Easter Sunday. Varkala beach Kerala

Too much cleaning fluid on the lens makes me look better!

View from cliff top this morning. I walked right round the furthest bend to the temple.

Gates to Krishna temple. Note blue Krishna dude in the chariot!

The fishermen singing and hauling in the nets.

Mr Prasanan rowing me. The only photo from an amazing morning. At least I got ONE before the camera died.

Mr Prasenan's house. The day before the backwater canoe.

Temple above the shops in Allepy

NOTE: The written order of this entry has messed up somehow. I'll leave you to sort it out coz I don't know how to cut and paste on this thing. Hope it makes sense.

Wow, even in the rain this place is amazing. Infact maybe the cloud and rain ADD to the atmosphere! Yes, I'm an eternal optimist. It reminds me of the wilds of Western New Zealand beaches and is stunningly beautiful. It's so humid BUT my skin feels great. really smooth, like I'm having a continuous sauna. Met a lone women travellers today whilst I was out walking trying to find the Hindu temple to krishna, us three were the only people mad enough to go walking in the mist and rain. Going to have dinner with them later, it'll be good to have company .My camara only works now if I spray it with my glasses cleaning fluid. It's an inspired find and seems to be doing the job but I'm going to run out of fluid soon. Right, lets try some pictures, problem is this computer is pretty slow. It's going to be a long blog whilst I wait for them to upload!

Yesterday in Allepy was a complete rain fest. I ended up playing chess with one of the lads from the hotel. I'm crap at chess but somehow managed to beat him, I think he let me win. Got the train to Varkala at 3.30. there are computerized machines everywhere and as long as you know the train number you can check on its progress. My train was runnin 63 minutes late. I got chatting to these girls from Bangalore, well kinda in sign language, and all they wanted to do was stroke my white arm. Very odd. But they kept an eye on my bags whilst I kept checking on the train progress, it was now 48 minutes late. Train was fine and very beautiful views. Everything obviously is so green and lush. Got a rickshaw to my place about 9pm and it's great. The biggest room I've stayed in yet and soft bed and sqidgy pillow. Came to the cliff face for dinner and had a couple of beers, which was bliss and slept like a log. Right, last picture of me is uploading. Got to have some with me in. Looking forward to loads of fish this evening. Got to go for another shower!

Slept in this morning and had a LONG bucket shower. It will all end soon and one of my pleasures is the showering, so I'm going to really revel in them now. Bought a brollie and after breakfast went walking. Through mud, puddles and the ocean, but my Thai toilet shoes can handle anything. Stumbled on a mosque which is on the beach hidden by the palm trees and later after I'd met Connie, the German we went to the Hindu temple, A special one for Krishna. The top half of this beach is incredibly holy for Hindus but all around were OAPs trying to sell us hash. Most bizarre! Bumped into more fishermen who were singing shanties and after 3 hours of walking ended back at the North cliff, where all the tourists are based. Met Helen at a cafe, whe's reading the same book as me and of course we got chatting and later we will all meet up. helen came out via Delhi, did an organised tour for a week up in the North and is now down here on her own.