I’ve been back in New Zealand for three weeks now. These are just some general impressions of India.

Coonoor is a hill country resort at 1800m elevation in the Nilgiris (Blue Hills). The first thing you notice is the temperature. Where it was near 40 degrees down on the flat, in Coonoor, the daytime temperature is a pleasant 22-25 degrees, and during the night it drops into the teens.

The road up to the hill country resort of Coonoor is a steep, winding road full of hairpin bends that twists through a forest full of wild animals. There are even signs warning that elephants have right of way (although surely nobody would be so silly as to try and argue right of way with an elephant?)

After leaving Goa, we headed south for Kerala, driving most of the night. We’d looked up a beach or two in advance which seemed to have accommodation right on the beach, but when we arrived there at 5am, it turned out not to be the case. The roads were dreadful and what little accommodation there was wasn’t anywhere near the beach. We headed south and eventually came to Kozhikode, which looked like it had a nice long beach and plenty of accommodation along the promisingly named Beach Road.

After we left Malvan, our next stop was Goa. We stayed in Agonda Beach in south Goa, away from all the party/rave crowds that infest the northern beaches. This is the view from our hut at the northern end of Agonda Beach.

I’ve only been here a few days and I swear I’ve gained a few kilograms already. The food here is awesome. The places we are going don’t look anything flash – just a little room or two with some plastic tables and chairs (the kind you buy from The Warehouse). Most of the ones we’ve been to are family establishments, with the family sometimes even living out the back of the restaurant. The women generally do all the cooking, with the menfolk serving, or just supervising.

Looking down a street at the market:

We are staying at a place right on Chivla Beach in Malvan. Our place is literally on sand, although is raised a couple of metres above the high tide mark. Here is the view of the place from the top of the beach:

Yesterday was Holi, the Hindu festival of colours. Our first warning was the night before when a lot of food places were closed due to Holi. Our next taste was as soon as we left our place in the morning, there were two boys in the neighbouring place covered in coloured dyes, bottles in hand ready to help others get similarly coloured up.

After spending the first couple of days in Hyderabad, Gopal and I left for the west coast. The trip is 700km long and over the roads we had to travel, he expected it to be about a 12 hour drive. Rather than drive by day, we decided to drive overnight. Gopal says it is a bit safer, because the roads are less crowded with motorbikes, bullock carts and autos at night.