Tuesday 28th December, Fort Cochin, Kerala, India.

We spent a lovely 5 nights in Alleppey, spending two days on the beach and a day exploring the backwaters on a canoe tour with our own personal boat man. The tour included a traditional Keralan breakfast and lunch at the boatman’s house, complete with staring wife, daughters and grandson! The backwaters were a truly breathtaking sight and the canoe allowed us to explore deep into the villages down small canals to view village life. The tour was so relaxing that at one point both Helen and I nodded off! We also enjoyed wandering around the street carnival happening over the Christmas period and risked our lives going on a very unsteady ferris wheel. Helen’s terrified screams seemed only to amuse the men running the rides and not convince them to let us off!

We left Alleppey on Christmas Eve and headed up the coast to the city of Cochin by train, and from there we travelled to Vypeen Island and the tiny beach resort of Kuzuphilly. On arrival we walked on the beach and saw eagles flying in the trees and dolphins swimming just off-shore. It was awesome. The “resort” consisted only of the beach house we were staying at, which meant the beach was pretty much deserted. On Christmas Day we took a trip to nearby Cherai Beach, which was busy with many Indian tourists celebrating Christmas on the beach. Overall Christmas was pretty relaxed, it didn’t really seem like Christmas because it was so hot, plus we would have killed for a turkey stuffing cob!

On Boxing Day we took the ferry over to Fort Cochin, where we spent three nights at another home-stay. Its a small island, possible to explore on foot with a relaxed and safe vibe. We explored the rustic town, visiting the Dutch Palace and Jew Town and we saw the traditional Chinese fishing nets in action, as well as taking the ferry across the harbour. We also appreciated the vast array of Christmas lights visible by night - which made things seem that little bit more like Christmas - despite some of the hottest weather since we left in August. Tomorrow evening we will leave Cochin on the overnight train. We’re sad to go but Kerala is a ’dry’ state so we’re heading back to Goa for New Year and a few celebratory drinks!!

Tuesday 21st December Alleppey, Kerala Backwaters, India

We headed to the state of Karnataka from Goa and spent 4 days in Hampi, one of India’s oldest cities which is now largely made up of ruins and a small village in the middle of it all. We hired bikes and cycled around to the different ruin and temple sites and sat by the river watching elephants bathing. Although we were happy to leave after we saw an English man who had totally lost his rag going mad at some local villagers and screaming for the police…a 5 minute spectacle saw him totally embarrass himself and all foreign tourists around - what an idiot.

After being on the mainland for these days, we soon headed back to the coast to the small resort of Gokarna. It was a bit like Goa was 30 years ago with a handful of beach shacks and less than 100 people on the beach. We stayed on Kudle beach (pronounced kood-lay) and hung out for 3 days with some people we met on the sleeper bus there, drank a lot and laughed a lot! From Gokarna we had a 16 hour train journey to Alleppey, Kerala, which is in the midst of the backwaters, a network of canals (a bit like Venice or Amsterdam!) where you can take a houseboat or canoe and meander through the water, visiting local villages which are built on and by the water - apparently it’s great for people watching - we can’t wait to go!

Palolem Beach, Goa, India: Thursday 9th December.

After a few (much needed) relaxing days on the beach catching up with Amy in Arambol, we ventured down the coast to Baga but were slightly worried about it being like Benidorm!! Despite it being very busy, we had a pleasant surprise as there was enough beach to find our own spot (far from secluded!). We also used Baga as our base to head to the Mackies Saturday Night Market which was much more chilled than Anjuna both temperature wise and with less pushy sellers, although Martin’s evening was somewhat tainted by falling down a ditch on the dark by the side of the road and cutting open his foot!

Next day we headed to Paloem for 5 days. The palm tree-lined cove beach was as stunning as we remembered and we did little other than relax on the beach and eat and drink at one of the beach shacks. The only downside was that we had to head back to our beach hut early one night as Helen wasn’t feeling well. After a night vomiting and another day on the loo she was finally able to venture out after 24 hours in bed. All better now!

Arambol, Goa, India; Tuesday 2nd December.

We spent 3 nights in Sikkim in Pelling, which was very cold but very beautiful. We visited two Buddhist Monasteries and ancient ruins which involved really steep walks through the hills, but provided excellent views. Sikkim was a very scenic and peaceful place with a relaxed pace of life, we thought it had a similar vibe to Nepal and enjoyed our time there.

Arriving bog eyed, after travelling for 24 hours, in Kolkata we decided to power through and do some sightseeing. We walked around the city and spent the afternoon at the Victoria memorial. Before flying to Goa the next day.

We arrived to the sun beating down on us; a welcome relief from the cold of Sikkim and the humidity of Kolkata. We spent the day in Vasco De Gama near the airport awaiting the arrival of Amy VvG from a freezing and snowy England in the middle of the night. Next day we travelled up to Arambol and checked in to Ivons, spent the day exploring the beach shacks, main street shops, and lazing on the beach. Arambol’s main road is called Glastonbury Street - after lots of hippies came on holiday and stayed in the 70’s. Nowadays there are numerous stalls selling clothes, bags, jewellery, musical instruments etc and being in the Glastonbury mood we bought some fire poi!

Whilst in Arambol we also visited Wednesday’s Anjuna flea market, which was really good fun but hunting and haggling in the searing afternoon heat was a exhausting - so a much deserved Old Monk and Coke followed on the beach that night!