Amazing mumbai

Transport

So we flew from Goa to Mumbai, it was cheap as there was a sale on (cost around 4000rs for both of us). We got to the airport super early in the hope of using their wifi to write blog posts and drink coffee...no such luck. Goa airport is tiny with very limited facilities.  On arrival the one cafe place was closed and the check in desk was not open. We had to sit on benches and wait for the airport to 'wakeup' although it was already 9.30am! To add insult to injury, the wifi didn't work so we had to just sit and wait!!

Lucky hotel issues

when we arrived in Mumbai we used Uber to book a taxi as it allows you to confirm the taxi price before the taxi driver sees you...definately worth it being a foreigner! He dropped us 'opposite' our hotel according to the address. The room we had booked was through a company called Zo rooms..a chain company that basically buys a selection of hotel rooms in hotels across India and then sells them as Zo rooms. The problem is that the name they give the hotel is not the same as the actual hotels name.making them hard to find..especially if they don't have a Zo rooms sign outside the front. This type of hotel chain seems to be very popular in India with other companies such as Oyo rooms and vista rooms too. 

Anyway after lots of walking up and down the street and calling the hotel we found them. We found out that they had already filled all of the rooms allocated for Zo rooms so our booking was not valid...after lots of long complicated phone calls Zo rooms moved us to another hotel..we were lucky as it was far nicer with much better facilities. We didn't have to pay any more although the hotel was advertised as the same price for 1 night as we had paid for 4 in the other place!!!

Dinner in 2 places...

After showering and settling in our luxury room we decided to try a few places rated highly locally and recommended by lonely planet. One was hotel och where we tried a pav bhaji, hot buttered bread rolls with crushed vegetables in a tomato sauce...it tasted almost similar to bolognaise!! 

We then moved onto badayami a kebab street food stall rated highly by tripadvisor..we ordered a selection of dishes and were actually extremely disappointed with this place, it seemed very hyped up for bbq meat that was rather charcoaled and tasteless. 

Day2

We decided to take it easy so woke up late, enjoyed our free buffet breakfast before heading out on a Walking tour set out in lonely planet that takes you past a lot of the major architecture. We took a leisurely pace and stopped in some cafe's (we found Starbucks!) and shops (shopping is great and cheap in Mumbai!) along the way including an emergency toilet stop at an Irish pub. 

In the afternoon we relaxed in a local park watching people play cricket! There were games going on everywhere,  and the cricket pitches were right next to the Bombay High Court. After 45 mins of watching the cricket and not really doing much we took a stroll back to the hotel where we went up to our rooftop and had a beer overlooking the skyline. After a beer we went down to get tickets for the city skyline at night tour.  It cost 360 for the 2 of us and involved the typical queuing system In India which involves people trying to push in front of you if you give them a chance.  The bus leaves at 8pm,  and they do not start selling the tickets till 7.50pm, but we were waiting since 7.40 pm. The tour takes around an hour and food was on our mind when a domino's pizza man walked past selling hot pizza and cold Coke.  A steal at 90 inr for both. We scoffed our faces on a 9 inch pizza whilst seeing the bright architecture of Mumbai.

Day 3

We had emailed a company called Reality Tours & Travel and for 3000 inr we were hosted on a tour of Dhavari slum and then a tour of a huge celebration in Mumbai, the Ganesha festival. The Dhavari tour was exceptional,  a real highlight,  it changed our opinion of the slum, everyone was happy and working hard and busy. We were expecting lots of beggars and to feel unsafe but there was nothing like that at all. Our guide was brilliant,  met us at the station and answered every question we had. Which was many. The Dhavari slum has many industries and generates around $665million a year,  so is crucial to the economy of Mumbai. Reality tours is a charity based in the slum and the tour guides all grew up in the slum. It donates a lot of its profits to helping develop the slum,  with schools and healthcare facilities as well as youth centres which we witnessed. Our tour guide was great and after our tour of the slum which took around 4 hours we went to the office to pick up the Ganesha festival tour, it was so much fun,  the whole of Mumbai is out to party,  there is dancing and music round every corner,  Ganesha statues are all over from small little ones owned by families, to large 18ft statues which are professionally painted.  All have the same goal,  the statues will be taken to the sea and submerged in the sea!  This involves lots of people heaving and pulling the statue onto a boat where it is taken to sea and submerged whilst everybody on the beach cheers and celebrates!  reality tours also arranged for everybody on the tour to try some traditional Mumbai street food.  we were loving the festival and stayed till around 10pm then walked back,  we could have stayed a lot later, the Ganesha keep coming till 4am we were told.....But it had been a long day so we trundled back to the hotel. 

Day 4

We had seen a Mosque in the sea with a nice walkway as we were driving from the airport, and it looked beautiful on the way past. So we went on a quest to visit the Mosque as it wasn't too close to the Colaba area we were staying in,  we got a train from Churchgate, and it was about a 1km walk from the train station,  but it was stiflingly hot,  when we got toward the walkway we were surprised at the amount of stalls selling rubbish gimmicks etc, it was busy, and there were beggars begging everywhere, each trying to make you feel more guilty than the last. The main memory is the smell of being surrounded on all sides by the sea in Mumbai,  Mumbai has a lot of sewer pollution in its sea, and you could smell it,  and see it on the shore.  It wasn't nice and we were glad to get out of there.

