Kerala & Mumbai

Our last update before home...
We spent Our last morning at katahil lake resort doing a photo shoot for their new Internet site and brochure. They were so stoked with us doing this that they gave us 50% off our room and had it not have been for time constraints we would have also had a free ayrevedic treatment! People thought we were stars and took our photographs to show their friends and family! They were really taken aback by us helping them. The resort was new and built to assist the local village to sustain their livelihood. They thought we were doing a very noble thing but we had a ball even though I nearly tipped the canoe upside down during one of the shoots!

The houseboat was soooooo amazing! Way more than we could have ever expected! We had our very own butler as well as a chef and of course the captain..
From the minute we stepped aboad we were given flowers and coconuts..The boat was very luxurious with AC in the bedroom, DVD player, stereo systems on both decks, plasma tv, massage chair etc.. We were waited on hand and foot the entire time. Most of the days we sat on the sundeck on the roof and watched the villages as we went by. We saw ladies banging the washing, cleaning the dishes in the river and fisherman from who we bought fresh prawns for our personal chef to cook for us!
We walked through villages and bought fresh pineapples for the chef to juice for our remaining duty free vodka... At nights we lay in the open on the boat and watched DVDs, with plenty of strong bug spray on I might add!
I played the damsel in distress and had the captain kill a few stray roaches and waived to many and staring Indian on our travels...
After a day of travelling we arrive in an amazing city... Mumbai!! We shopped at the wholesale markets and ate from many hawker food stalls. We bought a toasted samosa and cheese sandwich from the road side and it was the biggest triple decker sandwich you have seen in your life!
It's a busy city but you can walk around and see all the sights here(unlike Delhi) so at least we got ourselves some exercise! We saw many sites including chowpatty beach, gandhis house, the massive outdoor Mumbai style laundry and victoria terminus - the busiest railway station in Asia..
Back to work on Monday but defintely looking forward to some exercise and vegies. Thinking I will rescheldule my wedding dress fitting by another week to give myself some time to work off these garlic butter naans and chicken tikka rolls! Jay, on the other had has finally puton some weight and is happy to be fitting into his old clothes again!
We have had a blast and can't wait to catch up and tell you our stories. See u all soon. Love jay & Rach x x

Goa & Cochin

Our time in Goa was absolutely sensational! Plenty of lying on the beach and of course plenty more eating... On Friday we rode the scooter to Ashvem beach, about 40 mins from where we were staying to spend the day there. The beach was far quieter than calangute and the water was amazing. Jay developed a heat rash so he hid under the brolly most of the time... Not me!! It was great just riding back on the scooter and stopping to get yummy indian snacks (all deep fried of course), dodging cows and playing chicken with the oncoming traffic and jay swallowing the odd firefly or two...

Friday night we stocked the bar with mixers for our duty free and set ourselves up on the balcony for a few drinks. About 11pm we made our way to club paradiso on Anjuna Beach. After many offers of cocaine and hasish we got inside to find ourselves in a sensational club right on the beach. The place was loaded with locals and europeans (mostly russian) and the music was awesome. We got home when the sun was up and felt very sorry for ourselves most of our last day in goa..Walking around later in the afternoon we felt like we were in the movie "the hangover".. All sorts of people were talking to us, saying 'hey aussie friends', 'great night last night', 'you going out again tonight?' etc. We had no idea who these people were or where we had met them! Hilarious!

The restaurant we went to most nights (maggies) had the most sensational Indian food and the waiters all knew us by name and gave us all the local tips and tricks and a brandy on the house every nightafter dinner. If you come to Goa to have to go to this place! Saturday afternoon we had our 90 minute ayrevedic massage. Wonderfully relaxing except for the occasional slap in the face, the odd scratch or poke In the eye.. My hair came out as one matted clump and I think it will remain oily for several days but at least we were relaxed!
After a yummy last dinner in goa we stocked up on Indian snacks for the houseboat, returned the scooter and said bye to our new friends then home to pack for an early night. On Sunday we had another 530am start and flew from Goa to Bangalore to Cochin. The security was full on at the airport with line after lineof checks. I think we had to show our boarding passes 7 times .. And that was before we even got to the departure gate! After a 1.5 hourdrive (non scary) we arrived at our beautiful resort. We have been treated like royalty with fresh coconut juice in coconuts bought to our room. Nothing is too much trouble for them. We are the only westerners here and we went straight to the pool to catch the rest ofthe afternoon sun ... The serenity! ...Until about 15 locals turned up with their kids yelling out over and over again at what could only have been (assuming we got the right translation) as "papa look at me, papa, papa, papa, papa look at me,papa, papa - you get the drift... (they are here on a weekend awayfrom Cochin). Our serenity turned to what can only be described as a bunch of seagulls fighting over a hot chip at the beach! :) They were really nice bunch of people that we spoke to for a while by the pool.
We made the most of what was left to the afternoon by using the peddleboats, lying in hammocks, jay doing head stands in the yoga centre and bombs into the pool. We were approached by a guy at the resort to see if we could go with him on a boat tomorrow morning to take some pics for their new brochure. I think they want to portray their image as a young, fun and westen friendly! Anywho, should be a laugh! We are leaving here at 11am tomorrow to go to our "luxury" houseboat for 2 nights (you never know what your gonna get by way of "luxury") so we are very much looking forward to that!! We are waiting for dinner now and drinking the rest of our coconut juice...

