Nick and Nat learn to drive motorbikes!

It's been a while since I put a blog up so thought I'd take the opportunity...we're heading off from Cochin tomorrow, heading south for a few days to Allepey and the Backwaters. Going to stay on a houseboat for a couple of days and drift along and a very slow pace! Since leaving Mumbai however we've had a great time!



The train was cool, OK so it was 26 hours but the ac worked, the food was great, and the family across from us were fantastic. They didn't speak much English but they tried. We seemed to be drawing a bit of a crowd at one point, think everyone loves to try their little English out on natives whenever they can!

Got to Cochin and then the ferry across the bay to Fort Cochin a small peninsula full of character! We went from a very industrial harbour to one with ancient Chinese finishing nets, men in long wooden canoes going out for the day and lots of Rickshaws ( by the way I have now driven one and it's not going to be easy!




Fort Cochin has been occupied by the English, the Portuguese, the Chinese as well as others I'm sure...and you can tell, you walk along the streets and there are beautiful old buildings everywhere, some rather more dilapidated than others but it certainly has its own charm.

We got off the ferry and met up with Craig 'Deano' and Ems. Deano for those that don't know is an old family friend who has been traveling round India for 7 weeks in the opposite direction than us. It was pot luck really that we contacted each other but we've just spent 5 days together and had a great time! First day we hired mopeds and drove to the beach. Hang on, so we're waiting for the ferry to cross onto the other island where the beaches are, and as we're watching the fishing boats and ferries travel between us and the other island, out of nowhere appears a great big bloody submarine! Didn't see that one coming!

Anyway so we drove about for a few hours discovering some beautiful little spots and establishing that we are going to suffer on these roads on the Rickshaw Run! Did a bit of swimming and headed back for some beers.





The only non-hotel bar was the ' Bob Marley ' Bar playing psychedelic remixes of the Marley...think that's a bit strange, in Cochin alcohol is not really licensed so to make sure there was no sign that we were drinking beer we had to use teapots as bottles and tea cups as glasses...so Raj!

Next day we went up to Munnar on a 4 and a half hr bus journey, these guys are the ones I'm worried about, they drive like utter maniacs! anyhow, he got us there so fair enough. Munnar is a tea plantation town right up above the cloud line. It was a manky little town but we found good places to eat and litre bottles of beer for 50p




We rented bikes once again and spent 2 days driving to waterfalls, through the tea plantations and through little villages on the hillsides.



On the second day we drove up to the top station, at the peak of the Western Ghats and could look all the way down into Tamil Nadu, the next State. Unbelievable views and having Deano and Ems with us made the few days really amazing. It was great to see them and hear their stories about the north of India in particular, i think we may well be staying for a bit longer after the rickshaw run now, so much to see! On a slightly crazy note...

Took my shoe off when we got back to the hotel on the second day and a leech fell onto the floor...thought it was a slug until it wouldn't shift. Here's the video of the little bugger, apparently you have to wait until it's full and then it'll just fall off...must have had it's fix and was ready to go!


Nick




After a few days in the fine drizzle and freezing mountains we headed back to the heat and Fort Cochin for a last night before Craig and Ems headed north. We really loved being with them for the past few days, they're great to be around and there's certainly not many quiet moments when Deano's about.

Nice to see that Leeds have managed to start the season well, wonder how long that'll last. We'll see. We've now got a few options for xmas so we'll keep you updated once we reach a decision but it'll be fun no matter!

Hope you are all well, we're loving it here and both have managed to stay healthy ( touch wood although I've pretty much been veggie for the past few weeks, need a fat steak dinner or a nice Sunday roast...i even daydreamed on the way back to Cochin of fish fingers, chips and broccoli...i don't even like fish fingers that much.

We're setting up a twitter account for the Rickshaw Run so once we're up and running we'll be able to text updates and let you know we're safe...but that's still a couple of weeks away.

Love you all and hope you're safe.

Nick