We have been on every possible mode of transport in the last three days I think. Planes, trains, cars, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, houseboats and buses. We just got off an extremely bumpy overnight bus and now are booking tickets by plane to Goa. We had tickets booked on overnight bus for tonight but it is another 12 hours of shakey shake shake and I have had enough of that on Ukrainian trains! I have problems sitting up and sleeping, much less through dirt road villages with all the windows open.


We were in the state of Kerala yesterday and had a fantastic overnight trip on a houseboat. It is actually 40% Christian as a state, which is much much higher than the rest of India. (The capital Trivandrum has one corner where there is a catholic church, a mosque, and a hindu temple all facing eachother. )
The backwaters were amazing, clean and clear and nothing like other swampy areas I have seen. Also, we had coconuts and fresh pineapple from little kiosk shacks along the water. People live on a strip of land no more than 15 feet wide it seems. It is also a mostly communist state, and there were red flags with sickle and hammer all over the city. The level of living is much higher than the north as well. All this in a tropical climate!

And yesterday we watched the most incredible three hour bollywood extravaganza ' Om Shanti Om'. It was mostly in Malayayam, the Kerala language, but a lot of key parts had random English phrases so we could infer what was going on. Plus, it was air-conditioned in the 30C degree heat.


We just got bookings on Spice Jet! Now we are in Bangalore and we should be spending the next five days or so in Goa and then back to
Delhi and then I fly to New York on the 6th.

We are tired and very dirty and in desperate need of food, so thats all for now.