On the way back we stopped in at the Kulfi Centre for some Kulfi, which is like ice cream but harder,  it was tasty. We had pistachio and chocolate almond. Then another long walk back to the hotel to burn off the calories.

We had heard that there were many Goan restaurants in Mumbai,  and we were desperate to find one, after all the food Minni had spoken about,  we wanted to try more Goan cuisine. We found one not far from our hotel and tried Goan Sausage, Bombay duck (Not Duck its actually fish!) and pork vindaloo, another famous Goan dish. then it was off on a date night at The Taj Palace. This hotel is very famous, and we were allowed in for a few drinks, we had delicious cocktails, and the most expensive beers we'd had in India. The prices here ran in line with exclusive London hotels, but we treated ourselves, thinking of them as gifts from our Wedding day and all of our generous guests!

The Beautiful Architecture of Mumbai

The Dharavi Slum Tour

The Ganesh Festival

The yummy yummy street food!!

Lifes a Beach....Goa

 Getting There

Okay, so we took a government run non air conditioned sleeper bus from Hampi as the private bus was full, it cost us 800 INR each. Our bed was just above the axle which it turns out is the bumpiest place to be, and it also turns out the road from Hampi to Goa is a particularly bumpy road. This was capped off with an emergency door rattling and banging all night, and curtains flailing everywhere as all windows were open trying to get some heat out the bus. The bus picked us up at 7pm and we arrived into Panjim in Goa at 6am. The local buses in Goa didn't start running until 7am which was ok for us as we were trying not to arrive to early to where we were staying.

Accommodation

Couchsurfing.......this was amazing, we were lucky enough to be hosted by a fantastic host named Ajay, He and his family could not have been better hosts, and actually meeting Ajay and his family has been one of our highlights of India. We loved eating dinner with them and talking about all the differences in culture between India and England, as well as the food his wonderful wife Minnie was cooking up, she showed us how to make Aubergine curry, as well as home made chapatti's. Ajay and Minnie had two older children both in their twenties who gave us some useful tips for travelling through the rest of India, (such as using Uber in Mumbai to save endless haggling with taxi/autorickshaw drivers). Ajay helped us with booking trains and gave us some great tips on the best beaches in Goa, as we were there in the off season the tourist beaches were not all up and running and he helped us with where to go. Again, this experience was brilliant and one we cannot thank Ajay and his family enough for.

Panjim

We were staying with Ajay in Dona Paula which is a nice part of Goa, quiet by comparison, easily accessible by bus, this accessibility worked wonders for us, as the first day, we arrived in Goa, got the bus to Dona Paula, where Ajay came and picked us up and we had breakfast at his house with him and his wife. We then got the bus back into Panjim, then onto Old Goa where we looked around 5 churches in the area, all walking distance from each other, these included the Basilica of Bom Jesus. In this church they have the body of St. Francis Xavier, this is over 500 years old and is adorned in alot of decoration. From Old Goa we got the bus back to Panjim and went wandering around an area Minnie had told us about called Fortunas, in Panjim and we were advised to go to a restaurant called Viva Panjim, this was around a 10 minute walk from the bus station, across the footbridge over the canal. The food was amazing, this traditional Goan restaurant served up a fish vindaloo (Goan specific, and nothing like a vindaloo in England) and a Kingfish curry with Goan rice. It was brilliant, the tastes were amazing, and the food was great value too. 2 main meals and two beers only cost us 500 INR. We continued to stroll around Panjim until around 6pm, where we saw the church of the immaculate conception, but we got caught in a heavy rain shower which dampened our spirits a little, so we got the bus back to our hosts at Dona Paula. That evening we had dinner with the family, and spent the evening discussing all sorts of interesting topics on culture and differences

Cruising the beaches

On the advice of the family we were staying with we decided to hire scooters and go beach hopping the southern beaches. the scooters cost 300 INR a day to hire, including helmets. we opted for two scooters as neither of us had ridden one in a while. they were really easy to ride and the roads around Goa are oretty easy to navigate, all well signed etc. we rode for over an hour to get to the southern beaches we were told to check out, and then had a late lunch at a restaurant in Colva Beach. It was pretty expensive for a meal, but there is not a great amount of choice in the off season. a lot of the bars and restaurants were closed, but this did mean we were able to walk onto the beach and see nobody for miles around. The beaches were beautiful in the south, and we sat their enjoying watching the waves, there were plenty of Indians swimming in the sea, but we chose not too (most Indian women bathe in clothes so Abi did not fancy getting her bikini out to draw even more attention to us!). We sat there till about 5.30 and then started making our way back to Dona Paula, it took about 1hr 30 mins to get back, via the highway, although the highway in dimming light, and at rush hour was not so enjoyable as the ride down to the southern beaches. If we did this again, we would have got out the house earlier and visited more beaches, as we were told by our hosts that Agonda beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Goa, and their advice had been great so far. Other travellers have also highly recommended Arambol beach right up in the North but we weren't able to see it ourselves.

