January 2024

To-date (31/01)

Trip duration: 158 days

Countries visited (exc UK): 8

Locations Visited: 42

Distance Travelled: 21,575 KM

Steps Walked: 1,992,924

This month

Countries Visited: 1 (India)

Locations Visited: 12 (Fort Kochi, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumorakum, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Puducherry, Chennai, Mysuru, Ooty (and Coimbatore)

Distance Travelled: 2560KM

Days moving: 11

Longest stay: Fort Kochi (6 days)

Steps walked: 304,266

Seeing the year in at the Cochin Festival in Fort Kochi set things off with a bang, and positioned us well to explore Southern India. As I updae this at the end of the month, I can see we travelled a lot in January!

1st to 3rd

We continued our stay in Fort Kochi for a few days into the new year, struggling at times to cope with the temperature and humidity however!

3rd to 6th

Another little treat for us based on a direct recommendation, we booked a Splendours of Munnar tour through the Royal Mist homestay there. as Munnar is quite ifficult to get to (also Thekkady where we were going next) this was realy helpful as got picked up directly in Fort Kochi, and then chauffered araound door-to-door for the next three days. Munnar was amazing, and Royal Mist a particularly fabulous place to stay. We learned loads about tea, and did some good hiking in the hills as well.

6th to 10th

Taking avantage of our tour package to get a lift to Thekkady, we spent four nights at Chrissie's Hotel, and got to explore the Periyar Tiger Reserve on foot and bamboo raft. No sigificant beasties, but a great experience, and a few great natters with fellow brits on the road.

10th to 13th

So many people have told us we must explore the Kerala Backwaters - so we did. We chose against a houseboat option, electing instead to stay in super-quiet Kumorakum, in a lovely homestay right on the water.

13th to 15th

Heading south from Kumorakum we stopped briefly in Trivandrum, partly to try and see how it's full Indian name (Trivunanthapuram) should be pronounced, and partly to explore a little.

15th to 17th

Having travelled all the way to the bottom of Kerala, we would have been remiss not to pop into Tamil Nadu and pay a visit to the southernmost point on the sub continent, Kanyakamuri!

17th to 18th

From the southernmost point, there's only one way to go... North! We took a short hop to Madurai, the spiritual capital of Tamil Nadu, to see the truly jaw-dropping Meenakshi Aman temple. It's a temple to a triple breasted goddess - what's not to like!

18th to 23rd

Our first visit to India's East coast is to the old French enclave of Puducherry. Relinquished by the French in 1954, it still has a lot of gallic charm, and excellent food. Our stay was less successful than we hoped due to illness, but we still enjoyed this charming city.

23rd to 24th

A flying visit to Chennai gave us a slight feel for India's tech capital, but we only had time to check out one museum before an early train dragged us back across the country once more.

24th to 28th

Mysuru is famous for its palaces, but also has a railway museum. We stopped in for a few days to check them out.

28th to 31st

We spent a few days up in the Hill Station of Ooty, enjoying the slightly cooler temperatures, and some of the beautiful scenery of the local countryside and the botanic gardens. We also took the toy train (narrow gauge heritage railway) down the hill and got a bus to the transport hub of Coimbatore to see out the month.