Hualien, Taiwan Jess Cook, January 20, 2025September 22, 2025 We made it for the 10 a.m. direct train to Hualien – it may not sound early but when you factor in our inability to get up early, a morning run, grabbing brekkie, and buying train tickets, it was quite a good achievement for a Sunday morning. The five-hour journey… Continue Reading
Taipei, Taiwan Jess Cook, January 18, 2025September 13, 2025 It took us much longer than expected to get through passport control, meaning we didn’t get into Taipei city centre until very late. We anticipated that Taiwan would be much more organised compared to India, although in hindsight it was approaching Chinese New Year which may have contributed to a… Continue Reading
Varkala, Kerala Jess Cook, January 16, 2025June 14, 2025 It was a fairly late 10:30 p.m. arrival at the train station in Varkala. The tuk-tuk that took us to our hostel had to keep reversing out of roads he had intended to take, as they were now padlocked for the night. We had just booked three nights in Varkala,… Continue Reading
Alleppey, Kerala Jess Cook, January 5, 2025October 12, 2025 We didn’t have a whole lot planned for Alleppey apart from seeing the backwaters. I booked accommodation close to the beach, so as soon as we arrived, we headed there. We found our favourite beach bar (and possibly the only beach bar), where we ended up chilling for the first… Continue Reading
Kochi, Kerela Jess Cook, January 2, 2025June 14, 2025 After the super long car journey, we finally arrived in Kochi. The driver who picked us up in the morning had made a point to show us him zero-ing the mileage on his car, which immediately made me suspicious therrre I thought there might be a problem. When booking the… Continue Reading
Wayanad, Kerela Jess Cook, December 27, 2024June 14, 2025 The drive to this hill station was very long. It also didn’t help that our taxi driver wasn’t patient as soon as we hit traffic, so we think he took us on an even longer route to not sit in traffic but the roads were so windy we ended up… Continue Reading
Mahé, Puducherry Jess Cook, December 22, 2024May 22, 2025 We got to Mahé in the late afternoon. We checked in straight away, donned our running gear, and headed straight to the harbour side for a 5k sunset run. Of course, we made a stop to admire the sunset and the completely empty white beaches. We struggled to find dinner… Continue Reading
Mangalore Jess Cook, December 19, 2024May 22, 2025 The best train seats we could find to get us to Mangalore was a second class fan assisted carriage. Just before we were getting on the train, James noticed there was more than one station in Mangalore, so asked which station I had booked us tickets to. I had no… Continue Reading
Gokarna Jess Cook, December 18, 2024May 22, 2025 Our next stop was Gokarna meaning we would now be leaving the state of Goa. Gokarna was a place James had found. I was a little gutted I didn’t take up the opportunity to go surfing in Agonda, but apparently Gokarna also has beginner waves which I was looking forwards… Continue Reading
Agonda, Goa Jess Cook, December 17, 2024April 25, 2025 It was a bit of a trickier journey, requiring a change of bus after the first 2-hour local bus ride. We managed to get seats on the first bus and just about managed to squeeze our luggage in with us where we were sitting, albeit not particularly comfortably. The local… Continue Reading