The Hunt for an off season Goan party

Goa is famous for parties if you didn't know, and we didn't want to miss out on this, so our quest to find one began. we moved on from where we were staying with Ajay, and on his advice went to the beaches north of Panjim to investigate, we got to Candolim beach which was quiet and very beautiful, but  no sign of any off season party. so reading through lonely planet we decided our best bet would be to get up to Anjuna beach. we took a taxi and found some accommodation, at evershine guesthouse. It was nice and clean and a good price for a double room, with solar powered hot water, which worked loads better than we had imagined.

So now we were checked in we took a stroll to the beach, and had a drink in Curlies bar, asking if there were any parties, much to our disappointment the waiters said no, not in the off season. we were there the last week of August and it was very apparent it was off season, half the beach shacks were still boarded up for monsoon. and they were being unwrapped and fixed up ready for the season whilst we were there. Anjuna beach was a long way from the nicest beach in Goa, but it was busier than most others. It had lots of cliff top bars where you could enjoy the sunset with a cold beer. (The beer in Goa is as cheap as we have found it in India). There were some great places to eat in Anjuna, one was The Burger factory. You do not see beef on the menu in India very often and this place was not cheap for a burger, but it did not disappoint. the burgers were big and full of flavour, the chips were crispy, and the atmosphere and service in this place is brilliant.
Despite being out of season, Anjuna had many other travellers, this was nice, as up until this point we had mainly just had each other for company, so it was nice to have someone else to talk to about good old Blighty, roast dinners and all things British.
It also allowed us to get lots of advice for the north of india as most people travel north to south (opposite of us) which no doubt will be very useful as we move on!

Southern Beaches, Nobody in Sight!

Gary's new friend in Anjuna

Our superb hosts! They were Great!!!

Beach Map Of Goa, it is useful to get hold of one of these ( we got ours in a bookshop for 30 INR)

Hampi

Transport

From Mysore we took the Hampi Express sleeper Train direct to Hospet (nearest stn to Hampi). We left at 18.40 and arrived the following morning around 7am. We stayed in AC3 class and found it to be quite comfortable! The a\c worked and the bedding was clean and even pressed!

Once in Hospet be warned that rickshaw drivers will come on the train and try and take your bags and offer to take you to Hampi. Don't bother the bus is really easy and of course cheap!
From the train stn take any bus that appears to the main bus station in Hospet - should only be one stop away and cost only 8 Rupees. From here you get the Hampi bus which cost about 40 for both of us.

Accommodation
Once in the bus station in hampi we had to navigate to our accommodation which turns out was on the other side of the river in....where there are lots of the tourist accommodations. We really liked it over there but be warned it is touristy with lots of hippy-type places and you have to get the boat taxi to and from Hampi. It only costs 10rs each each way, but it stops at 6pm! If you want to get across after this time it's a very expensive hand paddled boat or a long rickshaw round to the bridge which could set you back in excess of 400rs.

We stayed at Mowgli guesthouse, in a cute little hut. The place had a nice feel to it and the huts were a novel place to stay! Again our room was basic, but clean and with hot water morning and evening. We did take down there mosquito net and put up our own. But besides that it was really clean and had a lot of character.

Day 1

We arrived at our hotel around 9 am and we had a little wait for the guests in the room to leave so they could clean and prepare our room, so we sat in the on site restaurant, had an English breakfast and a couple of cups of tea. We got into the room around 11. Dumped our bags, had a shower and were out and took a stroll up to the boat crossing into Hampi town. 

We were walking around the streets seeing what was around and grabbing a few little bits of food (We tried deep fried green chilli in batter, which the Hampi locals seem to eat morning noon and night, it was quite spicy) around 2pm we were approached by a rickshaw driver offering to take us around the sights, but we had already read this takes most of a long day, so we decided to book him for the next day. 

He suggested a nice place for tourists to walk was past the Hampi police station, set in a ancient ruined building, through a large temple entrance (where we saw our first foot long millipede) and after a few minutes of walking through the boulders, which are pretty spectacular in their own way anyway, there was a giant ancient temple straight from Indiana Jones, with nobody in sight we went looking around it was brilliant, as we snapped away at the fantastic carvings and the large pillars carved over 1000 years ago, we were interrupted by a few kids, who were followed by more kids and then a huge family of around 20 or so, wanting us to take their photo. It was a bizarre experience as each one of the 20 or so in the family queued to see the picture on the DSLR's tiny LCD screen. They were overjoyed, I guess they'd not seen many DSLR's. We spent around 2 hours looking at this temple and its surroundings before we walked back to the boat to our side of the island. 

