Tour de Kerala :)

The last weeks have been a busy, but very nice for us - therefore not too much updates here..
After have some tear dripping farewells at our placements (it was quite hard after two months here!), we went to Madurai for a couple of days before we headed west to Kerala.

First stop was Kochi (after flying around half of South India!), with it's small cosy islands and the more modern mainland, Ernakulam. It didn't take too long to get into vacation - mode, and the days went by quite fast here, just checking out the area, going in and out of restaurant and stroll along the streets in a relaxed tempo :) Compared to Tamil Nadu, Kerala state is a lot more "touristified", but  we are happy that we got to experience both this, and the more rural and actual indian way of living..

Fisherman in Fort Cochin

Kind of sceptical.. 

Teapot café

Chinese Fishing nets, a fascinating fishing technique

Dal Roti, the most popular restaurant in Fort Kochin - "our pick" in Lonely Planet ;)

And it deserved it's reputation - the food was really good!

After a few days here, we decided to head southwards, to Alleppay. Here we spent a night in a housebout, just the two of us and staff - a really nice experience! More about that comes later :)
Next stop was Kollam, which we don't really have to much to say about, it was ok as an stop on the way ;)

The last two nights we went a bit further south, to Varkala. Varkala is a small town, situated along steep cliffs, and with beautiful sand beaches. Nothing wrong with that ;) We found a nice hotel, and just enjoyed the time with good food, nice beaches, the warm nice sea - and a lot of good food!
Even if it could be a place anywhere in the world (barely any indians and the same kind of shops a long the whole way), it was really nice!

Fishing in Varkala

The view from our breakfast table - not too bad ;)

The last two nights in Kerala, we spent back in Fort Cohin, at the lovely  Green Woods Homestay - the  nicest people and a really cosy place! We also got to see the traditional Keralan Kathakali - dance, where they do not speak but perform the history through motions and expressions on their faces, combined with LOUD music (drumming and singing) - as everywhere else here in India (we are suprised Indians are not  Originally the dances can last for up till 9 - 12 hours. Even if it was really interesting, we were happy they have made 2 hour performances for the tourists ;)
It was a good close up for our busy, but very nice Kerala-stay, and we are excited to head up to Bangalore the next days to see a different part of South India.

Make up - session

Sebastien found his street :) 

Relaxing at the roof top with a cup of tea :)

 - Anja