Mumbai to Malaysia

We flew from Trivandrum to Mumbai where we had an 8 hour stopover to fill.  They have a system at Mumbai airport, where you can't access the departure terminal until 4 hours before your flight. So after killing nearly 2 hours at an over priced restaurant, where we could buy a cold beer, we decided to get a tuk tuk into the city for a bit of a look around. Spent about an hour and a half being driven around, the driver took us past some of the pavement dwellers living right on the streets, very sad to see how some are forced to live. 
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur early the next morning but unfortunately the train to Butterworth that we had planned on catching, didn't leave til late afternoon and would not have got us to Georgetown soon enough. We caught a cheap domestic flight instead that got us there in good time.
Georgetown turned out to be 'tourist central', but not in a garish way, just lots of people everywhere, wandering around with their heads buried in maps. We had 4 nights there at a nice guest house. Really enjoyed the street food (literally eating out on the street in some cases!) Not like NZ where cafes have to fight to put tables on the footpath, here they just put a couple of cones in the road and set up their tables!  We checked out the old chinese 'Clan Jetties' where they still live in houses built out over the water.  The old part of Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site now, so a number of the old early chinese buildings are being restored. We also took a bus ride out to the suburbs to see a really large buddhist temple that had a 32 metre statue and a 9 storey pagoda as part of the complex. Quite impressive.
Thought we should have a couple of days in KL to check it out.  Saw some of the low lights, around our hotel area, (Chow Kit - an older area) and saw the contrasting side of things at the Twin Towers complex with all the usual high end label shops.  2 days was enough, now we are in Malacca for the night as a stop before spending our last 3 days in Singapore. Malacca sure has changed from 30 years ago when we were last here. Lots of tourist orientated attractions now, and over blinged rickshaws, but some things like the old church still look the same.
Reality is starting to sink in, our trek is nearly over...
Home on Saturday morning and looking forward to seeing family and friends again.
Hoptrek signing off.

Kerala: Alleppey, Varkala, Trivandrum

Dave's cold that he had been incubating, decided to arrive in force as we boarded our overnight backwater houseboat.  We were still also feeling a bit cautious with too much spicy food, so unfortunately most of the delicious 'typical Kerala' food remained uneaten by us.  The cook and captain had generous leftovers!  The overnight trip around the backwaters was interesting,  but could probably have been covered easily in a half day trip.
After the night on the boat we transferred to a guesthouse in Alleppey for 3 nights.  Dave was absolutely dripping with sweat as soon as he moved a muscle, so on the 2nd day of this our host took us to a local private hospital for a check up.  The charges as a foreign tourist: Consultation, ECG test and prescription charges - $8 NZ.  Unbelievable.
Moved on to Varkala, on The Cliffs, a laid back community consisting of quite a number of expats and tourists.  Found a great 'real coffee' place which we frequented for breakfast. Dave was still swallowing his tablets and sweating flat out so I had a couple of solo swims in the pool.  We were really just taking it easy and filling time until our flight out of  India.
Short taxi ride down the coast to Trivandrum for our last night in India. Our hotel was gorgeous, had a swimming pool and was also close to the beach, so we spent some time watching the local fishermen pulling in nets and launching their boats. It was a real spoil for our last night.

Fort Kochi (Cochin)-our luck ran out!

A 4 hour train ride this time which made a nice change from 6 to 7 hours on buses.  Had a meal in the hotel restaurant that night, but neither of us particularly enjoyed it and didn't actually finish it. An hour later and Dave was sitting on the toilet, soon after that I was in there bringing up more than I had just eaten!  Followed by several more visits during the night with action from the other end.  It seemed a bit quick for the hotel meal, so we are tending to think it may have been a dodgy biryani we both ate at the train station before we left Calicut. 16 days without trouble, odds were that something was bound to catch us eventually. Whatever the cause, it wiped us out for our first day here in Kochi. We booked another night to compensate. Back on track this morning we ate a plain omelette each and set off to explore the town.
We headed for the harbour to watch the fishing nets in action.  Amazing contraptions, all counterbalanced with rocks and sort of cobbled together with various poles lashed together with ropes.  Dave got called in to try his hand at pulling a net in. Quite sad to see the size of fish that they catch (and keep) as it isn't the best season right now.  After that, as we wandering along the waterfront, we were intercepted by yet another tuk tuk driver, offering a tour of the town for 50 rupee ($1) in his 'Indian Ferrari'.  An offer too good to refuse in the heat, and we weren't exactly full of energy after the previous night and day.  The driver had really good English and showed us around lots of interesting places many of which had Portugese and Dutch heritage.  Some of the approx. 500 yr old Portugese warehouses are still being used for spice warehouses today.  Showed us a co-op where a certain caste of people do handwashing in a big complex.  Lots of old fashioned prop lines for drying, and then to top the manual process off, they still use heavy old irons with hot coals inside, to do the pressing. Of course his tour also included a couple of handcraft etc shops. Everything is so gorgeous it is hard to resist, and they all have a pretty good line of patter too...
We have booked in for an overnight cruise in the backwaters, starting at lunchtime tomorrow, so here's hoping the boat is actually as nice as it looks in the hotel brochure!

