Trivandrum, India

After leaving Calangute we took a 3hr bus, then boarded a sleeper train bound for Trivandrum. We had planned to alight at Kochi to make our way to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, but decided to get off at Kottayam instead, thinking it would be closer. Our train had stopped at plenty of stations, so we thought this wouldn't be a problem. However, there were no stops after Kochi and we found ourselves arriving directly in Trivandrum after 14hrs. We spent around a week here mainly relaxing yet again. We ate most of our meals in the Indian Coffee House which was pleasant and inexpensive, and housed in an interesting spiralling building. There was a state festival coming up while we were there so there was much festivities with music blasting the streets and bazaars everywhere. We went to Veli tourist park which has large-scale sculptures by the river and beach. We took a daytrip to Neyyar Dam, which was huge and had pretty gardens. They also had a crocodile "sanctuary" which was sad as they were all housed in tiny cages without much water in their tiny swimming pools. Views from the bus on our way to Neyyar Dam. On our last day we went to Kovalem beach which was around 10km away from the city, and enjoyed a drink at the Beatles restaurant.