veegaland!

on our own again after saying goodbye to farmor and farfar as they headed back to sweden.  we got out our checklist and got things done.  princess dresses and toy shopping, check.  sending another parcel, check.  checking train tickets, oh crap.  all the trains were booked.  but somehow we managed to work it out.  we took a taxi to ernakulam, where we managed to get a ticket at the train station for tomorrow afternoon, and finally found a hotel room, where we dropped off our bags before we headed up to veegaland.  though apparently it is now called wonder la.  we had hoped to get there before the weekend crowds, but it seems like since tomorrow is holiday (they have A LOT of holidays in india), the crowds were already there.  sadly the park was not as good as the one in mysore, but that might have been partly because of the crowds, and partly because about a third of the slides and rides were closed and under service.  they did not allow any kind of photography in the pool area, which was good and bad.  we have no pics of the girls while swimming,  but then neither do hundreds of indians!  thomas did manage to sneak this shot,  notice that we have own section of the wave pool.  as they are so fond of india,  "ladies and kids" and "gents"  are not to mix while swimming.  which makes it difficult to swim as a family.  they had put all the women and kids in one wave pool and the men in another, we tried to swim in the ladies pool but they kicked out thomas, so we went back to the men´s section where they tried to throw me out.  in the end they just gave up and let us have the section that is usually for ladies and kids all to ourselves.  continuously whistling at anyone who went in that section.  somethings we will never understand.

 but we still had plenty of fun, there was a little family pool with slides that we played in a bit.  then there were quite a few rides, the girls rode the carousel,

 thomas and eijla watched as zoe and i rode on a high flying pirate ship.  zoe and i even rode on a log ride that they did not want to let zoe on because she was 1 cm below the cutoff heighth, but we put up a good arguement and they let her on.  

 then we even managed to find korv med bröd for the girls,  they were pretty happy, think they ate about 4 each!

 and after a fun family afternoon they fed the cois before we hopped on a bus back to our hotel.  tomorrow awaits a 15 hour train ride back to goa!

farmor and farfar´s last days in india

we decided farmor and farfar could not come to india without riding on the train at least once,  so we got up way too early and were dropped off at trivandrum train station, where we then had to wait for our train.  but all went well, and we piled on into a sleeper wagon number six. it was only a couple of hours, but there was plenty great scenery and buse, mostly from the boys!

 the afternoon was spent relaxing on alleppey beach with a bbq served on the veranda to top off the evening.  then a lazy morning and a bit of a swim.  we headed to our favorite restaurant Hot Kitchen for farmor and farfar´s last lunch.  we ate and ate and were all boogasprang!

 then it was off for a short backwaters trip on our own little boat.  very chill and relax, except for trying to keep eijla from falling overboard of course.

 farmor and zoe spotted all kinds of birds and found them in their bird book.

plenty of kingfishers, which just happens to be the bird of india, go figure.

 one last shot of the happy, young couple just before they leave us all alone in paradise...

then it was back to the hotel on the beach, and last minute packing, dinner on the veranda and our last game of UNO before waving good bye to farmor and farfar´s taxi as it drove them off to the airport.  it has been a brilliant three weeks with all kinds of fun and adventures.  thanks for sharing it with us farmor and farfar, we miss you already!  stora kramar.

final beach day in kovalam

after a beach day and then the tip of india, i was exhausted.  so while i rested in the room the gang headed down to the beach.  luckily our room was very nearly on the beach itself, and with my telephoto lens i could keep a good eye on them!  ha ha!

 but finally, by late afternoon, they convinced me to come down and join them. 

 eijla and i had a bit of a snuggle watching the other play in the surf.

 then thomas threatened to eat zoe and she went crazy.  she was screaming and crying, saying she would not be good to eat cuz she was only a kid, but then i convinced her to just give pappa a good smack with her paddle.  that was all it took, she was ready for some revenge.

 we ended our day on our balcony with another beautiful sunset. time to start heading north again.  cannot believe farmor and farfar will be leaving soon, it has gone too fast!

a beached whale in kovalam

well, we have left varkala,  and headed south to kovalam.  i am still getting my shots, but now at another hospital, with a rather unfriendly doctor. ugh.  but i am starting to feel a bit better.  even made it to the beach with the family today.  all gathered around to see how the beached whale that i am was doing...

 but everyone else had energy aplenty for some good old beachy fun.  even in the rather large waves.

while i was sick, zoe managed to fall and scrap both of her knees,  she insisted i take a picture to document her pain.  poor thing.

you will have to refer to zoe´s blog..

