Finally relaxing ...

Well I think we are all finally relaxing after 5 days in this place. Its a real slice of unreality - a proper holiday. Our pace has slowed down and we are not doing much - a good thing I think. We had a chat yesterday about the things we may do and started to plan the next six weeks a little. We are planning to have a six day excursion, which includes a night on a house boat cruising the back waters, traveling through a natural wildlife area - hopefully to see wild elephants and other animals, a visit to a spice farm and a tea plantation, a night in a hill station (Munnar) and ending up in Cochin. I think we will probably stay here for another week before we go off and do that.

Sati is joining us on the 24th November in Goa (we're so excited!) so we will have a couple of weeks before that to explore some of Karnataka - maybe around Mysore/Bangalore area - we want to be there for Divali as they don't celebrate it much down here apparently

Life here is very simple, we get up and eat - me and Mark have fresh fruit salad (papaya, mango, pineapple, banana, coconut), fresh fruit juice, mint tea and the girls egg and toast and mango juice. Then we may go down to the beach to play in the waves, then head back to our rooms for when it gets really hot, maybe read a little, write, play the guitar etc, then lunch (rice and dhal, or chicken and chappattis)followed by siesta. Mark and me usually still sleeping when the girls make their first visit of the day to the internet cafe to msn their friends - we have finally given into their demands for MSN to help them keep in touch with their friends. Then it's time to retire to a restaurant for our evening meal, perhaps vegetable curry and fish, after that we all visit the internet cafe and stroll around and then bed! We are trying to figure out how to have time to fit in the cookery class, massage class and massages and elephant ride trips that we want to have before we leave here - but as you can see, where will we find the time!

We have found a great cafe - called the 'Funky Art Cafe' - great people and fantastic food. The guys who run it are really friendly and good company - they are organising our trip for us, and we also met a Mexican and Spanish couple there last night who we had a good chat with. We are beginning to talk to people, met an English guy teaching in Trivandrum and that was nice. We have also made friends with one of the girls who sells stuff along here, bought some clothes from her brother's shop and then we met her selling the next day - we sat chatting with her for some time, the girls bought ankle chains and I bought sarongs. As we walked back to our hotel with her, a policeman came along and took her away - she came back in tears and he had confiscated most of her stock, she got it back later (for a 'fine'). She ate with us last night and listened delightedly to "Kushi Kubhi Kushi Khum" on the ipod ( the soundtrack of a Bollywood movie that we love and she does too). It was interesting listening to Melissa making friends with her (which she is very good at) most of the 'normal' questions that she asks people to make friends didn't work - what music do you like? Do you have a game boy? What TV programs/bands/brands etc do you like. Her name is Sosa and she is 10 years old - Mark will put a photo of her on here when we get a chance - she goes to school in Karnataka - where her family lives - for eight months and then comes here to work in her brother's shop.

There are lots of very relaxed and friendly dogs around here, loads of puppies, so eventually Mark has had to relax his 'no touch' rules as me and Rosa simply couldn't comply - he even stroked a tiny puppy himself yesterday. They get treated very well and my observation has been that the Indians (at least around here) have a very live and let live attitude to animals in general. I'm desperate to get hold of a bird book as their are so many interesting birds to see. It's strange being by the sea and there are no seagulls at all or anything we recognise as sea birds, but there are these enormous and beautiful sea eagles wheeling around everywhere, with their white heads and red backs. I have also seen a kingfisher, a hummingbird, chipmunks, lizards and massive bats (look just like the batman symbol!)

Must go now as I've left the others sleeping to come and do this and now breakfast is calling. Hopefully Mark will be able to get some photos up on here soon so that you can see some of what we are gushing on about! Speak soon

- Heather