Today didn’t start well. In fact the bike wouldn’t start at all when I came to leave the hotel.  Continue reading →

As it wasn’t too far from Palakkad to Thrissur I left the Fort Palace Hotel quite late to allow maximum drying time for my kit. The hotel staff had suggested that I get the jeans, boxers and shirt pressed as this would help dry them a little more. It worked pretty much for the shirt and boxers, but the jeans were definitely still very damp. Jeans are always slow to dry, especially these jeans as they’re lined with kevlar cloth so that they won’t wear through in the event of me coming off the bike (not that I’m planning to of course!). There was nothing for it but to put them on anyway. Although it wasn’t raining when I left Palakkad I decided to put my waterproof on from the start after the previous days experience! Not that it helped much in the end! Continue reading →

I left Satyamamngalam with sadness. I’d met a great person to show me around who was obviously a good friend to Adam, I’d seen where Adam had been and met people who knew him, but it was time to move on. Maybe it was because I was a little upset to be leaving, but I took a wrong turn and headed east instead of south. It was to be a day of navigational errors! Continue reading →

After writing the blog last night I called Adam and told him of my plans for today. He said he’d call his friend Gangadhar to see if he could meet me and show me around. Ten minutes later Adam texted me to say that Gangadhar would call to collect me at my lodgings this morning. Two minutes after that text Gangadhar called me direct to confirm that he would be coming to meet me in the morning. Adam’s call to his friend paved the way for the best day of my trip so far. Continue reading →

As I was checking out of the Fort Palace Hotel I noticed that (a) the stitching attaching the straps to my rucksack were coming adrift and (b) the zip was failing in places. This made me a bit nervous as I’d be travelling i through places where there weren’t many shops to replace it. If it broke whilst I was ‘in the wilds’ I’d be stuck with a bunch of valuable belongings (laptop, tablet, etc) that I’d be unable to to transport safely. With that in mind I set off to head for Tamil Nadu. Continue reading →

We left Munnar at 9 am for the four hour journey back to Kochi. As we started to get into the suburbs of Kochi Baiju asked if I would like to visit the Dutch palace. This, as the name suggests, is a an old palace that is open to the public and run by the India Archaeological Survey. I was given an individual tour by a guide who showed me the many exquisite exhibits and told me the history of the palace. Continue reading →