After Ooty we wound our way down the mountain into the searing heat again and through to Mysore known for it oils and spice trading.

]

Ooty

From Kochi we travelled to Ooty a hill station high up in the Nilgiri Hills by train and then Bus which was a long and arduous journey, but worth it in the end!

sleeping quarters in the train

Ooty Botanical Gardens

Out guided trek through the Ooty tea plantations

Tea fields, the trees almost look like something out of a Dr Zuess book

View from the summit

Tea with milk

Dunsanddel Tea Estate

Kochi

Through university Nicole had managed to make a contact through a tutor whose parents lived in Ernakulam a short drive away from the main centre of Kochi. We decided this would be a good place to stay for a few days to relax and regather ourselves especially considering I hadn't been feeling too well. They turned out to be very nice people and welcomed us into there home. I felt a little bit restricted though as we had been on our own for so long and suddenly we had the presence of a surrogate mother and father looming over us. You can just never quite feel at ease when your in someone else's home. The feeling of freedom I had been experiencing was not there. Anyway George the father had been a professional criminal photographer and was able to take some great shots of us as we explored Kochin. The second day after we had recovered a bit we were taken to see the elephants being bathed, which Nicole was not so fond of as the elephants were held in captivity. After this we headed to a "nearby waterfall" which was actually about 3 hours away. Not so good when both of us were still feeling a bit queasy. On the way we also had a minor crash into two people on a motorbike. They went flying, but there was no damage to the motorbike only to the car. The car happened to be one George had borrowed from his friend for the day, which was unfortunate. Anyway all it took was the the slip of 200 rupees into the mans pocket and the problem miraculously disappeared. If only you could do this in NZ. The waterfall turned out to be very cool and we got some great shots. The monkeys were also highly entertaining.

Varkala beach

After departing the serenity of Kovalam beach we took our chances and headed up the coast to Varkala beach. Supposedly it was meant to be less touristy, but what we found was the exact opposite. The prices were triple what we had seen in other places and more expensive than Kovalam beach. However, we did manage to find some cheap accommodation at a place slightly further back from the beach for about 150 rupees a night. The beach itself was nice, but the current was very strong and it was not the best for swimming, not bad for sunbathing though. The town itself was more interesting perched along the top of a cliff overlooking the Arabian sea. This provided some great views of the sunset, but we found it to be quite windy. Atop the cliff we sat and enjoyed some drinks at a quite reasonable 150 rupees each. For dinner I ordered a sizzler which is basically a selection of vegetables, chips and a veg pattie covered in sauce which comes out served in cabbage leaves on a steaming hot plate. Anyone who travels to India must order this at least once!