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.

ugh, varkala

well, varkala has not been so kind to us as allepey was.  it started off well,  we arrived had nice lunch, found a comfy homestay, and enjoyed a fabulous sunset down at the beach.

 the room was a bit warm, so we left the windows opened, but there were bars on them, and it was a gated homestay.  however we awoke on valentines day to find that someone had reached through the windows while we were sleeping and stole all my cash from my bag (swedish, indian, and all the other odds bids i had in there).  as well as cut the bag to get the itouch pouch.  and took off with my beloved itouch!  i was devastated.  as were zoe and eijla.  they used it nearly as much as i did.  anyway,  we went the police, but they pretty much laughed in our faces and said that we were lying to get insurance money.  made me feel even worse.  so we spent a lot of time dealing with the robbery and did not get to enjoy varkala all that much.  though luckily they left behind my visa cards, drivers license and strangely enough even zoe´s little pink camera was in that same bag, but it did not get taken.  odd.  however we did find eijla´s valling flaska on the other side of the fence.  who knows.  anyway, we did managed to take a day trip to check out kovalam beach, which contrary to what everyone says was way less crowded than varkala.  now we know where to go when farmor and farfar come to kerala.

 then it was the train back up to allepey to wait to arrival of farmor and farfar on their early morning flight.

beaches, princesses dresses and the meetings of wonderful strangers.

allepey has been good to us.  we spent the day at the beach having a great time.  zoe wanted to carry her little baby when she woke up,  i think eijla went for it just cause she really wasn´t awake yet.

 after a great day at the beach the girls were all buddy-buddy.  it was so cute.

 then we headed into town,  and you know what else allepey has besides, good vibes, great food, and a lovely beach.  they have tons of princess dresses!  eijla insists on trying them on in the store.  much to everyone´s entertainment.  though it is almost impossible to get her out of them later.

 so we let them wear them all the way home!  they love the all the frills and lace!  they must get that from thomas!

then the other day while at the fruit stand we ran into another traveling family. they had a four year old boy named pablo.  they happened to be staying on a little private island and invited us out for the afternoon.  first they came and picked us up in a little dugout canoe.  eijla loved riding on the "baby boat"!

 ended up being a lovely afternoon and evening with great food and wonderful company!  as you can see it was a real paradise.  thanks tina and matt for sharing a little bit of your paradise with us.

tomorrow we are off to varkala, have to check things out before the grandparents come.

ah, alleppey...

we have landed.  suddenly we are in a place that just makes sense.  i do not know what it is, but there are just some places you end up while traveling that just fit.  allepy is one of those places for us.  we discovered a beautiful long beach.  where we took a nice evening stroll.

 we have even already found a favorite restaurant, hot kitchen.  yum.  and today we took a ferry ride that cost 1.5 kronor for two and half hours of backwater cruising.  where we saw all kinds of cool birds and incredible nature.

fort cochin

off on another train adventure. zoe loves those upper bunks.

 eijla made a friend.

  the good news is that i finally got my lens back and working, though they had lost both the uv filter and the back cap!  but yeah for having my favorite lens back! thomas took a picture of our pure joy with the very lens we have missed so very much!

 fort cochin was actually not much to our liking.  hard to explain but aside from the fishmongers, using their crazy nets, and a short stop over at cherai beach on vypeen island,

  we were kinda ready to head out right away.  it did not help that we had an insane autorickshaw driver that started a fist fight with thomas and went so far as to rip our bags and throw stones at the girls.  that man had lost it.  but after three great months in india one bad experience is not a bad percentage.  we did manage to catch a kathakali show before leaving town. the make up and costumes were amazing, but the show itself was defininately not for thomas!  he survived though and now we are off!