cause i have been too sick to take pics or do anything worth writing about.  i even had the pleasure of spending the night in a local indian hospital, which was not that bad, until they put a guy a in the bed a few inches from mine that hacked and spit lugees all night long!  thomas wanted to get me out of there as soon as possible, so once they had brought my nearly 106F fever down and shot me full of drugs, they let me check out. though i have to go back every morning and evening for shots.  which is really putting a damper on our travel plans.  but we tomorrow we are heading to kovalam and hopefully the hospital is closer to where we are staying, as the doctor told me this morning after getting my test results back that i am in for four more days of injections!  argh!!  tom took a shot of me in the "casualty" room waiting for one of my shots.  very "high tech" hospital, though honestly i was very impressed with their efficiency despite the facilities.

floating on the backwaters

after kumily we headed back to alleppey, where we hired one of these luxury houseboats for two days of cruising on the backwaters around alleppey.  we found one with a huge upper deck where we spent most of our time lounging around, enjoying the gorgeous nature, and keeping an eye for birds.  which we saw quite a few of.  all kinds of water birds, even eagles and hunting kingfishers.  here is our boat moored up for our first night.

 the girls and i keeping our eyes open for birds on the top deck.

 a beautiful sunset view from our boat.

 quick family shot before hopping off the boat.  it was a great couple of days, very relaxing, now we are off to the beach.

EIJLA IS 2! HIPP HIPP HURRA!

 today our baby girl turned two!  can hardly believe it.  she has become such a little girl, talking so much, running around like a crazy monkey.  she has even started with 3 to 4 word sentences.  it is going too fast.  but then i think almost all parents feel that at this stage.  so our little princess got up an the first thing she did was put on her princess dress.  open her presents, and then it was birthday hugs all around.

 when it is your birthday your breakfast is allowed to consist of licking nouget off of a toast..

 after singing, presents, and breakfast we headed to periyar wildlife park,  where we went on a boat ride, that well, honestly was a bit of a disappointment, though we did see a bison, a couple of fox, and a few birds.

 the tired birthday girl fell asleep standing up in the car.  stubborn monkey refused to sit on my lap.

 then in the afternoon we went on a spice garden tour,  where we saw lots of plants and flowers and coffee beans.

 but the highlight was definitely finding out the cafe had korv!  the girls ate 8 of them together!  only second time this trip we have found korv. yum!

then it was what might just become a tradition, elephant riding on eijla´s birthday.  farmor waited back at the elephant camp due to the seats not being knee friendly, but the rest of piled on a couple of pachyderms and headed out.

 we were there at the very end of the day, so the girls got watch while the put away the elephants for the evening.

 then it was dinner, the girls has pasta, and then back to the hotel for cake!  happy birthday our dear little eijla!  hope you had a wonderful day.  we loved spending it with you, and look forward to many more!  we love you, you crazy little monkey.

the rolling hills of munnar

after a couple days relaxing at the beach, we packed up and jumped in a big taxi, driven by baboo, our friendly chauffuer.  off we headed up the mountains to munnar.  we had a bit of a hard time finding a room for the night, but when we did, we hit it big and found huge, cheap rooms at the poopada hotel,  you gotta love the name.  for our day of sightseeing around munnar we headed out first to a big dam,  which zoe was very happy to see was creating a rainbow!

 then we stopped by echo point, where farmor and farfar scored the girls some adorable little binoculars that they love. 

 then it was off to top station, where the views were still spectacular.  we even stopped for lunch there. 

 then we ended the tour with a beautiful flower garden.   then it was back to the hotel for dinner and relaxing.

 with all this driving around you might wonder what kind of barnstolar we have.  yeah, the human kind, i am not looking forward to their screams when i fasten them into their barnstols back in sweden.

today we drove to kumily.  a beautiful drive,  the countryside is packed with tea plantations on rolling hills. tomorrow we celebrate eijla!

the day has come!

farmor and farfar have finally arrived in india!  the girls have been waiting for this for what zoe says is "forever and ever!"  thomas and zoe picked them up from the airport while eijla and i moved our stuff to a beachside hotel. zoe and eijla had prepared a sign for their big arrival.

 then it was straight down to the beach to appreciate it all.  plus the breeze was nice considering the extreme temperature change for them.

 some pretty happy grandchildren with their rather happy grandparents...

 after the hugs and snuggles were taken care of it was time for swimming, and then of course the youngest and the oldest had to take a rest...

 i am sure you have asked yourself many times, just how many thorens can one fit into a auto rickshaw, well, we know at least 6!  ACEM would have to come and visit for us know if we could have fit more!

after the beach it was food at our favorite HOT KITCHEN, then shopping for princess dresses!   farmor and farfar found some purple ones for the girls that they absolutely loved!

 and then a night cap of fresh coconut milk at a kiosk on the way back home.  not a bad first day in india.