

After looking at a large map of India, it became apparent that we have covered little ground in this vast land, it was time to travel North. So we waved goodbye to Kerala from our overnight sleeper and headed to the city of Mysore (via Bangalore) in Karnataka. On arrival, we both felt that Mysore was the least chaotic city of India we had traveled to, with less traffic, less people and a slightly cooler climate. However, we soon became wise to the fact that many people in Mysore are very good at bending the truth and leading travelers astray from their plans - we were taking to beedie factories, incense factories, silk emporiums, and markets galore! We traveled around the city for the day with Mirza and Felix, two very entertaining gents from Switzerland, visiting the Hindu temples of Chamundi hill, the largest palace in India and more silk emporiums. The sheer opulence of the palace inside shocked us, along with having to bribe the guards to take cameras inside!

Mysore Palace - former Maharaja abode

The Wedding Chamber

My favorite photo to date - Hindu temple within the palace

The next leg of our travels is an overnight train to Gokarna, Om beach - as recommended by Mirza and Felix. And if you are reading this, it was very amusing to meet you we'll see you in Switzerland soon, perhaps we'll bring the little train!

Refreshing freshly squeezed sugar cane and ginger beverage, our new favorite!

More photos on Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/60579078@N06/

Keralan Backwaters to Periyar

Our stay in Varkala was extended several days due to Emma developing a severe ear infection and fever. We enjoyed a spectrum of India's healthcare options; the 2 rupee general hospital that was by no means pleasant to visiting the immaculate surgeons house (though he did look like the crazy doctor from Return to Oz).The storms in the evenings persisted and we managed to capture some interesting lightning photographs.

Lightning above Varkala

Although she does look like a propped up corpse in this picture, Emma is enjoying this Varkalan sunset

Emma has since recovered well and we made swift progress to the backwaters in Alleppy, where we took a tiny boat out into the sunset - it was our most lovely moment to date, and the first moment of calm away from the racket of the towns. We were pleased having not taken the Gin-Palace houseboat cruises - they were both expensive and seemingly pretentious on the backwaters, only able to stay to the main large waterways. Our lovely little private boat (which was little more than a canoe with a palm tree canopy) sneaked down many narrow canals, where we got a wonderful view of life on the backwaters. We observed the villagers living with the water in harmony and it was very peaceful. We decided that the driver (captain?) of our little boat had the best job in the world, and he agreed. We putted along past his house whereby his wife popped out and waved!

 Our lovely boat in the Keralan Backwaters

A glimpse of village life

Next day we took the ferry from Alleppy to Kottayam, where we met two lovely German traveling companions who's names I cannot spell! As a group of four, we took the taxi to Periyar National Park and Tiger Sanctuary. This was the most spectacular drive through the mountains of the Western Ghats, passing huge rubber, tea and spice plantations.

On the following day we were encouraged by the German girls to rent scooters to take on the lovely quiet mountain roads. While Guy jumped at this possibility, remembering the days he rode his scooter a decade ago, Emma reluctantly agreed to join as a passenger. Well it turned out to be the most amazing day, surpassing even that of the backwater cruise, the freedom of the weedy scooter, cool mountain air in our hair and roads so beautiful and free of traffic. We felt as if we were in Easy Rider!

As we rode into the sunset, we passed waterfalls, monkey roadblocks and little dusty towns where we stopped for refreshments, while entertaining the idea of  being in Wild West towns, and us the cowboys. Groups of enthused locals would surround us and question us on our countries, cricketers and footballers. To finish off the perfect day, we rode to a spice garden, in which we were greeted by the incredibly multi-lingual spice aficionado owner. He took us around for an hour or so, and we were bewildered by the sights, tastes and scents of the fresh growing spices and medicinal herbs. This area is where 75% of all cardamom is grown and it smells delicious!

Four monkeys admire Guy's radical Hog

We stopped at a Mountain Waterfall

Today we took the early morning ferry inside the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and it was almost instantly a disappointment! Not only were the tickets expensive, we had expected we could just relax and go for a
lovely walk, but even got told off for straying about 50m from the path! Infact all you can do in the park is get a cruise on the ferry or pay loads for a guided tour. Well at least the boat made us laugh. All the action was inside the boat, nothing really happened outside! Most of the hundred or so passengers were sent to sleep (Emma included).

 The Joy of Cruising Periyar Lake

The slightest hint of a distant animal sent the passengers into havoc. During quiet moments I just wanted to stand up and shout "TIGER", however I resisted the urge! Even running for the queue was stressful - not the tranquil journey we had envisaged. We saw some distant bison, couple of monkeys and deer - not even an elephant and certainly no tigers in the Tiger Sanctuary! It was a beautiful place, spoiled by the fact one can not enjoy it freely.We hope that all of the National Parks will not be as strict and expensive in future.

