Jan 08

Hey! Sorry it has taken me a million years to post on here again! It has been a bit of a manic week really, guess I should probably get used to it.. I hope that all is ok at home! I've had all sorts of phone hassle so am kinda switching between 2 at the moment, my normal home Orange number and my newest (the 2nd) Indian one. Ahh all so confusing!

Anyhoo, I am in a little town in the hills of North Kerala at the moment called Munnar. It is quite possibly the weirdest place I've ever been in my life. I just don't understand! We were expecting palm trees and jungles and monkeys, but all there seems to be is a couple of tea plantations, open sewers and men in silly hats =/ We're staying with an Australian guy that we met in Kochi, we all headed up on the bus together. I have to say the bus journey was pretty amazing, even if I did see my whole life flash before my eyes on more than 1 occasion! It was 4 1/2 hours long, passing through cities, villages, jungles and tea plantations. I'm not usually one for scenery but I've never seen anything like it, it was absolutely stunning! We passed huge waterfalls and monkeys (which were the cause of MUCH excitement)! We were going up hairpin bends up the mountain in a shoddy Indian bus without doors or windows at about 60 mph... We almost knocked some kind of oil tanker off the side of the mountain at one point, was a little worrying.

This town (if you can even call it that) is the most bizarre place. It has an odd mixture of devout Hindus and devout Muslims. We booked ourselves into a quiet hotel up on the rocks away from all the noise off the bazaar, thought it'd be nice to get some peace and quiet. It all seemed lovely and right next to this huge pretty church. We all went to bed at about 10.30 (everything in this godforesaken place closes at about 9.00), only to be woken at 4am by some kinda of wailing coming from the church... It has bloody loudspeakers all over the top! And some woman was singing, with what sounded like a whole Indian orchestra in the background! It wasn't even nice music. In fact, I'm not even convinced it was music. It was just horrific.. and it went on for at least 3 hours. I could have cried. In fact, I think I did.

We eventually crawled out of bed at 11.00 thismorning and headed off to find a rickshaw to take us round the main sights. We saw a couple of tea plantations, some dams and a few elephants walking down the road. It was kinda cool and there were some spectacular views. We were going to hang around for another night to visit Chinnar Wildlife Park down the road, but after hearing some dodgy reports from the Australian we have decided to head off and find a beach tomorrow.. I think 2 nights here is plenty! Can't wait to get on that bus again!

Anyhoo, before coming here we were in Kochi, a fishing town on the coast of Kerala. It was really nice actually, we were surprised! It wasn't the most exciting place and there wasn't very much to see but the people there are so friendly! I had little kids running up and high-fiving me, and found everyone really cool in the shops and markets. I got my new sim card there and had some passport photos taken, hehe was a little different from home.. Just doing normal day-to-day things is a bit of a challenge!

We also got a boat around the Kerala backwaters from there. It was very... peaceful. Infact, it reminded me a lot of the Norfolk Broads! Is that bad? =/ It was really beautiful and tropical looking. We just sat like fat lazy tourists on a metal boat that had been all covered in bamboo to make it look authentic, and got pushed about by little Indian men with sticks, to look at all the people who lived on the banks. We just sat on our big arses and stared at them as they did their washing and cleaned their houses.. It all felt a bit weird. Tis like a giant human zoo. Some of them did seem equally as interested in us though which was cool. The whole experience was just a bit strange. It was definitely worth doing though, the backwaters are stunning.

Before Kochi we spent about 4 days on Palolem Beach in Goa. It was really nice up there, in fact it wasn't like India at all hehe. Its one of those places that travellers seem to get stuck, its easy to see why.. We left Nikki up there with a couple of English guys that we met... they'd been in Goa for 2 months! Me and Claire decided that if we didn't make a move soon we'd end up just sat there like beached whales in the sun for the next month. I had an amazing time there though. We stayed in some beach huts called 'Butterfly Gardens' which were really cool! Our hut was all pink and beautiful with butterflies on! It was literally a 20 second walk from the sea. All the guys that worked there were so friendly and treated us like family. It was really sad to leave I came away with some email addresses and 2 marriage proposals which was nice! hahaha (Pippa, you got one too!). We kinda befriended a couple of Indian guys, one called Dimple (haha) who worked in one of the restaurants and took a liking to Nikki and one called Winnie who worked at our place. He was cool, we drunk mango cocktails and had thumb wars and tried to speak Hindi. Apparently I'm a natural, hehe who knew?? And I look like a Bollywood star? Hmph I'm not convinced myself... Although other people have said that too! I'm going to have to check for myself methinks!

