Pozhiyoram Alappuzha

... point out that ferry is perhaps too grand a word for an archaic wooden tug like floating vessel thing that seats about 40 squashed up but probably carries 140. Anyway the powerful ferry bloke barked back in glee “9.30 cancelled, wait 11.30”. Not something that we had anticipated foolishly enough but it did pose us with a big problem in order to get to Kottayam on time. Thinking fast, err well, trying to think, I looked up bus times (no luck ...

... process that takes place before each performance - usually takes around 60-90mins. The show was very interesting and the costumes and make up fabulous, had a spot of dinner at a very dodgy chinese then got an early night. <br>Not exactly up bright and early but luckily it was an overcast day as we decided to follow the free walking map of fort cochin which was given to us by the very helpful tourist office. This basically just took us around the local sights ...

... averes etre Francais. Ils revennaient juste d'une journee de ballade en canots qui les avaient enthousiames. Ni une ni 2, on a commencer les nego avec leur guide au nom impronomcable, de 2000Rps on a baisse le prix a 1300Rps pour nous deux. Le tour en velo s'est avere plutot court car cette bourgade (de 200 000 habs) n'offre rien de particulier a visiter. Lundi 27 avril lever au aurore, on retrouve notre Indien a 8h30 sur le quai des ...

... though, its pretty much 'a slice of venice in India' as lonely planet describes it, and so its a town built around two main waterways and then lots of little canals and rivers. There is a famous attraction in Kerala which some of you may have heard of called the 'Kerala Backwaters'. They're basically a 900km network of rivers and lagoons and you can take boat trips or house boat cruises which last however long you want ...

... explaining lots of details and almost demanding we take pictures of certain deities, proceedings and views. While it's impossible to compare it with the stunning Jain temples at Ranakpur, it was good to have someone to explain what it was we were looking at - albeit in broken English with more than a few teeth missing. Our boat was called Rainbow Gold and it really was most splendid - there were two double cabins with air-con, a very loungeable deck, fans and ...

... were pretty big waves, so we had a fun time bodysufing. Were in the water for 1-2 hours. The time went so fast. Visited Francis friend who also had a problem with his leg. Was a German lady there visiting him too. It was nice being there. Was ...

... house. This one is away from the main hub bub drag and up the hill from the one of the towns' temples. The good side to this is the temple has an elephant who is kept right next to my guest house. The downside is the prayer schedule. Prayers begin at 4a.m , some banging of gongs and ringing of bells at 5, and some chanting at 6a.m. The theory here with prayer is to WAKE UP GOD, but in practice, they wake up everyone. I'm luckily a ...

... few years ago! We were soaked right through in a matter of seconds even though we had on our 'rain gear'. I thought I was prepared but I was wrong. Everyone else was sitting on their balconies and they had a big laugh watching us two drowned rats coming back. We were leaving the next day so our clothes didn't even have a chance to dry out. It was a few days until we could get them to the laundry at our next hotel and they ended up taking on an interesting smell!

... their belongings from our bus and it became apparent that our bus wasn't going any further. Soon other buses bound for Ernakulum could be seen moving in our direction and people began jostling for position in order to be one of the few to board the standing room only buses. I decided not to join in the fray that ensued for the first bus and was able to get on the 3rd bus to come along. Due to its strategic position Cochin was used as a base by many European colonial ...

... lovely lovely, no photos as have accidentally wiped memory card (damned newfangled technology). Had a guided walk through Periyar National Park which was pretty but mostly just a view of the local flora. It's pretty much taken as given that you won't see Tigers but we didn't see the elephants either. Got mugged by killer monkeys. Extremely scared, they have really really big teeth.