 Periyar this morning

It has certainly been a week of highs and lows, a rollercoaster of emotions. Such is the way of traveling India. Tomorrow we look forward to moving on to Munnar National Park, also in Kerala.

Kerala, Cricket and Friends

Kerala

We travelled to Kerala on a 13 hour sleeper train experience - 2nd class sleeper. Though there were mostly cockroaches in the seats, it was also a wonderful experience! We met many good people on the train, chatted for hours into the night and were amused by the array of delicacies being sold by "wallahas" up and down the carriages.

Emma on the top bunk in the train

We arrived at Trivundrum, the capital of Kerala. There was a stunning Raj palace we visited, and a unique large temple we were not allowed in, though the unofficial guide was very sad when we did not want to buy his wood carvings!

Hindu temple in Trivandrum - uniquely painted just one colour

The stunning Raj Palace - incredible wood carvings make up the structure of this huge palace

India is the land where everything is offered upon you, especially as a tourist. There are days where we become frustrated having to fend off literally hundreds of street vendors, rickshaw drivers, taxis, all offering "very very cheap price sir"! Though it is there livelihood and being a westerner is just the target for a few extra rupees.

Simon - Our favourite "throw wallah" in Kovalam - He was lovely, but we just cannot fit any more stuff in our rucksacs!

We swiftly escaped the busy city (after spending a day organising getting a sim card for our mobile) and headed for Kovalam, a paradise beach in the south of Kerala - white sandy beaches and beautiful warm waters. Guy felt like a real traveller when he heard a coconut fall from the high palms nearby, despite Emma saying he could not open it, half an hour later with a brick he peeled off the fiberous husk victoriously and cracked the hard nut inside for a tasty refreshing fruit experience. It felt all Golding's Lord of the Flies!

Half way through the husk...

The freshest coconut ever - victory!

We met some friendly travellers who have inspired our adventure:

Katharine and Tom from London who were particularly generous in paying for the evenings meals and beers, along with giving us their Lonely Planet on India. We shared stories and had a great evening chatting about their stay in Kerala - they inspired us into staying in the stunning hotel in Periyar national park in the middle of a lake which may be the next port of call. Oh and Tom, if you read this - we certainly would love to take you up on the offer of the Tunng gig, and thanks for the gifts! We hope you had a safe return journey.

We also had the pleasure to meet Micah and Rachael, cycle touring south India for a few weeks - they were an inspiration into how to enjoy life and adventure. We juggled on the beaches, eat amazing burgers and did a few days of "bodysurfing" in the sea at Kovalam and Varkala. Though they were cycling, we stayed a day extra and chased them to Varkala where we met again! Im so glad that their adventure inspired Emma to embark on a cycle tour on our return. Hats off to you Micah and Rachael, how you can cycle every day loaded in these searing southern India temperatures is beyond me! We will visit one day in the US - mainly because I'd love to check out that BMW motorbike! (Don't tell Emma!).

Micah and Emma - Ultimates

So we are now staying in Varkalla, where Guy was able to (almost) achieve his life ambition #2 - surfing without a wetsuit in tropical seas. 65 rupees later I had a previously snapped foam longboard re-shaped into a 5ft shortboard! Well I can half tick off dream #2, having stood up upon the weird board for almost 5 seconds on some tiny waves! I still did not get the dream wave; glassy tropical right-hander...

Guy (falling off)

Emma has become a sun-addict on these beaches, and is developing a lovely tan. She had a great time practising juggling with Micah on the beach and was passing "ultimates" with 6 balls. Perhaps someone might suggest a good fairytale book to replace her completed Stardust book, as she has thieved my Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance book. Grrr!

On the topic of books, my cloud spotting has reached new heights (no pun intended), with the breif encounter with Cumulonimbus, the king of clouds last night, providing a cacophony of thunder, lightning, wind and rains during the epic cricket world cup final.

We were sat in a little bar on the edge of the cliffs where we watched the final few hours of the cricket final; India vs Sri Lanka. The atmosphere was (literally) electric, all the locals chanting and drumming with the bongos for their beloved nation of a billion cricket lovers. Both sides played extremely well, but India prevailed by hitting an epic 6 for victory! Everyone in the town went crazy through the night and are smiling even more, which for the Indians, I thought not possible!

"India Win"!

So next up - Kollam, where we will be enjoying the famous backwaters of Kerala, in boats and even canoes. I cant wait to leave this tropical beach paradise of Varkala!

p.s You may be able to see some more pictures on our Flickr page: namasteindia2011