Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

DAY 20 Kerala to Delhi Today we say goodbye to our driver Mahesh who has driven us with such care over 2000 km's around southern India. Funnily enough when people say there are no rules on the road in India, they are wrong. There are rules, but just different ones to the ones we know! We saw only one minor accident, and one roadkill - a dog. They drive with aggressive patience and they expect to meet hazards on the roads ....Driving was slow, either because of the pot holes, steep inclines and hair pin bends, or because of the oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road... We saw no evidence of road-rage and they are brilliant at judging spaces and squeezing though the most improbable places...Once we opened our eyes and stopped squealing at every near miss, we really enjoyed our drive time - Thank you Mahesh! Our trip in India has reached the end for some of us and we are all off to different places... A huge thank you to Miss India for allowing me to gate crash her Fab India ...

DAY 18 / 19 Kovalam, Kerala, INDIA We set off for the 85 km trip to Kovalam along past the rice workers on the road, bagging up the dried rice, their bright shirts as cheery as their smiles... We love the Indian people, even when life seems in a right pickle, there is still something to grin about... Traveling back through the town of Alleppy we spot the giant house boats popular for cruising along the backwaters..... Kovalam is a popular beach area overlooking the Arabian Sea. We stop off to take in the views and the sunset from Lighthouse beach and explore a hotel that one of our group had enjoyed 30 years ago. Little had changed in the intervening years and despite initial plans that we might also stay, we decided to move on. Hotel Niraamaya, Kovalam is very nice..... With a gorgeous infinity pool overlooking the beach, a perfect place to relax for a couple of days.... We take a trip into Kovalam to The Leela for cocktails Aargh, this is the life..... Little Wandering Wren Location...

DAY 17 - The turn off the main road to Emerald Isle looks improbable. We crawl along a small road half covered in rice, it doesn't inspire confidence that we are either on the correct road to a lovely resort, or that this is the path frequented by many on their way to enjoy the Kerala backwaters.... At the end is a small village stall and the road disappears into paddy fields...We park outside a house with huge wrought iron gates and enter a scruffy backyard, edge our way along the garden, past the kitchen, bathroom, goats and chickens to find ourselves on the edge of a river with a dug out canoe... We load all the suitcases and all of us, onto the small boat, wave goodbye to the driver and a boatman paddles us across the Pamba river to the historic wooden bungalow of Emerald Isle, which even from the river looks impressive with it's large orangey-pink painted frontage and landing dock. There are just 5 guest rooms around the sprawling verandah and one cottage and we have hit ...

DAY 16 - Catch of the day... Take a 4 hour road-trip, add in a mountain descent with ever increasing traffic, mix with traffic chaos in Cochin, an incorrect hotel address and 6 hours later we are happy to arrive at our destination... Cochin 'Queen of the Arabian Sea' The Grande Residencia in Fort Cochin is an heritage hotel in a Portuguese style, set around a swimming pool and garden. The sort of place that you immediately feel at home at. We all managed to completely flood the bathrooms, and we waited an eternity for a very average seafood dinner but it had an endearing charm and we would rebook to revisit if in the area.... There were suddenly a lot more western tourists around, although according to the local traders, business was down and may account for the rather keen attempts by the shop keepers around the Jewish Quarter to entice passers-by into buy. The Fort Cochin area had some interesting Colonial back streets to explore.... It is a short walk to the sea front and...

DAY 15 - Anyone for a drink? We head off in our van to the Kanan Devan Hills Tea Plantation and museum. Where we learn all about the history of tea which originated in China in the 4th century, but dates back to the 1880's in this area. Tea grew in popularity as... ...The affordable drink for the common people Tea plantation at Munnar, Kerala India We get to see the manufacturing process which looks largely unchanged.... This KDH tea company was previously owned by the Indian multinational conglomerate TaTa Group, however they sold out at the time of depressed tea prices in 2005....Life in the hills has turned a full circle each employee is now a shareholder in the Company that their fore founders helped to build.... The tea shop.... Where we can buy: Tea "The cup that cheers but does not inebriate". this was the slogan promoting tea as an alternative to alcohol, mid-19th century; associated with the temperance movement. We explore the hill station of Munnar itself, wh...

The Niligiri mountain railway train between Ooty and Coonoor takes 45 mins through the tea plantations and tribal villages. It was built in 1886 and the Ooty - Coonoor link completed in 1908. Very little has changed since this time - hard wooden carriage seats .... and a bargain of a ride at 3Rs. At it's steepest there is a gradient of 1:12, Ooty is 7728 ft above sea level. The Niligiri Mountain railway We are joined in our carriage by a group of women from Bombay they tell us on a girls holiday...they are dressed with heavy scarves & thick shawls matching their outfits. They are a jolly bunch, shrieking and giggling when we go into a tunnel when one of them is leaning out the window to take a photo.... There is some discussion as to whether they are with a religious group.... Arriving we head to our new found favorite coffee stop Cafe, Coffee Day to fortify ourselves for the long drive ahead. The drive is supposed to take 6 hours according to our schedule but we eventually ...