Kerala

After nearly three days on a train (seriously), we arrived in Kochi, Kerala! It was so so different to what we had just experienced. We stayed in Fort Kochi, next to the harbour which was aligned with 700 hundred year old Chinese fishing nets. Here you could have your dinner caught right in front of you and cooked in lemon and butter in one of the stalls next door! The houses in this area is all very Portuguese/Spanish looking. Big spirally balconies, blue painted shutters. In fact, in Kerala any colour goes when it comes to your house. We drove for a couple of hours out to a beautiful waterfall one day and passed so many brightly coloured houses in shades of orange, blue, indigo, pinks, greens, any colour you can imagine! We also visited an elephant sanctuary where we got to see the elephants being washed. The highlight of my time in Kochi was probably the backwater canoe trip. We were taken through the back passages of the Backwaters, passing by small villages and spice plantations. It was a deep insight to how people live here. They use every ounce of resources, we were shown peppercorns growing on the trees, chillis, cashew nuts, tumeric and various herbs. We even saw a lady making rope from coconuts!

The food in Kerala is absolutey incredible. Seafood is definately their speciality. I had buckets of prawns and calamari. The fish above was cooked in traditional Keralan spices and wrapped in a banana leaf. It was amazing!!

We saw fields and fields of green, dragonflies, butterflies, flowers, elephants, peacocks, kingfishers, eagles and many a spice plantation, it was utterly beautiful!!