Kerala; God's Country, Thiruvananthapuram, India

Luxury night bus to Trivandrum - yeh right!

We left our host in Pondicherry with nervous excitement. Having said never again (after our Auckland to Wellington trip) we reluctantly booked a night bus south to Trivandrum. On boarding we were so excited, our sleeper class had an upstairs double bed, blankets and free water! Yay!! But…. It turned out to be the worst night ever! Auckland to Wellington was a breeze compared to this. The bus powered through the night over millions of pot holes and tactically our bed was at the back of the bus we FLEW at least 30cm high after each hole. 


Early in the morning as our bodies ached and we tried to open our swollen eyes, the bus stopped. After some confusion (lack of English) we gathered the town was striking and we must get on the public train.

Vakala Beach, Kerala 

Backwaters tour from Kochi

We survived the slow train trip and from there managed to find a local bus to take us to our next couchsurfers. Because of the strikes buses were limited, unbelievably over 100 crammed into the 40 seater bus. It was almost lunch time and 37 degrees as the bus departed. Quickly we approached the strike and passengers closed the metal shutters to avoid flying rocks. 
Kara had one leg in the air and an elbow in her eye, John got off lightly with just being squished! The worst part was not actually knowing where to get off the bus!

We did make it, and after a nap spent a fun night with a group of Indian rocket scientists (think four Raj’s from the Big Bang Theory) their friend the policeman and three Spainards we found, gorging on south indian foods. 
The following day the strikes were over and no one really new what they were about. 

(Now would be a good time to mention India actually has heaps of official languages and each state has its own language so its quite common that generally people have no idea what’s going on). 

Backwaters, Kerala

From Trivandrum we went north on a general class train ticket (so yes- eight people to a four person seat and three standing on your feet balancing themselves against your knees) to a deserted Varkala beach and spent the evening in a guest house overlooking the ocean. 

Backwaters lunch! 

The area was literally empty of any tourists and eventually we found a small shop that was just closing where we could buy half a kilo of buja mix for dinner. We raced back to our guest house just before the power went off for the evening!. From Varkala we selectfully reserved sleeper tickets with more room and went via train to Kochi. We have spent the last 4 nights in Fort Kochi a small historical port settlement that was built by the Portuguese and Chinese.

A very expensive Henna

Kochi is a tourist hotspot, we spent a day exploring and walking the unpaved streets, and another day in the Kerala backwaters comfortbaly being paddled on the large house boats through the most unclean water we have ever seen. The tour was mucho relaxing and we even got to see a huge water snake!! Soon after arriving in Kerala the rain came! Hard, fast and heavy! Lasting anywhere between three to seven minutes once or twice in 24hours. It is very exciting –experiencing the early monsoon, which brings a light cool breeze carrying smells of fish fry and wet coconuts. The big rains then arrived, around lunchtime on Sunday and didn’t stop. 

Locals working the boats

Naively we thought it would be fun to go and play in the rain and grab some dinner! About 15minutes later we were drenched, our phone was destroyed and nothing was open! (One of the initial advantages of the rain is that it clears the air so your skin can avoid the lather of dust which accumulates as soon as you step outside)

Below is a quick video we took prior to the phone extinction (turn up the volume). Deflated we returned back to our homestay with only several cold somosas and a bottle of the local toddy. Toddy is an awful smelling, tangy and bitter tasting alcoholic beverage harvested from the flower on a coconut tree. When super fresh its still lukewarm and has around 5% alcohol volume. Over time it ferments and within 12 hours can reach 20% alcohol volume.   

Chinese fishing nets on the waters edge

On Monday we cancelled our hike to Munnar (sad face) because there's too much rain and the passage will be too dangerous. Now we are heading north to Goa (happy face) to avoid the rain. 

We’ll see how we go with the train tickets, its an over night journey on the train- god safe us (and India) if its worse than the bus.

Tot siens
John and Kara

John and Kara from the boat