Here's the last week in a bit more detail then...
We're in Kerala now, which is a state on the south west coast. It's very laid back with lots of palm trees and bananas! We flew from Delhi to Kochi on Friday morning. Kerala is predominantly Christian so at last Jo had the chance to visit a couple of churches, instead of temples. We had a walk round the area of Fort Kochi (the town of Kochi is split up into mainland and islands; we were on an island) and saw the Arabian Sea for the first time - a nice change from the cityscapes we're used to. Unfortunately the monsoon started that night in Kerala and the place got flooded.
We left for Kumily the next morning. Kumily is a town inland, near the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a very chilled out few days staying in a lovely homestay. On the first night, we watched Kathakali - a traditional temple dance enacting out a play. The next morning, we went to an elephant sanctuary where we took an hour's ride, after which we were very sore! We watched the elephant (called Veena - Pragya's mum's name!) perform timber rolling and then had a go at feeding her. We rolled up our trousers and got stuck in to help scrub her in the pool. The elephant absolutely loved it! We were a bit apprehensive about the next bit - it was now the elephant's turn to wash us... Jo went first and sat on top of her. She collected water in her trunk and then chucked it all over Jo - it was very cold and powerful! This was repeated several times so by the end it Jo was absolutely soaked. Then it was Pragya's turn and by the end of it all we were freezing, especially in the auto back to the homestay. In the afternoon, we walked to a viewpoint on top of a hill, overlooking the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. The next day, we got up early to take a boat trip on the lake inside the Periyar sanctuary. It was a long (2 hours of just bobbing along) and tiring ride, but we did see a few wild elephants, bison and deer from far away. That afternoon, we were taken to a tea plantation where we had a look round the factory and grounds. It was very interesting seeing the long intricate process involved in making a cup of tea. We also went to a spice garden which had a huge variety of edible and ornamental plants growing in it. It was lovely and colourful with lots of arty photo opportunities. That evening we were taken to the 'Campfire Cafe' for a south Indian cooking class. We got to work chopping up beans and okra, grating coconut and undertaking the very laborious task of making paranthas (basically loads of work to make a pancake type thing). They also taught us to make a chicken and fish dish which they then proceeded to force feed to Jo (maybe this is why she is now ill as she's not eaten meat for a while??). We helped (in a very loose sense) to make 6 dishes in total, which they piled on to our plates and watched us struggle through.
The next morning (Tuesday morning) we travelled to Alleppey, the gateway to the Keralan backwaters, a network of lakes and rivers that meander inland. We hired a bamboo houseboat until the next morning. It was very relaxing and peaceful floating down the palm fringed rivers, but the monsoon rains found us again so we got a bit wet 
This morning we drove to Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. Jo has been ill so we took it easy today, and visited a temple (surprise!) and a wooden palace. That's all for now.
xx
