Kerala Backwaters / Farewell India - hello Sri Lanka

Days 59 - 61 of the trip saw us on a rice boat in the Keralan backwaters having caught a train from Trivandrum to Kottayam which was interesting due to the cockroach infestation in the seats and the site of a rat between the 2 panes of glass on the windows - ah the joys of sub-continent travelling. The boat crusie was great, very relaxing with good food (prawns like lobsters) and having your own cabin complete with ensuite.
Kerala has strict alcohol laws and you have to queque in an enclosed shoulder width mesh fence with males (no ladies) until its your turn. On the way to the jetty I asked the cabbie to stop so I could get a bottles of wine at one of these places. I stood in line patintly for 20 mins and was next to be served when a bloke came through the exit and tried to push in front of me and the other 15 blokes. I politely said I was next and he needed to go to the back at which point he shoved me in the upper arm. I turned towards him and put both hands on his chest and gave him a good shove back at which point the crowd roared their approval and the man in the shop told him "no service" . I walked away with my wine and dignity intact. This type of incident is common in India, everyone pushes in and you have to hold the line otherwise you never get served. I\ve seen Carolyn serve it up to bigger guys than me who have thought they could get away with getting in front of her!
All too soon our India trip was over and we were on a plane to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
For both of us India threw up so many challenges - the abject poverty, the rubbish, the filth, the brilliant food, the kindness of locals, the jaw dropping beauty of parts of the country, the ever widening gap bewtween the rich, the middle class and the poor. It utterly and totally consumes your every sense - from the smell of spices on the street, the stench of open urine pits on streets to the sight of a pink sunset over the white buildings of Udaipur to seeing the number of people living hand to mouth. It really is sensory overload and it can be overwhelming. Sorry to sound like a prat.
I came away with loving the experience but not really loving India - if that makes sense.
I\m also aware that what I\m writing here is really just what is going through my mind at the moment. With reflection that might change. Who knows.
The flight from India to Colombo was remarkable for the fact that there was only 3 'westerners' on a plane of over 200 and Carolyn and I were the only 2 without moustaches! when we arrived in Colombo the 3 'westerners' were the only ones to go through immigration as everyone else was transiting to the UAE for work.
First impressions of Colombo were that it is orderly, clean and they obey the road rules! People are unerringly friendly and it\s a bit more expensive than India.
We're off to the country for a few days to the Cultural Triangle before  heading to Galle and the beaches on the south coast.
I'll log a post in the next few days.

Photo's at last

I've just added some photo's to the Chitwan, Udaipur and Mumbai posts. Will add more later.

Goa / Kerala - Trivandrum, Kovsam

On Day 54 (Mon 17 Oct) of our travels we departed Goa and headed to Kerala further south. Goa was good but that was mainly to do with our hotel which Carolyn managed to get for 1/2 price. A pool, brekkie, peace and quiet, kingsize bed for under $55 per night. As I said in an earlier posting the beaches are largely unappealing and full of pervy Indian  men checking out the western women - you can imagine my reaction to that.

That said we had a great time including me  guiding a motor scooter on a 4 lane highway with no helmets, no insurance, Carolyn on the back and the mad Indian drivers! Our travel insurance didn't cover this either I later found out! I was fine until we hit a huge roundabout where there are no rules - you just go! Great fun.
We arrived in Trivandrum southern Kerala and again Carolyn score well with the hotel - close to half price I'm not a tight arse I promise)  and in a good location in the town. Trivandrum whilst not a tourist mecca is very pleasant and the people super friendly and no hassling to but or get in a taxi or tuk tuk. People say hello and excuse me and if you need help won't then ask you to visit their brother's silk emporium.
We are now in Kovasam just south of Trivandrum and it's a beach town - the beach and water are clean although the sand is dark - not dirt just volcanic. We've both swam and the waves are good. All the restaurants arre on the beach and we had a huge feed of Tiger prawns cooked in a Tandoor oven last night. Very tasty - still no meat though! On the subject of food our hotel in Trivandrum ($40 per night) had over 35 chices for its buffet plus 4 desserts and 3 flavours of ice cream all for $8 per head. What a bargain! (ok I watch the pennies a bit)
We are here for another day before heading north to go on a houseboat for a night on the backwaters. It's supposed to be a highlight of a trip to India - we'll see.
Monday we go to Sri Lanka for 16 days and then start of think of home.
Before signing off I have started some list of best foods, one-liners from our travels and some travel tips. I'll put them in separate postings closer to the end of our trip.
 I'm off for another body surf - see ya!