We ate the first night at a restaurant called Gopi Island, which was voted highly on trip advisor, but we didn't enjoy the meal too much, Gary had a pizza that was quite good, and Abi ordered a baked potato off the menu, and when it came it was fried potato slices. When we showed the waiter a picture of a baked potato he held his head in his hands. Whilst we realised pretty early on in the day what the north side of the island was famous for, we didn't think it would be as blatant as it was in this restaurant, there were lots of people smoking drugs and we chose not to stay too long. We walked passed the local Ganesha festival (lots of music, singing and children dancing and running around everywhere). Then walked down a dirt track to a restaurant called the laughing Buddha, here we had a beer and while there were still several people smoking, it was definitely less 'in your face' than the other place...we then headed home for our big day of sightseeing the following day.

Day 2

The next morning we were up at 7 to get the boat at 8am. When we arrived at the boat there were only a few waiting there, so the boat operators gave us a choice, we could pay double and leave, or wait for more people to come to the boat. We paid double as we could see the other side of the river was the temple elephant having its morning bath we were met by our rickshaw driver at the river and he took us around all the sites,but only after we had asked him to take us somewhere for breakfast and he took us to his street food seller who sold us some idli curry and deep fried chillies for 50inr for 2 people. It was a long day with a lot of walking, but it was spectacular. Some very old temples, old palaces, museums and many carvings of Hanuman (Monkey God). It would be worth noting that once you are in the ancient ruins there isn't many places to buy food, so take a good amount of snacks etc. This day took us from 8 am till around 5pm including a few stops for food etc. To hire a rickshaw and driver for the day cost us 800 INR. Some other options for viewing the monuments were hiring scooters or bicycles but we saw a lot of people with scooter injuries as the roads were mainly mud, and it was 35 degrees so cycling wasn't too high on the agenda. We bought a guidebook for Hampi just to give us a bit more information on what you are looking at. There is some information at each artefact, but not too much. There was a nice place on. The temple side of the river to see the sunset, which is great if you are staying that side, but if you need to be on the boat, you will not get to see it.

South of the river is a nice restaurant called Mango Tree, its definitely worth a visit, good food, nice atmosphere, helpful interested staff,and nutella! Which is in a lot of food places in Hampi, to cater for the traveller crowd.

Day 3

The next day we spent North of the river having a late breakfast, trying to chop a pineapple whilst monkeys were trying to steal it from me. Was very entertaining. Then we went and picked up some Dosas from a dosa cafe on the north side of the river, they are the cheapest dosa on the north side, but when they came out we realised they were very small, so ended up ordering two.

We then went for a stroll up the road to the north and found a few more hotels which we didn't know were there and a nice viewpoint. The afternoon was spent in cafes trying to get WiFi and eating anything with chocolate/peanut butter in it. The hunt for WiFi was important because the phone had no signal or data in Hampi and we needed to book our sleeper bus to Goa. This was an epic fail as nowhere in the north had working wifi, and we were forced to book through a travel agent who stated the private bus was full so we ended up getting the government run sleeper bus to Goa. More on that to follow, it was not pleasant.

This family asked if we could take a photo, event though they didn't want a copy

Temple Elephant having his morning bath

Ganesh statue

Giant Boulders and Temple

The Queens Hallway

The Elephant Stables

Cow in the Temple

A 2 day visit to Coorg, Coffee country

How did we do it?

We took a two day taxi from Coorg to Mysore, it was a small Hyundai car, but it was comfortable and our driver spoke enough English to converse and help us with information on the sites and temples. Coorg is known as the Scotland of India, and true to form it rained, heavy showers on and off all day. 

On the first day we stopped at the golden temple in Bylakkuppe, a Tibetan colony which set up in India after being forced out of their country. The temples are gorgeous. And these are like none of the other temples we had seen in India. The temples all had golden roofs and an 18ft giant statue of Buddha, as well as 2 other gods flanking him. After visiting the temple we grabbed a bite to eat in a restaurant across the road that was full of Buddhist monks, we chose steamed Momo's (thinking it would be good to try a traditionally Tibetan snack!). However, we waited for nearly 30 minutes for this...we weren't expecting this to take so long and eat into our day so much! Following this we saw Kaveri Nisargadhama an island formed by the river Cavery, its pretty and has lots of deers there that you can feed!

Then we were taken to Haringay Dam/reservoir on the recommendation of the tour operator, as we pulled up the security told us it was closed and we couldn't walk around the dam...Also the water we expected to see flowing out of it (as in all of the spectacular pics) wasn't there... This was frustrating but there was a sign to a local temple which was preparing for the Ganesha Festival. They welcomed us and showed us around, they were very welcoming and even realising I had a cold they told me to eat a plant used for Ayurvedic medicine.... It didn't taste too nice, a bit like tea tree. And it did make my throat hurt a little less, mostly because I was concentrating on the horrible taste in my mouth. From this we drove on to Abbey falls a large waterfall in the middle of the forest, it was rather gorgeous except the rain was trying hard to dampen spirits and we hadn't taken precaution for Leeches, a big problem in Coorg in the wet season. In less than 30 mins out of the car, I was bitten twice....Abi got away with none!