Last couple of relaxing days before we hit crazy Mumbai!

Hope everyone is well.. Jay & Rach XO

PS - Somedays I can't work out if they think I am a rock star or afreak show.. Sssooooo much staring... In fact I don't think it can becalled staring, maybe 'leering' is a better word for it?

Hello from Goa

Hello from Goa in India! We are having a very relaxing and amazing time in goa - relaxing is certainly not a word I would use to describe Delhi! Delhi sure was an experience and someone please contact the Queen and tell her to call off the commonwealth games! Your joking yourself if u think the commonwealth games will go to plan in Delhi!! :)
After our epic journey of flying to jakarta followed by a 12 hour layover in KL where we made the most of the malayasian food and relaxed with a lie by the pool, a snooze and a massage. We then had another 5 hours to Delhi where we checked into the fabulous and friendly hotel palace heights. Our first day we visited the major sites including the red fort, Jama masjid (largest mosque in India where I donned a sensational black flowery number to ensure I was well covered over my jeans and jumper!) and Chandi chowk - a crazy and at times rather frightening part of old delhi.. Our 2nd day in Delhi we went to Akshardam. With Mehul's help (thanks heaps Mehul!!) we bypassed all the queues which lemme tell you saved us more than an hour or more. This place was amazing and took 5 years and 7000 carvesmen to build. If only we were allowed to take our camera inside!!
On Saturday at 530am we made our way to new Delhi train station to catch the 615am express train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The fog in Delhi was intense.. Nothing like we've ever seen before. After being told the train is delayed by 2.5 hours, being dragged into a "government authorized" tour shop and stepping over thousands of stranded people at the train station we see the train is actually on the platfom and leaving in 3 minutes! By this time we have made a new friend, Valeria from Madrid. We jump onto the train and are told we need to go to the foreign information centre. So we run up 3 flights of stairs and it's closed! By this stage the train is leaving in 1 minute so we run back down the stairs, step on and over thousands more homeless and stranded whilst trying to be pulled to another government authorized tour desk by several people trying to "help us".. Eventually the 3 of us just say bugger it and get onto the train and we are off on our 2 hour express train to see the Taj Mahal!

The fog is so bad that it takes the train 7 hours to arrive in Agra! Our full day in Agra has become but a few hours. We have to cancel our 2 hour express train home as this is now delayed by more than 7 hours and won't be departing until 3am. It will also take another 7 hours to get back to Delhi so we wouldn't arrive until well after 10am! We hire a car between the 3 of us for the rest of the day and to drive us back to Delhi.. The Taj Mahal is THE most amazing building we have ever seen in our entire lives.. Surreal yet Sensational!After a few visits to crappy stores so our driver can get his coupons we got some more delicious food and begin our journey back to Delhi. What should have been a 4 hour car ride took 6 hours but we were happy to be alive at 1am and back in Delhi... Alive is something that at several stages throughout the journey home we didn't think would be possible. The fog was so bad that there were times we didn't even know what direction we were going or even if we were still on the road.. They all put their high beams on so they can "see better" in the fog! I think the theory is to just drive, put the high beams on, toot the horn continuosly and hope for the best! The road was jammed packed, people on push bikes and scooters, on foot and in cars and trucks. Many a time we nearly smashed straight into the back of a tractor ( no lights on tractors!) or into a person or cow trying to cross the road.. Alas, we made it alive and with a new life long friend (something only a life/death experience can provide!)

Whilst Delhi was at times crazy and overwhelming we had a super time and met some very friendly and wonderful people. We spoke to the poorest of the poor (at one of our many lengthy train stops) and jay entertained with stories of cricket and the king of captains Ricky Ponting!

Our flight to Goa is delayed by 2.5 hours (yes due to the fog!) but eventually, after a marathon couple of days we arrive in sunny Goa!Since arriving we have hired a scooter for the week, visited the tropical spice plantation and shopped at the anjuna market. We have eaten plenty of sensational food and mostly lay on the beach and relaxed. It's brilliant here, we both love it and are making the most of our time here.Over the next few days we plan to do some more lying on the beach, definitely more eating, praying that after all the eating I will still fit into my wedding dress, we will get an areyvedic massage, hopefully go to a trance party on the beach on Friday night and we fly to Cochin on Sunday for what should be a relaxing and enjoyable time away on a house boat. Tonight we have a wedding in our resort of 400 people so probably not much sleep for us tonight.. Oh well, guess we can sleep on the beach tomorrow!

Will update again from Mumbai.. Love Jay & Rach xx

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