Mumbai / Goa

Arrived in Mumbai on 7 Oct late at night and it took 2 hours to get to the hotel because of all the Dessara festival celebrations which went late into the night - plus I had to map read as the taxi driver didn't know the way. Mumbai is a city of 15 million!!!
 The hotel we booked online and recommended by the LP was shocking. Dry rot on one wall, flaking paint, wet smell, bird feathers on the floor and a stinky shower. It was 11.30pm so we went to bed and checked out in the morning! Accom in Mumbai is really pricey - budget starts at $AUD50. The couple of days in Mumbai were taken up with checking out some of the tourist areas - Gateway to India, Taj Hotel, Chowpatty Beach, Victoria Terminal and then the cricket on Maidan Oval on Sunday. A space the size of 10 cricket fields had about 50 games going on - all in perfect harmony even though the makeshift boundaries crossed over. Some players were in whites and others in street clothes but there was no aggro and they all seemed to co-exist. It was something to behold. We ate locally and even had a meal in Leopolds which is made famous in Shanataram the popular novel (I couldn't stnd the book!). Food was good and relatively cheap. We even ran into Nelson and Francois from Udaipur!
Sunday we caught the train to Goa - supposed to take 10 hours! We arrived 5 hours late - ah well! Our accom in Goa is excellent. Huge room, kingsize bed, balcony, swimming pool, full brekkie all for $AUD57 per night. Competition for accom is keen here so online bookings are the way to go. The normal price for this room is over $AUD100. We like it so much we ended up staying the week! Goa is ok but the beaches are average by Aussie standards. Rubbish everywhere, coarse sand and not appealing. Sorry to sound like a snob! We hired a motor scooter for 2 days and we checked out Old Goa which is full of the Portugese influence and on Friday went to Mapusa markets which was an experience especially the freshly hung goats in the 33 C heat ...mmm.
It was good fun the 2 of us on a scooter motoring around the back blocks of Goa - palm trees and rice paddies. Very relaxing except for the sometimes frenetic Indian driving!
So far we've been to most of northern and middle Goa and we'll see how much more we can do before we head to Kerala on Monday (17 Oct). Mind you the pol looks good!
After 40 odd days of no meat we finally had some Goan seafood which is served very spicy - Extra tasty and washed down with a Kingfisher beer - or 2!
Sorry about the lack of photo's. the card has a virus. I've had all the photo's so far coped onto a DVD and had it cleaned so I can keep taking photo's. As soon as I can I'll add some pic's to the blog posts I've done so far.

Udaipur

We arrived in Udaipur from Kathmandu on 4 October  and have had a marvellous time here in the state of Rajasthan. Leaving Kathmandu and Nepal was hard as we'd had a such a great time what with the trek in the Himalayas, Pokhara and then Chitwan National Park. We'd highly recommend coming to Nepal but be prepared for the pollution which is pretty bad in Kathmandu.

Udaipur is the city of lakes and our hotel (The Tiger) looks over Lake Pinchola which has the famous hotel in the middle ($500 per night). Accom is pretty good here and mid range with brekkie thrown in is about $40. Not bad for what is becoming peak season.

We've done a few sightseeing things like visit the cenotaphs of past Maharajas and the Monssoon Palace which is 980 m up on a hill that gives sweeping views of southern Rajasthan. The highlight though was the Royal Palace, a real example of Raj architecture. We did something we'd never done and hired a guide and it made such a difference. He was a young guy who was so proud of his heritage and culture and his enthusiasm was great to see. He was an outrageous flirt with all the feamles and had a good handle on Aussie slang but with an Indian accent. I couldn't stop laughing. He's been to Oz a few times and was in no way overbearing.

On Wed night we did an Indian cooking class that was recommended to us and had a wonderful night of cooking with Shashi (in her house) who taught us how to make pirathas, marsala, daal, poraka,  naan bread, chipatis and even chai tea. With us was Nelson and Francois from Portugal and it was a good night. At the end (10pm) you sit round and eat and it was at this time that I spied a huge rat under Carolyn's chair - it was like a kitten, it was huge. I'm trying to signal to Carolyn to move her foot without drawing attention to what was going on. Carolyn is looking at me oddly and I'm trying not to laugh. The reality is rats are everywhere here and you see them in even the most clean places. 2 days later and I'm still ok so obviously it did me no harm. The food was terrific and we all got a cook book. A night to remember!

Tonight (Fri 7 Oct) we head to Mumbai and on Monday catch the train to Goa - can't wait.

Sorry still no photo's - I'll try again in Mumbai to upload some.

Chitwan National Park

We've just arrived back in Kathmandu (Sun 2 Oct) after 3 days on a jungle island in the Chitwan National Park here in Nepal.
The accom was rustic at best but being on an island you didn't have to put up with hoards of tourists. We went on 3 elephant safaris into the heart of the jungle and a lot of the time you weren't on trails but actually cutting through the  undergrowth. We also went on a jungle walk, bird watching (we bailed out of that one) and helped wash the elephants which was a hoot (see pics).
Animals in the park include sloth bears, rhinos, tigers, leopards (both rare) alligators, crocs, deer etc. We managed to see deer, mongoose, an alligator but none of the so called big 3 - tiger, leopard or rhino until the last day.  We headed off on the back of an elephant and crossed 2 rivers and finally found a rhino which we tracked for over 1/2 hour. It was thrilling to say the least to see these huge armour plated beasts in their element. You can't get too close but Carolyn managed to shoot off a good front-on photo. We then crossed the 2 rivers on the way back to camp in the near dark. Being on the back of an elephant is an experience in itself especially crossing fast flowing rivers in the dusk or when they break into a trot!
You get to the island by way of dug-out canoe which is a bit unnerving given how quick the river is flowing post monsoon season.
The journey from Chitwan was pretty average - local bus with no A/C and when we arrived at the change over spot we clubbed in with a German and 2 Nicaraguians (?) and hired a van as the bus was 'chockers'. I shaved 3 hours off the 7 hour trip which is only a distance of 150 kms on some of the worst roads you'll ever see. It's festival time in Nepal - Dasain is a time when people return to their native villages so the roads are all clogged with traffic.
Today we went of to the Bouda Tibetan stupa here in Kathmandu. It's the biggest Buddhist stupa in Nepal and is pilgrimage site for many Nepali's and Tibetans. Tomorrow we are off to India and hope to be in Udapuir by late afternoon if our flights are on time!
Sorry no foto's as I'm having trouble uploading them. When I can get a relaiable connection I'll edit the post.