After this we had a 1 hour drive to a coffee plantation, where we were walked around and told everything there is to know about coffee, the guy taking the tour was great, and helpful, and we bought a couple of bags of coffee, this tour cost us 800 INR where we saw coffee growing, cardamon plants, oranges, and the guide told us how the wild elephants have worked out how to get through the electric fences designed to keep them away from the crops. 

We stopped in the Madekeri fort around 5pm, we went for a little walk around, and this was a bit disappointing, it was run down and not well kept as well as having a few bits of graffiti. They have a museum of Indian archaeology within the Fort which was small but had some interesting artefacts. After this we were taken to Raja Seat a view point that the Rajas used to sit at and watch the sunset. Whilst we were there at sunset, the grey fog had rolled in over the hills and the view was limited. But it was simple to see this would be a wonderful view if the conditions allowed. 

We stayed in Madekeri that night in a hotel called Madekeri Heritage hotel. At first they gave us a room with no shower (due to it being on the top floor the pressure couldn't get to the shower). They moved us out of that room to a room on the second floor, the shower worked great and the hotel was very nice and clean. They were good hoteliers besides giving us a bad room to start with they helped with everything and made sure we were ok, we didn't do too much in the evening due to feeling a bit ill. Gary ate at the hotel which was ok, and fairly priced food. The next morning the buffet was reasonable with a mix of continental and Indian options. Although the hotel we stayed in was pretty good, there isn't much else in Madekeri, so would have preferred to stay in one of many of the homestay's in the area (its famous for this!). 

The next morning we were collected at 9, taken to Bhagamandala where we saw the Bhagandeshwara Temple and Triveni Sangama (joining of three rivers - Cavery, Kannike and the mythical Sujyoti river). This is a pilgrimage place where it was tradition to wash arms and legs in the river before entry, this temple was nice but very busy in preparation for the ganesha festival. Then we were taken to Talakaveri, which is the source of the river cavery and has another temple. It also had a beautiful viewpoint at the top of a climb up 300 steps, and sure enough what was at the top of the steps but COWS. It was a little cooler at the top and so once we had cooled following the climb we were putting our jumpers on!! The temple had a washing pool, and seating area to look over the hilly scenery of Coorg.

All in all it was a fairly expensive 2 days with the taxi costing 4250rs for a non a/c small car plus hotel, food etc, but it allowed us to see the beautiful Coorg countryside and the sights it had to offer in a short period of time.

Small Village temple! looking a bit Psychadelic!!

The greenery around Coorg

Enjoying the wash in the Cauvery River

Onto Mysore...

Travel

We took the night bus from Ernakalum (transport hub in Kochi) to Mysore. We booked a KRTC bus and it turned out to be a semi-sleeper, not an actual sleeper, which basically means that it travels throuh the night and the seats recline! The bus was supopsed to be aircon, but it was extremely intermittant and we spent a lot of the night rather hot and sticky! It cost us around 1,300 Rs for both of us and we arrived having slept a fair amount so we couldn't really complain!

On arrival Gary found our hotel easily on google maps so we knew where we were going and thankfully it was not far at all. We stayed at ‘Galaxy Comforts’ a budget hotel opposite St Philomena Church. It was basic, had hot water in the mornings and was well located, so we ended up using it as our base for 4 nights.

How to do sightseeing in Mysore

On arrival we researched the hop-on-off bus tour which sounded great but after speaking to some locals and tour operators we discovered that it only really runs ‘in season’. Otherwise there are KRTC tour buses, but these start in Bangalore and despite it then driving to Mysore, it seems impossible to pick it up in Mysore!

However we did discover that some of the city’s tour companies offer private day tours of Mysore, but it follows an itinerary so your time is limited in each place.

We decided to go for it as it was cheap and allowed us to cover multiple sights easily and we had enough time to revisit the places that we really enjoyed if we felt we needed to.

The tour included -  Jagan Mohan Palace Art Gallery , the zoo, chamundi hill & nandi bull, a lunch stop (with great Thali), the famous Mahajas 'Mysore Palace' and Phillomena Church before heading to Srirangapatna where we went to the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, the fort and palace before going to Brindavan Gardens, where they do a cool music & light fountain display. Its a full day starting 9am and ending 8.30pm ish.  It costs around 200 rs pp, but we ended up paying an extra 160 as we split the trip in half finishing on day 1 at Philomena Church as it then allowed us to be in Mysore town for the illuminations that evening (Sunday)...which we were pleased we had done as it was amazing and actually only happens on a sunday night 7-7.30pm - so we felt very lucky!

All in all we were pleased with the tour and didn't feel too rushed. If you wanted to do it at a more relaxed pace then probably a rickshaw would be best.

Yoga in Gokkalum

Mysore is famous for it yoga and Aryuveda and the area of Gokkalum is where there seems to be a number of yoga schools where many people do their teacher training. So the town is very westerner friendly (although that comes at a price) and has a number of of hip Yogi Cafe’s.

