Green Palace Varkala

... mention. It came as a mound of yellow rice which, when you dug in your spoon, broke open to reveal fresh vegetables -- carrots, broccoli, mushroom, paneer cheese, cashew nuts, whatever was available -- in a curry sauce. It was a meal in itself, but of course we ate many other things with it.

We had a really great time in Varkala. We learned a lot about yoga, which Paul was doing for the first time, and good on him for doing it every day straight for over ...

... had tentatively booked (without prepayment - we are learning), we defaulted to the entry level Taj Gateway Hotel.  The Taj, of course, is the hotel chain that was targeted, along with the Oberoi in the recent Mumbai bombings. We are working on the principle that lightening doesn't strike twice. I did hear some sounds like gun shots at one point when Maddie and I were in the pool and I started thinking "OK, I know they probably aren't ...

... palm, which is on average is 25 metres high, lets drop it's 2 kilogram coconut, it hits your unsuspecting soft skull at about 80 kilometres an hour which makes for a force of about 1000 kilograms, scary stuff! We are going to have to remember this whilst we sit under swaying palms knocking back lemon mint drinks and seafood sizzlers on the cliff. The tree climbing guys slurped the refreshing juice in glee then one of them offered me half a coconut to take on my way ...

... disheartened at the fact that I will not receive a hug from her, given with such love that it has had such a powerful effect on so many of those who have received it. This unconditional love that she pours into people through her hugging has made her a unique individual. I have heard tales of people completely breaking down while receiving this love, this simple but powerful act coming from a woman with such a big heart. Of ...

... India ;). Initially we wanted to take the train all the way to southern India, but because the trains are over booked, we had to do it in a few steps. From Palolem we went to Mangalore, which didn't give us much. It's just another dirty city, so we stayed there only one day, only to continue our trip south to Kannur in Kerala. The only thing worth mentioning about Mangalore is that we were very confused about places to sleep and places to eat. Apparently they call restaurants hotels ...

... of kicking back for the expected, anticipated and much desired evening beer followed by the shocking horror of discovering that mineral water was the only available liquid would have been a lot for me to bear. Luckily, when Sanjit returned his arms were laden with Kingfisher and the icebox was duly filled. Our boat joined the queue to leave the jetty area (these houseboat trips are pretty popular) and we slowly pulled out into the larger lake. There are many words you can use to ...

... IQ van een koe minstens driemaal dat van de gemiddelde menselijke politieker is. ( In India... in Belgie zijn geen studies voorhanden, doch dat komt vooral door het feit dat de gemiddelde belgische politieker helemaal geen IQ heeff, en zo natuurlijk geen vergelijking mogelijk is) De koeien hebben ook al een degelijk programma uitgewerkt, met als hoofdmotto "Meer gras, minder vuilnis als vreten, en als compensatie ...

... soap that left blue marks made me think that there must be another way...when I asked the girls at the store (who were following us around giggling anyway) about the white soap and related my story about using the blue cake, they thought it was hilarious. We also found a yellow clothesline (so we wont have to hang things in the caged windows, a pumice stone (which made my feet feel sooo much better), some cheap color pencils, not too bulky maxi ...