Mysore and Calicut

Arrived in Mysore after our 7 hour bus trip.  It's amazing how the bus drivers handle their vehicles, they are never content to sit behind a slow vehicle,  they just pull out to pass in the most unimaginable places, tooting their horn flat out. Most of the time a gap just seems to materialise for them.
First traffic lights we have seen in India!
Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the bus station.  Long enough to be propositioned by numerous tuk tuk drivers, one of whom gave us his card and a good price for a tour. Decided to just have an easy day first up, so walked to the zoo and spent about 3 hours wandering around there. Nothing particularly unusual there but it was well laid out with about 5 km of paths to wander around. An easy way to spend the day.
The next day we phoned our tuk tuk guy, who sent his brother to do the job.  He took us up the Chamundi Hills which had a famous temple,  plus a great view back down over Mysore. On the way up he offered Dave a go at driving the tuk tuk.  After a couple of kms and a few crunched gears he took over again.  We then got taken around a series of various 'handcrafted' factories. They were in an older part of Mysore so we got to see some interesting sights between visits. Watched them hand rolling their local 'beeti' cigarettes (all natural tobacco, no additives!) Amazing speed and all the same size, could roll up to 2000 a day. Next was an essential oils place where there was also a woman hand rolling incense sticks.  It looked simple, but I discovered, when I had a go, that it obviously takes a lot of practise. She could roll up to 2500 a day. Then on to the obligatory arts and craft place where we actually went a bit mad. So many beautiful scarves, pashminas, jewellery etc.  Picked up some scarves and a beautiful turquoise and silver bracelet. Just as well it is not much longer that we have to drag our packs. We have been quite restrained (or constrained, due to pack size!) up to now. Next was a sandalwood factory where we managed to resist buying anything. Finished off the day with a wander around the Mysore Palace, another example of faded glory. Unfortunately we weren't able to photograph inside as some of the ballrooms and state rooms were still impressive.  The cost for the tuk tuk for all this touring around for 5 hours or so.... 200 rupee ($4) - we actually gave him an extra 100 rupee as he had been a good tour guide.
Mysore to Calicut (Kozikhode)
Another luxury bus trip. Only 6 hours this time, but it had other challenges! We looked out of the window at one stage and realised we had been climbing, and were now at the very top of a large hill.  Going down involved negotiating 9 hairpin bends, some of which the bus had to back up and take a second stab, before getting around.  Sweaty palms until we had safely made it down to the bottom. We also drove through a National Park / Reserve, and could see spotted deer and a few monkeys as we went along.  Calicut was just a staging post on our way to Fort Kochi, not really a must see destination.  Nevertheless we went for one of our wanders and found ourselves walking through what seemed to be a vegetable wholesale area full of trucks and people staggering around with sacks of produce on their heads and shoulders.  Really interesting, but really dusty and smelly too. Finally found the beach we had been looking for, then, having had enough of the sun we headed for a nice air conditioned mall to have lunch.  Next stop Kochi.

Mangalore

Arrived at 10pm after our 8 hour train trip.  Hotel seemed okay, but the bedding felt damp. After a couple of days we were noticing a very mildewy smell each time we re-entered the room. Only 3 nights /2 days here. The first day we just felt like wandering around the city a little and found our way to the bus station to check out our trip to Mysore. Meal prices were less than in Colva Beach, not such a tourist oriented place.  Lots of universities here.  Decided to do the taxi tour thing again but got a bit caught out by doing more kms than the standard allowance. Put the price up by $10 but still very reasonable.
We did quite a circuit going to see an old Jain temple - 'Temple of a Thousand Pillars', then a 42 foot statue- also Jain related.  After that we headed back towards Mangalore taking in the beach and 3 more temples. 
1st built around 1000 AD
2nd was newly opened in 2012
3rd built in the 900s
I think that is enough temples for now.  We always feel a bit intrusive amongst the devotees who are worshipping, although we are welcomed to go in.
Luxury bus to Mysore, air con, reclining seats, with cockroaches in the upholstery.  Bit of a hairy trip through the National Park area, reminded us of Albania.  Safely arrived in Mysore, hotel good, sheets dry.

Goa

Apologies for the lack of blog since our arrival in India.  For the IT capital of the world it seems to have slightly dodgy wi fi services so far.  Anyway, communication issues aside we have been enjoying India most of the time.  Sometimes the heat and the dirt gets to you, but that's just the way it is.  Being the rainy season the humidity is pretty high as well.
We stayed at Colva Beach for 6 nights.  Took a taxi ride to see the Northern beaches and Old Goa and the Fort one day and then another taxi ride the next day to visit a few temples and historic mansion house.  Apart from that we went for walks up and down the beach, dodging rain as we went, not always successfully, but you dry off quite quickly. In amongst all that we had some lovely food and got to know the next door restaurant staff quite well.
Took a train ride to Mangalore, 440 kms for $1.30 each.  No frills, but not uncomfortable. 8 hour trip.  We met a lovely Indian couple and they made suggestions for the rest of our Indian travels.

Arrival in India

Just about to have a sleep, it has been a long day since we arrived at Heathrow and then flew to Mumbai and on to Goa.
We thought we would be clever and get a Tourist on Arrival visa as we are NZ citizens and can do that.  Didn't figure on it taking over 2 hours to complete  the process though.
Still, we have made it to our Colva Beach hotel and will kick back for a few days now.
Photos later when we have done some exploring.