We decided to try out 2 yoga beginner drop-in sessions at -Yogadarshanam (800rs). Both were an hour long and pushed our boundaries physically! The 2nd day certainly was harder with tired muscles from the day before. However,  certainly was enjoyable and relit my yoga love! (Part of the reason we wanted to give it a go here was to get the ball rolling for us to begin daily practice and consider longer courses at some point in our trip!).

Kochi and the Keralan Backwaters

Arrival in India

So we managed to get through Kochi Airport pretty quickly and changed our last few LKR into Indian Rupees (INR) we went out the exit and grabbed a mobile sim from Airtel. We'd read getting this sortred at the airport was a good idea as its not the easiest place to get a mobile sim, they need a copy of your passport and take a photo to cross reference with the passport. This took about 20 mins to sort and was up and running about 1hr later. From the exit we walked to the  right about 100 metres and found the Fort kochin bus, its bright orange!!

We were on the bus from the airport for about 90 mins before we were in Fort Kochin. You will go past lots of big bus stations, but hang on you will know when your nearly there by the increase in density of guesthouses\homestay. Fort Kochi is rumoured to be the birthplace of the homestay.

Accommodation

We stayed at a place called Allan's inn

When we arrived the guesthouse owner had come to meet us at the bus stop and showed us where to go. We stayed at Allan's inn, a budget stay, the hosts are lovely. But the time we were at the guesthouse it was getting late so we dumped our bags and Fexy made us a tasty fish curry for dinner.

Our breakfast was included which was tasty, the first day was idly and curry, the second day was pancakes with spiced coconut sugar. Fexy and Nestor really looked after us, checking our plans for each day to make sure we knew where to go, whether we needed buses/rickshaws etc.

Fort kochi
We spent the morning of our first day walking around seeing the sites in Fort Kochi, the Chinese fishing nets, the basillica catholic church ???? The church??? Then from there we hopped in a rickshaw for the rest of the day, he took us to the jain temple, Dutch palace, Jew town...... and for lunch he took us to a busy local restaurant to have our first Indian Thali. Afterwards, we moved on to a spice warehouse and ginger factory, followed by a large hand washing laundry place where all of the hotels get their laundry done...it was really interesting! He dragged us to a few shops also -Most rickshaw drivers will do this as for each of these we went into, The rickshaw driver said he gets a litre of fuel and if we bought anything he would get 2% commission. It was quite nice to know the reason they all want you to go shopping. We finished the day being dropped off at a cafe called the teapot. Where they specialise in tea, we stayed in the cafe for about an hour researching our next Keralan adventure.

Planning...
The next day we took a day off to plan the next couple of weeks of our trip. What we were going to see in Kerala and we'd read a lot that in India for some trains you need to book weeks in advance. So we tried to setup accounts with Cleartrip and IRCTC. Due to website issues and intermittent internet at our homestay this wasn't a hugely productive day. (This seems a recurring theme in budget accommodation in India and Sri Lanka.)
However for our lunch that day we went out for a walk and ended up at the Chinese fishing nets where we bought 2 Kerala fish and 3 squid. We took these to the restaurant on tower street and they cooked them in Kerala curry sauce. This was delicious. The fish cost us 500 inr and getting the restaurant to cook it was another 350 inr. This made it quite an expensive meal but you were paying for the novelty of picking your fish and taking it to the restaurant. After this we went back and continued our failed attempts at trying to book trains.

Keralan Backwaters
We booked our trip to the Kerala backwaters with Stanley Wilson tours. We didn't go to Allepy as it is very expensive and very touristy. We also read a lot about the damage the masses of motorised boats are doing to the beautiful backwaters and its wildlife. So we picked an eco-friendly boat that was based in a little village called thurovor, (half way from Kochi to Allepy- easily accessible by bus). It cost us 4000 INR for an air conditioned (at night) one bedroom houseboat tour, this includes all food and the day relaxing on the boat whilst the boat owner punts the boat or walks pulling it. This was very relaxing, sitting on the porch of the boat drinking tea\coffee, getting fed good food, and sitting on a still lake. In the evening the boat owner takes you to his guesthouse and parks up for the night, he then got his wooden 2 man kayak out and let Abi and I row around the lake. This allowed us to get up close and personal to some Chinese fishing nets. The boat was basic, no hot water, a bucket to wash with. But it had so much charm, and I cannot think of a more relaxing day than this. Just don't forget bug spray as you'd expect, the is a lot of bugs on a lake.

The next day we woke up on the boat, were given breakfast which was also tasty, then got a rickshaw back to the bus stop to get the bus back to Kochi to collect our bags from Allan's inn (They kindly stored them for us overnight whilst we were on the houseboat).
It was very hot so we ended up sheltering from the sun and killing a bit of time, by going to a restaurant on princess street to use there WiFi and get some masala chai. They agreed to store our bags if we had dinner there. We were trying to kill a bit of time as that night we were getting our first sleeper bus to take us from Ernakulam (the KSRTC bus stand - which is different to the main bus stand in Ernakulam).
We took the ferry from Fort Kochi to Ernakulam (8 Rupees for us both) and then took a rickshaw to the bus stop.
Opposite was a bar (where they sold actual beer!) where we had a drink whilst waiting for the bus, which wasn't until 23.50! But it was fun chatting to locals passing the time!