I can't wait to get back to the beach now... Munnar smells and there's actually nothing here. They are all Communists though which is rather exciting!

So much has happened in a week! Ooh one thing that has changed is my opinion of Indian people. In Mumbai they were absolutely terrifying. We spent more time running away from them than anything else. In Goa the majority of the ones we met seemed like they were just out to con us out of our money as we lay sunbathing on the beach (I must say, they were rather succesful, I think I'm an easy target =/). But still, some Goans, the people in Kochi and most of the ones I've spoken to up here are the friendliest people you could ever wish to meet! They actually would do anything for anyone. So many of them have just stopped to chat to us in the street, give us advice or help us out. They come across absolutely terrifing at first but if you actually engage them in conversation they are lovely people!

Anyhoo I should get going, am supposed to be looking up places to go next week! I think we are planning a few days at the beach in Varkela, then hopefully planning to fly up to Delhi and see a bit of the north before going to Nepal. It has been absolutely amazing so far, am having the best time and have met so many cool people! I will try to keep you updated. I'm attempting to upload some photos at the moment but its taking a million years so am not sure how many will appear...

I hope that everything is alright at home! Love you all 900 millions!!! Speak to you all really soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I am in mumbai!!! I would say its hot and sunny but in this little internet cafe/hovel/thing its bloody freezing... It is amazing here, totally crazy! Theres no way to really explain it really, other than just bizarre. It's kind of like England in a way, but without any sort of health and safety standards! There are lots of old colonial style British buildings and red double decker buses, but the people just run around and drive like mad! They carry huge great bundles of things on their heads and just sleep in the middle of pavements or wherever they fancy it... (i haven't done that yet but am sure it's just a matter of time).

The cab journey from the airport to the city was an eye-opener to say the least... I'm quite sure there's no kind of highway or green cross code going on here. They just drive wherever and however they want, at about 60 miles an hour, about 2mm from each other and beeping their horns CONSTANTLY (Ilana, you'd fit right in!). Crossing the road is a challenge as well.

The whole time we've been here I only saw about 2 Westerners, I think we were a bit of a novelty. We seem to have stumbled upon the touristy bit now though so there are a few more. There are still LOADS of people hassling us everywhere we go. Tis really sad but there's nothing you can do =/ On the way from the airport 3 tiny kids surrounded the cab, they could hardly see over the windows n were singing jingle bells and pointing to their mouths.. they looked hungry and so ill! I went to give them some of grandma's murray mints but the cab pulled off and i'm not entirely sure it would've done them a lot of good anyway. There is quite a lot of that, although I had heard so much about it that I thought there would be more. I was accosted as I got out of a cab earlier by a tiny woman in a sari who grabbed my wrist n tied a bracelet made of white flowers on it. I couldn't get it off n she wanted me to take her to the supermarket as payment! I gave her 50 rupees n ran away! =/ It smells nice though. Tis a good thing as its probably gonna be there for the next 2 weeks!

Today we went to a market next to our hotel, I don't think they get many tourists in there as they all looked rather surprised to see us. I took a load of photos which I'll upload when I get a chance.. Then we got the train (dad, I survived!) up to this laundry thing. There's a mahoosive area about 15mins train ride out of the city where the ENTIRE city goes to do its washing. You can stand on the bridge above it and take photos. There are hundreds of trough things that they use and hang it all up to dry afterwards... Thousands of people's washing flapping in the wind looks pretty impressive. Apparently even the hospitals wash their stuff there, meep! Must try to avoid them! We got a cab down to Colaba which is the most touristy area by the Gate of India. I think we are going on some weirdy cruise from the Gate later (not my idea... I want to go to the cinema dammit), hmph it could be good though. We were promised free food, soft drinks, music and negila pipe-majiggys (nikki's face was quite a picture when they said she's get a free hookah).

We're all struggling a little bit with the food as none of us are curry fans.. We went to McDonalds earlier, they do McCurry's and Mc Maharaja burgers hahaha, I laughed. I ordered a 'vegetarian hot dog' in a little restaurant thing earlier... it was most definitely NOT a hot dog! It was a small pile of mush in a bun, covered in green stuff (cumin apparently???)! Meh it was nasty. Was not impressed.

Anyhoo, we are getting the train down to Goa tomorrow which I'm sure will be a lot (OMG! A BUG JUST CRAWLED INSIDE MY KEYBOARD!!!) more calm and Westernised. I should probably go as we've been here quite a while. I miss everyone loads and loads and shall speak to you all soon! Keep me up to date with everything that is happening at home xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx