Kerala!

I was so excited to meet Becki and Tom in Cochin. We all get along so well I knew we were definitely going to have an amazing time. We met up in Fort Cochin which is a quiet, touristy area. We even found a really nice (and cheap) hotel called Tom's mansion! Perfect! This was a good place to visit first as we could catch up on the past few months apart whilst eating good food, and drinking alcohol from the government shop. The shop is a surreal place; as alcohol is (meant to be) illegal for sale in restaurants and cafes in the state of Kerala, the only place it is available is at the state shop. People visiting cover their faces, change their clothes and hide the alcohol in their trousers once they have bought it because it is seen as so shameful to be seen buying.
Poor Becki's luggage gad got lost on her flight over and sent to Melbourne!! But once we had it back we took a trip up the mountains to a town called Munnar. The bus ride there was so scary! The driver seemed to have forgotten he had other people's lives in his hands and was racing other buses up windey thin mountain roads. Even the locals were gripping the edges of their seats and gasping with terror. When we got there the views were worth the bus ride from hell. We had a couple of much needed beers before a meal and an early night ready to go on a 'reliable tour' the next day. Our tour guide was hilarious, and quite obviously making a lot of stuff up on the way but we didn't mind and had a wonderful time. We went on an elephant ride up a hill and saw scenery which I thought looked like something from 'the sound of music'. Afterwards we walked through some (snake infested... According to Becki hehe) tea plantations. We saw some kathakali traditional Indian dance performance which was quite odd and seemed to be based mainly around strange facial expressions.
The next day we decided to travel south to Allepey where we were going to see the Keralan backwaters. After our traumatic drive up the mountain we gave the bus a miss instead getting a taxi. The difference in cost was extreme (300 rupees for all of us on the bus or 3000 in a taxi) but we felt our safety was worth the money and it turns out we definitely spent our money wisely as we saw a bus crash on the way down. However, after seeing another crash on the roads it seems our luck was running out and we had a collision of our own. A drunk man was walking along a dual carriageway drunk and facing the wrong direction whilst on his mobile phone and despite all our drivers efforts our car hit him. He got straight back up without any serious injuries, and the most damage was done to the car behind us which hit our behind as our car braked. We were a bit shaken up but just glad to be safe and sound when we reached our hotel.
The next day we took a small boat out for the day and saw some beautiful sights. We saw lots of wildlife as well as people from smaller towns washing their clothes and dishes in the river whilst listening to fat freds. It was gorgeous.
After Allepey we took a train down to Varkalar to spend a few days by the beach. We met some lovely people who ran a restaurant on the cliffs overlooking the ocean on the first night where we shared many cocktails and stories. The next morning Jonny woke me up early and we went for a morning stroll on the beach before breakfast. When we met up with Becki and Tom we all saw wild dolphins swimming in the sea from a cafe on the beach. They were beautiful!
We sunbathed all day before going back to the restaurant we had been to the night before for a snapper which they had caught for us that morning. They had kept it alive in a pond and sacraficed it along with a crab for our dinner whilst we were there; the freshest fish I have ever eaten! It was delicious.
The next morning whilst enjoying our morning stroll, me and Jonny saw some ceremonies going on at the far left side of the beach. It turns out the ocean is holy and many people have their funerals there, with their ashes being thrown into the sea. Afterwards the children of the family all danced in the waves. It looked like a lovely way to be celebrated. After another chilled out day on the beach, we all watched the sunset together before an open mic night. We had an amazing night. Jonny played guitar with some other musicians and we all drank cocktails and sang along until the early hours.
We spent another couple of days chilling on the beach enjoying each others company and swimming in the ocean before the sad day came when we had to travel back to Cochin for Becki and Tom to get their flight home. We went back to Tom's mansion and spent the evening listening to a sitar and tablar show. It was so relaxing!
The next day Josh and Kieron arrived and we went to a festival at a local temple where they dressed up elephants and put on a but of a performance. They then set off fireworks on the street which actually just happened to be pots of gunpowder. It was surreal!
I was very sad to see Becki and Tom leave, as we had such a fantastic time. Kerala has to be one of the most beautiful areas of the world I have been lucky enough to see.