Getting to Colombo International Airport from Hikkaduwa...and our journey to Kochi!

....Where to start....

Prior to leaving Hikkaduwa I did try to do some research on how was best to get to the airport. This came up with no clear and obvious easier way of doing things, some said the train, some said the express bus and some said the local bus.

Our flight was at 14.50 but knowing Sri Lankan public transport we left early...leaving our room at 6.30 to get the 7.10 train. It was not expensive but was very busy. With us needing to stand up for the entire journey which took around 2 hrs15 mins. Colombo train station was fairly easy to navigate and the buses for the Airport park over the main road, - walk over the footbridge and you will see them all. The bus is number 187 and has airport written on it. Make sure it says airport at the front as there is a bus number 187 that doesn't go to the airport. There was plenty of these buses, coming every 10 mins we were told. (We only waited 2 minutes). It was a busy intercity bus which seemed to stop every 200 yards so it took nearly 2 hours to get to the 'airport stop' where the bus stopped at a stand in a little town near the airport without us knowing where the airport entrance was in relation to this. We tried to walk from here to the airport but Google maps wasn't working and everyone we asked looked confused or pointed in different directions, so we hopped in a tuk tuk that charged us 100 LKR. It was probably only about 500m to the entrance once on the main road, but not knowing which direction to go in the first place this was our only option with a flight to catch!

We made it and had some (although not as much as anticipated) time to kill in the airport.  We decided to treat ourselves to a much needed coffee at the airport, following our rather long journey!.....Our jaws almost dropped on the floor once we were told the prices!! It was $16 US for a soya latte and Frappuccino... we were shocked at the cost as not only was it extortionate for Sri lankan people wanting to use the airport but also for us westerners!! 

There was Wifi at the airport but it kicks you offline every few minutes and you need to log back in. Which you need to enter your passport number and Date of Birth. (You will know your passport number off by heart after 20 mins trying to use this WiFi).

Our flight was slightly delayed by about 20mins, We were flying with Sri Lankan airways who we thought were great. Despite it being a very short flight we actually still got an in-flight meal of veg biriyanni with a spiced rice pudding for desert! Their service is great.

It was a nice 1 hour flight into Kochi Airport...Taking us to the next country in our big adventure...India 

Our last Sri Lankan stop...Hikkaduwa

Transport..

Galle to Hikkaduwa should have been quite an easy trip we met our friends and decided to get the train this only cost 20 LKR. We waited on the platform! And could see that this was a busy line for travellers and we were unable to get a seat. Chatting on the platform we couldn't hear the announcements as they were unclear.

We had been told the team should only be around 20 mins, but the train stopped at regular intervals so we didn't really pay much attention knowing that we would see the station when it arrived......we were wrong. We were on the carriage in the middle of the train and if you are getting off at Hikkaduwa you needed to be on the front two carriages. (You see now why I mentioned the unclear announcements)

The train stopped for a while and we looked it the window and couldn't see why? There it moved off we looked on google maps. We'd missed the stop, it took another 20 mins to get to the next station where we went to the bus stand and hopped on a bus that went straight to Hikkaduwa. This took about 35 mintues and cost around 20 LKR.

Accomodation

We arrived in Hikkaduwa and were spotted by plenty of people trying to sell us rooms and give us tuk tuk rides to their friends homestay etc. Our friends we were with wanted a hotel on the beach as it was the last place they were staying before flying home to Slovenia. So some of us went for a walk along the beach to scout out the hotels (while some stayed with the bags) , there were some nice ones and some not so nice ones varying prices etc....I have to say that despite the town being empty of tourists and it very obviously being low season, people were not willing to budge on their high price tags and seemed to prefer their rooms go empty than budge on the price at all!!

Anyway, we eventually managed to get a room at a hotel called Buddes Beach bar & guesthouse, on the beach had sunbeds and umbrellas and was very relaxing. They were happy to do a discount due to it being low season and us needing 2 rooms. Again it was basic but fine for what we wanted.

Hikkaduwa was our last stop in Sri Lanka, so we did a lot of relaxing and enjoying the waves, had a few beers at happy hour etc. We had a meal at a restaurant called the curry bowl and it was a fair price for a vegetarian rice and curry. It was quite nice, but as with most rice and curry there is some that are delicious and some that are bland.

On our final night, we needed to visit the train station to find out some info for our train to Colombo to get the bus to the airport. We got a tuk tuk from the hotel (at Hikkaduwa beach) to the train station in Hikkaduwa town, where we found the information from the man at the station (it was around 8pm). We then went into a local Kottu shop for dinner and had Chicken /Veg  Kottu, the plate was large and delicious and probably the tastiest Kottu we had in Sri Lanka, but very spicy in comparison to most. We loved it, but our Slovenian friend who doesn't like it too spicy struggled!

