having one of those days

I'm feeling a little frustrated and a little stressed out at the moment!! I know, I know, it's kind of weird being stressed out when you've been on holiday for almost a year but the pressure is on.....we've got less than 3 weeks left and we want to make sure we make the most of it before heading back to reality! It also probably doesn't help that the Keralan coast is not that fantastic and we are SURROUNDED by tourists looking like they haven't seen the sun in a year who've come straight off their charter flights on their 2 week holiday over christmas and new years. I'm not being a travel snob but it's not the travelling experience that we're after on our final few weeks.

Although, we had an awesome time cruising around the keralan backwaters in our funky houseboat for a couple of days. We went straight from Munnar down to Allepy to organise a houseboat which was a bit of a hassle - peak time, prices all hiked up 3 fold, loads of tourists and about 250 boats (un)available. Found a boat by luck due to a cancellation - a 2 bedroom wooden and palm leaf woven cocoon all to ourselves and with 3 staff to cook, drive and clean for us it was all very luxurious! All we had to do was laze on the lounges and cushions and watch the coconut fields, rice paddies and village life unfold (ie: women washing/doing the laundry/bathing etc and men sitting around having chai/fishing). We also hired a small narrow boat and sat on cane chairs like we were out on an safari while a guy navigated us around little canals with a bamboo pole. He claimed that Paul McCartney and Heather Mills hired his boat last year which was an entertaining romantic thought but yeah, took it with a pinch of salt.

Then from Allepy to Cochin - tourist ville central. It's fairly interesting.....the chinese fishing nets where you can buy fresh fish and have it cooked as you like in the little stalls along the seaside, the portugese and dutch architecture, the jewish quarter, the spice market.....it's all good but just too hectic for us.

So we're going to head out of here tomorrow, escape the crowds and go north via Calicut where we will spend NY, then to Wayanard Wildlife Sanctuary.....headin' inland where hopefully there will be less ppl!! A few days hiking and wildlife spotting there before heading to Mysore, Bangalore, Hampi and up to Mumbai avoiding the Goan coastline. That's the best plan we've come up with for the moment so fingers crossed it'll be awesome!