Wellaway From Home

  Up early...again to check out and the hotel staff helped us get a taxi to the airport. They set the price with the driver (1000 rupees) and we managed to get our luggage in his very small car (no tuktuks in Mumbai, only small tuktuk coloured taxis) and off we went. We were a little worried as we had boiler an extra suitcase to get all the gifts home but if wouldn't fit inside the car...so they tied it to the roof with what looked like a scarf. Now, you remember that we love India. Well this is one of the reasons why. In the UK you wouldn't tie a suitcase onto a roof rack with a scarf. Bit in India you would and it was fine. When we got to the airport it was still there. Ha! We were lucky with the drive as the sun was not long up and shining over the Mumbai city scape. Overall an amazing trip. It didn't have the massive touristy sites of the North, like the Golden Temple and the Taj Mahal, or the complete bonkers of the Jaipur market or Varanasi...but instead Kerala had a ...

The same taxi driver that drive us up was there at 5:30am to drive us back down to the airport at Kochi. It had taken 3.5 hours to get up there (at speed) but the taxi company thought it would only take 3 hours to get back down. We had a flight to catch a were a little dubious but we trusted there judgement. Well, they were wrong...it took just over 2.5 hours to get down.. And we were overtaken on the way so weren't even the fastest thing on the road! Got to the airport in plenty od time and boarded our flight o Mumbai. We had opted for a bit of luxury in Mumbai and booked the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel near the Gateway to India, and even treated ourselves to booking a taxi with the hotel to transfer us from the aiport. Little did we know that this was a chauffer driven SUV. We were a bit taken aback by this. It was more expensive than we thought but worth it as a one off. The journey was 5000 rupees and when we got to the hotel it was very plush.  Our room for £270 didn't have a w...

Becs was feeling a little better today and came with me to breakfast which was nice. After we spent another day at the estate just taking it easy. India is an experience, it's a beautiful country full of life, colour and sound and nothing like the UK. Even without feeling a bit poorly it's difficult to keep going non stop and every now and again you need to take some time to rest. At over 1500m altitude I started to feel a bit breathless and lethargic so it was great that we were in a place where we could just put our feet up. Again, the staff were attentive and sympathetic. We had drinks brought to our room and caring words as we passed reception during our wanders about the estate. We caught fabulous sunrises and sunsets in Munnar. It was a pity that we weren't able to venture out further and see what the region had to offer but, if we were going to need a place to rest and recuperate...this was it.