Lovely beach

Chris pointing at our accomodation

Today we spent the majority of the day just relaxing before going for a loving walk around the gorgeous beaches Varkala has to offer.

The sea

A Mosque

Fantastic sunshine until yet another electrical storm hit. It's funny, I never thought anywhere could or would rain more than in the U.K, but in the south of India I have been proven wrong!

written by  chrischarly on November 16, 2010 from Varkkallai, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Our bargain room

Today is our last day in Varkala and thus we spent the majority of our day planning what to do next!

Our balcony at Clafouti

But apart from that we didn’t do anything very exciting; merely a ton of hand-washing and general re-organisation of our luggage…

written by  chrischarly on November 17, 2010 from Varkkallai, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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The train journey again was ok and seriously cheap once again standing at the back of 2nd class.

We then haggled a taxi and arrived at the boat jetty to take the Ferry almost 3 hours early, the first ones to arrive!

Then after quite a beautiful, yet long 8 hour Ferry journey along the back-waters (wishing it was a house-boat) we arrived in Allepy!

The houseboat I wanted to go on...too much money

Compromise- A ferry along the backwaters

Chinese fishing nets

Hundreds of ducks

Another big bird

A big bird

Chris waiting to buy some munch

2 men rowing

3 men fishing

A lady washing her clothes

A man washing his bits

Chris' dream woman

A man fishing

Us on the ferry

A nie photo!

A man inhis fishing hut

Pretty exhausted we searched for some accommodation and managed to find a little home-stay for £3.50! However, we noticed that there wasn’t exactly anything here to see or do we didn’t unpack. Next stop: Fort Kochi!

written by  chrischarly on November 18, 2010 from Kollam, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Us on a seriously crowded bus

After an amazing night’s sleep we headed to the bus station and luckily we straight away found seats.

However, it does seem that no one wants to sit next to 2 white travellers so most of the way it was just us on a bench that with a squeeze could fit 3 people. However, when someone did sit next to me, I did feel like a sardine with a largish Indian man to my left- and Chris to my right!

A lovely sunset on the water

A lovely sunset on the water

But to be honest the journey really wasn’t too bad about 1 ½ hours long and very breezy as there are no windows which meant not too many fragrant smells! We then took a small Ferry ride from Ernakulam to Fort Kochi and walked around for over an hour to find somewhere to stay as everywhere was full as it’s now high-season. Another long day!

written by  chrischarly on November 19, 2010 from Ernakulam, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Sunset

Fishermen

Sunset at Fort Kochin

Unfortunately as its Saturday, many of the touristy ‘things-to-do’ were closed so we just peered over railings. So we took a long walk along the front.

Me surrounded by an Indian family

Beach covered in rubbish

It is such shame as Fort Cochin is/well could be a beautiful place yet what seems to be typical of India is that they stick an oil factory right at the centre of the view point.

Oil storage

Ship yard

So whilst we are talking about this sitting on a bench admiring the rubbish thrown everywhere,

Yummy Ice-cream

Hello Friend

A rat loving the India trash

a huge rat pops up to say ‘Hello’!

written by  chrischarly on November 20, 2010 from Ernakulam, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Ernakulam bus station

After a seriously rubbish sleep I woke up feeling a lot worse than yesterday. The original plan was to wake up early and catch the bus into town before getting a second bus to Munnar that took 5 hours. However, I just couldn’t face the journey so instead we caught it a few hours later once Chris had finished playing nurse and I felt a little better.

The bus driver's seat, looks comfy!

Us getting the best seats first on the bus!

The bus journey was in fact very beautiful looking at waterfalls and travelling high up in the mountains looking down at the clouds beneath us.

The bus drivers view is restricted by clouds

Our home in Munnar

Although we couldn’t exactly call it a peaceful journey as the driver really liked the sound of his horn!

written by  chrischarly on November 21, 2010 from Munnar, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Our rick-shaw

Wild honey on a tree

Wild honey on a tree

The sights were amazing surrounded by tea plantations and breath-taking views.

A 'normal' monkey- as quoted by our guide

Tea being picked

The mountains

More tea...

Chris holding a pretty Indian girl

Gorgeous views

There had been heavy rain last night and therefore many land-slides making it at times quite difficult to pass.

A huge landslide

Chris having a sneaky wee...

This also made the air quite humid which meant that the main sight we wanted to see, ‘Top Station’ was actually covered in clouds.

The view from 'Top Station'... disappointing

It was still worth it as on our way back we saw 3 wild elephants!

The hill where we spotted the elephants

Walking towards us!

The baby elephant feeding

3 Indian wild elephants!

We were absolutely amazed as it’s a very rare sight and they weren’t even in a National Park just eating grass in a Field next to us!

written by  chrischarly on November 22, 2010 from Munnar, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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the cutest little girl we played peeka-boo with on the bus

This morning we woke up nice and early and took a 5 hour bus journey to Coimbatore. The scenery was pretty amazing regardless of the driver loving the sound of his horn a little too much!

More schoolchildren

Schoolchildren waving at us

Once there we met a nice Swiss lady, Regina and instantly made friends with her with the bonus of her having the same itinerary as us.

Our new friend Ragina and her camera

A kingfisher

A kingfisher

We then took 2 more buses before arriving in Mettupalayam where we arranged our BlueMountain railway tickets for tomorrow. Chris managed to get the last seat available and I was on standby for a seat. Fingers crossed I get one…

written by  chrischarly on November 23, 2010 from Coimbatore, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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the front of the steam train

the steam train

the blue mountain railway

having a break off the train

This morning we woke up pretty excited about our train journey through the mountains.

our train

going through a tunnel

loads and loads of trees

a cute little village

the scenery from the train

We had heard great reviews about it and managed to fight our way for some good seats after my seat was secured thankfully last night.

our 2nd class carriage with a random man waving in the distance

me and reggie

However, there was heavy rain last night which meant that the clouds were very low thus meaning that there was barely anything to see!

a pretty waterfall

a stream high up in the clouds

the stream high in the mountains

monkeys attempting to break into the train

So after all the travelling to finally take this train journey as well with all the excitement it was pretty disappointing but we did laugh about it!

the view blocked by clouds

the bridge we crossed across

Once we got off the train in Ooty there wasn’t exactly a lot to see so again we took many buses yet again before we arrived in Sulthan Bathery in our first search for a tiger!!

written by  chrischarly on November 24, 2010 from Coonoor, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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a tree passageway

our safari jeep

Unfortunately we couldn’t spend longer in the park as it closes at 9am till the evening. Although we didn’t exactly see a lot; it was very over-rated.

Us pushing the bus as it was too close to our jeep

Chris and our safari driver

Our safari driver weariing Chris' lucky hat

We saw spotted deer, a wild boar from very far away that in fact resembled a stone, some monkeys also far away and some tiger footprints.

An elephant, unfortunately with chains around it's neck

A monkey far away

a deer a lot like bambi

I was though very impressed by the footprints and prayed we would see some tigers themselves but unfortunately our luck wasn’t with us today.

Tiger footprints!!

Then yet again we spent far too many hours on a bus to spend some time relaxing on the lovely, quiet Pallyam beach just outside Kannur for a few days.

written by  chrischarly on November 25, 2010 from Kalpatta, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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