A Visit to Wales (Sian)

We spent The last few days of the year in Cochin with a rather bizarre new year where Father Christmas was burned! It was to raise money for the Tsunami appeal, but most bizarre. Father Christmas was filled with fire crackers which shot off down the street, slightly scary. As the new restaurant was built ( It is only a beach hut) We hung out with Helena and Grant as well as Julia and our friends in Cochin. Strangely Helena and Grant live just down the road from us in London.

On the second of Jan, Julia, Steve and I said good bye to all our friends and took a bus to Peryiar. It is a wildlife park on the edge of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is so beautiful there. The bus ride was uncomfortable but the view breath taking, and well worth the 6 hour journey. We checked in to the Coffee Inn and after a debate over who would get the tree house we sat down and ate Marmite on toast, a treat we'd been missing for the last 2 months!

We took a walk around the park on the 3rd, sad that our trip to India was coming to an end. In the middle of Peryiar is a huge lake built by the Brits in 1895. It is 22KM Sq. We took a boat trip around the lake which took a massive 2.5 hours! The rocking of the boat nearly sent us to sleep! However we did get to see Wild Boar, Turtles, Lizards, Elephants, Fish, Monkeys, beautiful and brightly coloured birds and insects in pink, blue, orange and green. After lunch we walked alongside the lake, stopping to read our books on the way. Looking up at the hills surrounding us I felt as if I was in Wales, even the trees looked British. It was a vast change from Cochin, we could've been in a completely different country.

In the evening we went out for one last meal with Julia as she has decided to stay in India for another month. She's heading to Bangalore to visit friends and spend a week on a Yoga/Meditation course. We finished our time together at the Taj Hotel in Peryar. It was good food, well Steve seemed to enjoy all 8 courses which he ate!

We will both miss Julia, and have a little tear when we say goodbye. Especially as we seem to have cracked India together.