Then we went home via a few tourist shops, trying to walk off our dinner. Said a quick goodbye to our new Slovenian friends and got our bags packed for our early departure the next morning to get to Colombo airport in time for our lunchtime flight.

Over and out.

A night in a dutch fort city...Galle

Getting to a Dutch fort

Getting to Galle from Unawatuna was  a quick hop on the bus, around 20 minutes, and cost around 18 LKR, it was perhaps the easiest bus journey we had taken in Sri Lanka as there was no main towns between Unawatuna and Galle. Galle is a major city so you will not miss the bus station, its huge and very busy. From the bus station is only about a 250 metre walk to the entrance of the fort. Be advised if you walk into the Fort with your large Backpacks there will be a few people offer to take you to a cheap guesthouse. 

For Galle Fort I would do your research on places to stay and ignore the people offering accommodation. The Fort area is hip and trendy, and is busy all year round so perhaps consider booking before you get there.

Accommodation 

We stayed in a guesthouse on the busy Pedlar St, called Shoba, Travellers Tree It cost us 2200 LKR (no breakfast) in the off season and this was with some bartering. A lot of rooms were asking for 3500. The room was basic, no 'working'  hot water but the bed was comfy and the room came off an internal hallway which meant ..... NO MOSQUITO'S!! All in all the room was OK, and a budget stay in the fort, we read and were told we could get cheaper places outside the walls but decided to make a night of it.

Food & Drink

Opposite our guesthouse was the Pedlars inn coffee shop, which serves good Italian coffee and a very tasty brownie. We  had been looking forward to this coffee, relaxing, reading the kindles (using their WiFi). however, shortly after receiving our beverages,  in the distance we heard drumming and lots of it...... After a short time a Buddhist festival parade was marching past us with Kandyan Drummers and Dancers everywhere and a procession of women dressed in white carrying flowers. This parade also had a helicopter which flew slowly down the street releasing flowers on the parade. This was entertaining to watch as it wasn't as poetic as the parade planners had thought. The downdraft of the helicopter sent the flowers hurtling onto the women in the parade who were running for cover (its ok.... Nobody was hurt and the ladies were laughing)

Whilst we were having our entertaining (not relaxing coffee) we read on Tripadvisor of a place called Lucky Fort. They serve a traditional rice and curry for 2. It had 10 dishes and rice which was plenty for 2 people and was only 950 LKR which is quite high for a 2 person meal in Sri Lanka but good for the fort where most restaurants are looking for 750 LKR and upwards for a main meal. Lucky fort was located about 30 metres off of Pedlar St, off a small side road near Pedlars inn.

After the meal we were stuffed and went for a walk around the Fort walls, stopping to look at the lighthouse and carried on round to the East side of the Fort walls which overlook the sea. 

There are a lot of bars and restaurants overlooking this area in the newly renovated government building on hospital street.It's pricey but has a good atmosphere and Abi had her first glass of wine for over 2 weeks!? A beer and a glass of wine set us back 1200 LKR. But with great views overlooking the harbour and being able to hear the lapping of the sea on the Fort walls, the price tag came as no surprise.

Galle Fort was lovely and a great little reminder of an old fashioned European city. It is an Old Dutch Fort after all. It has plenty of Italian coffee shops for you to relax and unwind in and a stroll around the Fort walls at sunset is a pleasant way to spend the evening. 

The glorious white sands and blue sea of Unawatuna

The bus
Thankfully we have done all of our 'long' bus journeys now and so today's bus took only around 45 mins :-) a real relief!
We stopped on the main road and were immediately approached by a tuk tuk driver offering a room in his guest house for a cheap price! (Fairly standard here).

Accommodation
We decided to go up market for our 3 nights here having had the potential bed bug scare in the last place. I was desperate for a pool I could dip into so that immediately limited our options. We ended up in Black Beauty Guesthouse. A beautiful place just over the road from the beach with beautifully kept gardens and a peaceful atmosphere. The staff just couldn't do enough to help us. It's owned by a German lady, her Sri Lankan husband and their family. Despite it being the largest place we stayed in it still maintained a real family feel to it.

The beach
Everything we had been told about unawatuna was true, the sands are white and the sea a crystal clear turquoise colour.
Bars and restaurants line the beach all serving an array of foods and drinks particularly fresh fish.
At the end of the beach there is a temple with a large Buddha that you can see from anywhere in the beach.

We spent most of our time here just relaxing and chilling out. It was more like a holiday than travelling - much needed before the infamously crazy India!!

A morning visit to koggala
We went here specifically to see the stilt fisherman in action. You have to either go very early in the morning or early evening to catch them. We were lucky that the time we went, despite it being later there were still 2 men fishing...a point to note is that they will charge you a small fee for taking some photos..
We also saw the lake in koggala surrounded by lots of wildlife and particularly lots of different birds and lizards...It was really lovely :-)

**Photos to follow**