The Lemon Tree Vembanad Lake Resort Alappuzha

... leaving our shoes at the base of some steep stone stairs. Non-Hindus were allowed into the courtyard, but not inside the temple. The small temple entrance was ornately carved of wood and bright colors. <br><br>It was still pouring down rain and the shoe tender offered me his umbrella - rainbow colored and the type you wear on your head. <br><br>We heard chanting coming from the temple. Outside, under a protective roof a women in the 60s ...

... in use and just docked along the side.<br><br>Going by other houseboats, I noticed that most of the other passengers were Indian tourists rather than foreigners. The crew told us that it is common for Indians to take a day-cruise for a honeymoon or a birthday party, and with today being Sunday, it was most people's day off. Shortly after leaving the dock, we came across one of these birthday party houseboats and our deckhand was able to convince them to ...

... bare til. Vi lavede ikke andet end at slappe af og nyde udsigten. En udsigt som faar naturelskere som os til at tabe vejret. Smukke groenne rismarker, palmer blomster og fugle. Ved flodbredden kunne man foelge med i indernes hverdagsliv. Kvinderne som vasker toej, maendene som fisker, folk paa marken der hoester. Det var fedt. Om aftenen naar vi lagde til fik vi rig mulighed for ...

... expensive and cater to honeymooners. Just what I need during the holidays..."Yes, a table for ONE please". So Lakshadweep is the next best thing to the Maldives...I hope! They are still expensive to visit but I'm making this my holiday present to myself. Hey, don't judge, I'm sure you give yourself a ...

... good call. 6 inches? - good call. Slight grazing of fenders? - still a good call. Thankfully, we haven't witnessed a bad call, so I can't speak from experience. This little cultural difference has turned our 7 hour + bus rides into adrenaline-fueled, nail-biting, highway versions of Russian roulette. Jumping out of a plane ain't got nuthin' on an Indian tour bus.

... are some evil places out there and we are nothing if not cowardly, unadventurous sheep, but this one was really nice and clean, and the chatter of the 3 English girls next door til 3am lent a homely and nostalgic air to things until they were sadly quietened by our grumpy Indian neighbour. Party pooper. We had breakfast in the Indian Coffee House, which is rapidly becoming one of our favourite places to chill out and grab a cheap ...

... find it, and then have to re-organize our bags outside to put our flying clothes (or warm) into our day packs. Of course this attracts the children who live at the airport and beg. So there we have all our stuff open and about 8 kids talking to us, to themselves pointing and looking at our stuff. Eventually a police officer comes over and shoos them away. We drop off our bags and now have to find the driver that Mr Yesh has arranged for us, who is waiting for us at the Domestic ...

... appear strangely close. Walking along narrow cow paths through tall grass, sometimes under the canopy of leafy trees and wild pepper vines, we eventually arrive at the base of a small waterfall. We stand in the refreshingly cool water and after locating a hole in the wall of vegetation on the opposite bank, cross and continue to a rocky outcrop overlooking an area called Raja's Seat. At this juncture we first become aware of our new little friends and travel companions...leeches. The ...

... as we wrote in our first entry from Delhi,"India is hard work but it's worth it." It's hard to summarize our time in India but we'll do our best. What We've Done We've traveled from Delhi to Kochi by plane, train, boat; bus and car; we've eaten as many different types of Indian food as we could including the Mughali food of the North and the spicy food native to the South; we've run the range of emotions from rage, disappointment, disbelief, amusement to joy and beyond on a daily ...

... for the train station. Sorry sir, this no go to station. For fcks sake. Very funny nonetheless. We're getting used to it now. We took a different ferry back towards the room (I obviously wanted to check on Cath) but we stopped at a little island to watch the sun go down on the beach - photo's to follow. Then it began. We were genuinely at the bottom of this island, middle of no-where and it started to rain. Now when I say rain, I don't mean that 'fine ...