Cochin to Mumbai

So with Fort Cochin in Kerala as our base for a few days we set out to explore the area. One day we took a trip to an elephant training camp to bath a baby elephant and to see the adult elephants being washed then onto some spectacular waterfalls. Bathing in the cold river before the falls was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.

Old Ambassador car we took on a couple of trips

Washing a baby elelphant

Chinese fishing nets at Fort Cochin

Sarah and Amber enjoying the cold river water

Waterfall

Bobby collecting some rubber in the age old way from a tree

The following day we took a tour on a boat around the many backwaters of Kerala including an island stop for a traditional Keralan lunch (plus a welcome cold beer) and then on to a small local village where they harvest crops such as cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric and all sorts of other common spices (I can’t remember which).

Coconuts everywhere, this one with a straw

Punting on the backwaters of Kerala

Keralan lunch with beer

Grabbed some free pinapples enroute just being harvested

From Cochin we then headed inland to the wildlife sanctuary at Periyar where we did manage to see some wild elephants but not much else. Each evening thousands of bats would fly over the town from the park to their nesting place, Bobby got pooed on which is apparently a lucky sign!

Wild elelphants at Periyar

More elelphants at Periyar

Bob gets to grips with the mosquito net

Dressing like the locals

From there we headed further south and to the coast to the cliff top location of Varkala. Our hotel beach hut was set just back from the cliff with a mile or so of golden sand below with numerous restaurants and shops strung out along the cliff top. The beach was almost perfect and the sea just about wild enough to be fun without being too dangerous. Our visit there was a little tainted in that Amber and Steve were both ill and on separate days so Steve spent most of the first day looking after Amber ( a dodgy steak)  and the last day Steve spent in bed. I think I am allergic to some types of fish rather than it being food poisoning.  Bob had fresh fish every night and was fine.

Bob loved the fresh fish

Varkala beach from the cliff

Kathakali dancer

Our hut in Varkala

From Varkala we headed back to Cochin  and then on to Goa. We travelled by overnight train to Goa and arrived at 5 am, this is nothing unusual in India, there are often dormitories on the station platforms for travellers to sleep on early arrivals or waiting for trains that leave at very unsocialable hours, we headed for one of the southern beaches called Palolem. Fortunately a 24 hour bar provided a welcome resting place and a beer (cokes for the kids)  whilst we waited for the beach to come alive and the sun to come up.  We soon found a fab room right on the beach. Sarah and I tried to get back into a bit of running and did some yoga on the beach as is customary in Goa but it was so hot, unless you were up before the sun of course.

The beach at Palolem, Goa

Early morning beach goers

Our hut is the yellow one behind Sarah

The sunset view from our veranda in Goa

Otherwise just a lazy week, a boat trip out to see some Dolphins, Kayaking, boogie boarding, swimming and sandcastles. Amber was the major instigator but we all helped in building a magnificent sandcastle one day and a monster/volcano number on another. Both met with much interest from tourists and locals alike.

Amber's sand monster

Family bike ride

A storm brewing

Steve hired an Royal Enfield Bullet for a day and took the kids (and Sarah) for rides to the nearby beaches, we all enjoyed and escaped unscathed except Bob burnt his leg on the exhaust. During the last few days of our week there was a pretty bad storm, combined with an exceptionally high tide, some of the beach restaurants were flooded and many of the boats were wrecked against each other. As our beach hut was right next to the beach we were lucky not be flooded but the sea was lapping at our veranda!

After the week in Goa we caught our final Indian train, to Mumbai.

Mumbai was a pleasant surprise, very unlike any of the other Indian cities we had visited. Yes there are the slums and the rubbish in some parts but where we stayed in South Mumbai was pretty clean, very cosmopolitan and all the old colonial buildings made it feel quite European.

This is Mumbai

Kids enjoying a Macdonalds in our room

On the boat to Elephanta Island an hour trip from Mumbai

Inside the caves on Elephanta Island

Sunset at Chowpatty in Mumbai

Trying the local sugarbeet drink in Mumbai (Amber's face says it all) but Steve liked.

Goodbye India next stop Singapore.