We, myself and my friendAnnie,had a fantastic holiday in Kerala. I love the place. It seems to be a bit cleaner and the people of course speak English fairly well. We went by train down to Cochin and were met by a driver. We then went to the Taj Cochin which was wonderful as I have never been to a 5 star hotel before so I did feel like a God!!

I was still coughing when we got there and when we were having dinner the waiter went out and brought me a concoction of ginger, spices and hot water to help settle the cough down.(no charge) How kind. We then went touring around and over to FortCochin to see the old Jewish Synagogue which was fascinating, including the old tiling and architecture. I am really fascinated by history and enjoyed all that we saw.

By the way I bought a wonderful book on Maharajas at Spencers Bookstore. I havent read it yet as I am saving it up for a rainy winters day. It has pictures of the jewelry they wore and other details which I am looking forward to reading all about.

We then went to Munnar (4 hrs.) by car and saw the tea plantations etc with lovely scenery and stayed a night at the hotel. While we were there our driver suggested we drive up a mountain then walk to see God on the mountain opposite. I said I wasnt interested so my friend Annie went. Lots of people were going up in this little bus. Anyway when they got there Annie was straining her eyes on the other mountain looking for the shape of God or Jesus anywhere. She couldnt see anything and asked the driver was he a Christian, Muslim or Hindu God as she thought she might have been looking for the wrong shape. Anyway the driver looked at her and said no God, God and then finally Annie thought for a few minutes about his accent and realized he was saying GOAT. Apparently there is a rare goat there that is only in New Zealand and this part of India. Of course the goat wasnt there either and you have to be there at the time they choose to walk along the mountain path!!! Anyway people were paying to go up and hopefully sight it. I laughed and laughed when Annie told me and we always think affectionately of a Christian, Muslim or Hindu Goat walking the mountain path.

After that we went to Periyar (5 1/2hrs) a wonderful Resort that was near a Spice Plantation that we went to visit. Fascinating as I have never seen most of the spices that we use actually growing and they had a big variety. They also had two elephants there but if you wanted to ride them they had an old scungy mattress which they threw over and it didnt look too good so I chose not to.

The Resort we were at had some two female Indian classical dancers doing some traditional dancing at night with some musicians which was just fantastic. They also had a Potter and a weaver there during the day and you could have a go at the craft. I did a little square of the weaving and of course bought a little container that the weaver had done.

We then went onto a houseboat and sailed for a day and a half to Allepy. This was a wonderful experience as well. We had a cook on board and everything there was so much better than I ever expected. I thought it would be very basic but it wasnt and even had a western toilet (catering for the tourists).

We stayed on the boat for a day and a half till we got to our next stop. On the way we stopped at the cooks village and went and met his family in the street and went for a walk around with him. One little boy who spoke beautiful English wanted to be a Doctor and another wanted to be a Policeman. They both spoke English really well. We were then met by the driver again and driven for about 5 hours, with a morning tea break, to Kovalam.

We arrived at this beautiful resort called Hotel Leela which was on the beach, another 5 star resort which was luxury for me, a glimpse into how the rich live all the time. Of course our tour company would have got a good discount for us. We really enjoyed the stay there and every day went down to he shops along the beach and ate dinner there as we made friends with one particular caf owner that served beautiful fresh fish and was not expensive too dear to eat at the resort. During this time there was a special festival in a neighbouring village so we went there. There were eleven elephantsyes eleven..all done up with their special decorations. They came down a small street and then into a square in front of a temple where all the people were sitting on a sloping hill opposite where all the elephants lined up. I was of course in seventh heaven as I had never actually seen a parade of elephants so it was great. The local villagers were very friendly and making a space for us to sit even though not many there could speak English. A local wealthy man had paid for all the food for the villagers at the celebration.

We also went into Trivandrum and had a look around and saw the Temple of Padmanabha. .