DAY &

Woke up Monday morning feeling like shite. Proper hungover and sick - meh :S. After brekkie I left Laur at the hotel for ma train to Kerala.

Ace 2 days in Hyderabad - had a wkd time hanging out with Laur and enjoyed the cosmopolitan feel of the city - not as hectic and had a slower, more amicable vibe that Mumbai and Aurangabad

Helf down ma vom on the bumby, polluted rickshaw ride to the station... just about - found my seat easy and just sank into it until I felt human again, this took quite a while and a little snooze... also didn't help that one of my fellow passengers had stonking B.O, thankfully he sat away for the time that I was feeling like I was gonna hurl tho ;).

Shared most of the 30 hour journey with a lovely family with 2 beautiful kids and a single guy. The kids, Ayush (10) and his little sister Anju (3.5) were lovely and Ayush spoke well good English, so we chatted away for most of the journey. He loved taking pics wi ma camera and I got some cute ones of him and his naughty little sis - they had a really lovely sibling relationship too, which was nice to see.

I took in a lot more on this journey as it was so long and alot of it was travelling in the day too. Throughout the journey there was a constant stream of beggars that move up and down the carriages, some coming on and leaving at different stations and other that travel the whole way. It's awful, but so frequent you kind of get used to it - tiz odd. Young boys dragging themselves along the floor on their knees with string holding their trousers up their skinny bodies, no tops and begging for food /money. Mothers with beautiful babies, girls, old women/men - some with amputated limbs/stumps, others with chronic burn marks and no eyes - tiz mad. One would be well out of pocket if you tried to give to all, but they accept food too, so at least ya know your cash aint necc going towards a can of Special Brew.

Amongst the beggars you also have the food/drinks sellers - chai/coffee constantly, byriani, samosa, crisps, water etc.. ya stop at stations for 5-20 mins at a time, so one can also hop on and off and get your wares from there. There's also traders sellin kids toys, clothes, perfumes, jewellry - it's a constant hive of activity.

Everyone throws their rubbish out the window, no one bats an eyelid - I have quite a collection of bottles building up around me as I can't bear to follow suit. I ended up leaving it on the train as finding a bin a far fetched! Even where I am now, in beautiful Varkala, rubbish is strewn all over the cliff edge in places towards the beach - but thankfully it has still retained some beauty. I just can't quite grasp the mentality and haven't got around to asking them about it yet, but undoubtedly I will.

So, as I said, I've arrived in Kerala now - spent one night in the main city and it was ok - went to a skanky beach resort called Kovalam in the day - meh. In Varkala now and it's well nice. Proper relaxing. My mates from London, Rupal and Ben, arrive tomorrow morning so will be good to hang out with them for a bit - they're holidaying it around Kerala for 2wks so may go with them for the next wk I reckon. Oh yeah, I have some bad ass mark around my left arm where I got stung by a jellyfish tenticle - should take a photo of that before it disappears...

Right, off to get my first taste of fresh Indian seafood!! Yum!! In a bit yo, xx