Lots of time at the beach swimming and reading

Merry Christmas

Spent the day on a sun lounge underneath a beach umbrella on Unawatuna Beach, having the occassional swim.
Vegetable and chicken filled rotis for lunch.

The night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house nothing was stirring except some geckos and tuk-tuks playing Christmas carols.
We are down at Unawatuna Beach near Galle for Christmas and New Year.
Busy here lots of euros escaping winter not sure why you would want to avoid minus 3 degrees Celsius.
Special Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel tonight - roast turkey and bum burning curries.

The Berry of Sri Lanka

Kirk has coined this term for the fort area of Galle.  I think he is exaggerating but there are quite a few chi chi shops.  At least there are plenty of coffee shops making him an espresso so he can't complain.
We took a lovely walk along the ramparts of the fort today - the fort walls protected the fort area from the tsunami in 2004.

Galle

We caught the train down the west coast from Colombo to Galle this morning.
Given that we managed to negotiate India without public transport, this was our first foray on public transport in Sri Lanka.
Although the train allegedly originated at Colombo fort station where we were getting on, the locals obviously knew to jump on board earlier to get a seat.
Therefore when the train arrived it was already packed.  We did mange to get a seat after an hour and it was a very pleasant journey along the coast.
We are staying in the fort area of Galle which has lots of pretty Dutch colonial buildings.

Colombo

We arrived in Colombo yesterday.  We have never seen so many duty free stores selling white goods when arriving at Colombo airport.  We resisted the temptation to buy a fridge and bought gin instead.
Sri Lanka seems nice so far.  The people are very friendly even though we just beat them in the cricket.
Some sightseeing today then off to Galle tomorrow.

Varkala

Kirk is certainly channelling his inner hippy here.
We are now in Verkala, a beautiful beach with the town on the cliff tops.  Lots of hippy clothes, jewellery and trance music.

Some backwater cruising

Took a houseboat cruise on the Keralan backwaters today.
Looks a bit more like Venice now except with rice paddies and coconut palms.
Not a gondola in sight - just lots of houseboats.

Alleppey - the Venice of the east

We arrived in Alleppey this afternoon.  We are staying in a restored colonial house near the beach.  It doesn't quite look like Venice here as the backwaters are  by definition a bit inland and Venice has fewer coconut palms.  We will do a reconnaissance mission tomorrow to find a nice houseboat.
We caught up with friends Jane and Tony for dinner last night in Fort Cochin - nice to see familiar faces.
The duty free gin is keeping the malaria at bay....

Goats rather than cows

The streets of Fort Cochin appear to have random goats wandering about.  I assumed they would end up on the dinner table.
Did some touring about Cochin today via tuk-tuk.  Went to the Dutch Palace and jewish area (as well as too many handicraft shops).
Off to Alleppey tomorrow.

Cochin

We are now in Cochin in Kerala.  We are staying in Fort Cochin a quiet colonial area with old Portuguese buildings.
Weather is still a balmy 34 degrees but no swimming here.

Having a local indian white wine watching the sunset over the water.  The wine is surprisingly drinkable and reasonably priced.
Kirk tried the local spirit called feni made from the cashew apple - not too much like fire water.

Having a local indian white wine watching the sunset over the water.  The wine is surprisingly drinkable and reasonably priced.
Kirk tried the local spirit called feni made from the cashew apple - not too much like fire water.

Another busy day at the beach

Day spent at the beach and then an open air hatha yoga class in the late afternoon.  Kirk cheating in the breathing and chanting exercises.
The cows arrive at the beach mid afternoon for a siesta and check out the surf.  Haven't seen them venture in and get their udders wet.

Palolem beach

Arrived today in the southern beach town of Palolem.
Very chilled here.  Kirk has bought some hippy pants to wear to yoga and where we are staying serves lavazza coffee.  KIrk is a happy boy. 
Water is about 28 degrees.  The beach is lovely.  Only way you can tell that it is an Indian beach is the odd cow wandering along...

Old Goa - the Rome of the east

Today we took an autorickshaw (tuk-tuk) ride to the old capital which apparently used to be larger than London and Lisbon back in the day.
Now it is a world heritage sight filled with churches.
We are enjoying India so far. Different food, alcohol freely available and hardly anyone smokes.
Off to the beach tomorrow.

Panaji

Namaste
We arrived in Goa this afternoon after a flight via mumbai.
We are staying in Panaji the capital of Goa.
It is like a country town with lots of gorgeous portugese colonial buildings.
We are aclimatising to the indian bureaucracy of lots of forms with carbon paper.
Yummy goan prawn curry for dinner tonight