Our Award for Great Headgear

We had another encounter with a man in uniform on our holiday. This time it was at a coffee shop which we pedalled past on our way to Vanilla County.

We weren't too impressed by the coffee served to us, even though it had probably been grown locally and therefore was probably very fresh, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ice cream which was recommended to us as being the speciality of the house.

One of the reasons we had to make this stop at the coffee house was to give our bus driver time to pop down the road to buy 2 days supply of Kingfisher beer, as while Vanilla County didn't sell beer, we were welcome to take our own. We discovered that we and our minders put in the biggest order of the group but then we do like our beer.

We had originally thought about climbing aboard our waiter friend's tray for the photograph but on closer inspection it was a bit wet from coffee spills so we settled for keeping our bottoms dry!


Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Food Glorious Food ...

We mentioned our love of food in our last blog - as if you didn't know this already! You therefore probably won't be surprised to hear that when we heard there was a cookery demonstration going on in one of the hotels we were visiting, we made a beeline - or should that be a bearline? - for it, reckoning there should be some free samples if we smiled our winning smiles at the chef.


We managed to get seats on the front row of the audience and immediately caught the chef's eye - off to a good start we thought as we gave him a smile and a wave. Unfortunately having two bears in the audience was clearly an unusual event for him and put him off his stride as very early on in the demo he put what looked to us an alarming amount of garlic in the pan and then seconds later admitted that he'd added pineapple instead of garlic and so had to start all over again. Being the helpful bears we are we ensured he had a fresh supply of pineapple even though this required us to pop outside and harvest one - good job we had our swiss army knife to hand!

After that our chef friend recovered his composure and cooked two lovely dishes. They had some technical Keralan names but we forgot them immediately and all we can remember was that there was a fish curry and a pineapple curry. As we had helped out with the pineapple replacement we got to have first taste and have to admit we didn't leave too much for the rest of the audience.

We had a long chat with the chef who shared with us a number of tips for cooking some traditional Kerala recipes which we are now trying out on our Bears Unlimited colleagues to much acclaim - Wherry consumption is going up which must mean we're making them hot enough!

Hope you like our picture taken with our chef friend. Please don't ask what I (George) am doing with my leg though.


Love George and Yorkie xxx

Gone Fishing ...

After our splendid lunch at the German Bakery we decided to take a stroll along the beach so we could work up an appetite for tea (as you can tell we like our food!)

As is usually the case in India, there was lots to see and lots of people watching to do (we bears do find the antics of humans fascinating). It was great to see huge numbers of the locals out enjoying themselves and they were so much more colourful and attractive than the western tourists. We were a bit intrigued though that all the young ladies we saw were going into the water fully clothed. We think they thought they were only going for a bit of a paddle, but with surf as big as that of the Arabian Sea it is difficult not to get soaked. We mused on the possibility of a marketing opportunity for Bears Unlimited in supplying Victorian style bathing costumes and bathing machines so all modesty was preserved, but before we pursue this idea we would need to consult with Raj of the Midlands branch over local customs.

Also on the beach were a fascinating variety of fishing boats. Being boat loving bears we thought we would climb aboard (with permission of the owners of course) and cast a professsional eye over their build and seaworthiness.



The first boat we tried out had loads of character and we were impressed by the craftsmanship. It was basically a canoe made out of two coconut palm trunks lashed together. As our only canoeing experience is on calm waters we thought it might take a bit more experience than we'd got to take it out through the surf so we moved on to check out a rather bigger boat.


If we'd fitted the whole of this boat in the picture we'd only have been small dots, so we settled ourselves on the prow for our photoshoot. This splendid boat was also made of coconut palms but in plank form, and the planks were stitched together and the gaps sealed with coir. We know all this thanks to the friendly fisherman owner who was on hand to tell us all about his boat - he'd never had a bear audience before. In fact he was so taken with us, that he offered to take us out with him on the night's fishing trip. The prospect of fish for tea was so great we jumped at the opportunity and had a most enjoyable evening.

Love George & Yorkie xxx

A Spud Has Never Tasted So Good

We found it hard to tear ourselves away from such a beautiful beach. And so, when it was time for lunch we decided we would have to go somewhere overlooking the beach. The German Bakery was highly recommeded so we paid it a visit. They had a great menu which included dishes from all over the world, but still no nutella sandwiches! While we are curry loving bears, we couldn't resist the opportunity to have a jacket potato and cheese, as a change from rice and chapattis. Boy did they taste good, but then, what food and drink wouldn't when served up with a view such as this one? I know I (George) am looking particularly smug, but on this occasion I did have every reason to be.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

A Bear's Way to Relax

What better to follow on from a great view, than a picture of another fantastic view. This time the view from our hotel balcony in Kovalam. As we sit at the computer on a cold, dark and miserable English night we really wish we were back at the Rockholm Hotel and sharing this view with the rest of our Bears Unlimited friends.

Not only was the sea just a few feet away we could hear the pounding surf all night. The sunshine and the coconut palms gave a lovely tropical feel. Sheer bliss! Then, when it got too hot all we had to do was to pop down the steps to the side of the hotel and we were running across a sandy beach and into the surf.


Have we made you envious?

Love George & Yorkie xxx

An Inspirational Sunset

While we weren't entired convinced by our elephant friend's toddy shop recommendation, his suggestion of a great place to view the sunset was a different matter entirely. He couldn't have chosen a better spot and he is very lucky to live just a short hop down the road from this remarkable place.

Our new friend urged us to hurry and we arrived just as the sun was beginning to redden the sky. We settled down to watch the majesty all around us. Even before the sun began to set, we had the amazing sight of layers of cloud below us gently blanketing the land between our high point in the Western Ghats and the coast many miles away.


As the sun dropped below the horizon the display of colour just got better and better and we were lost for words. We identified with our friend Naughty Bear who recently posted a blog called Sometimes bears like to sit and think in which he said 'sometimes being a bear is thinking about being a bear in front of a very nice view indeed'. We couldn't agree more, great words from a great friend of ours.

Love from George & Yorkie xxx

Down at the Local

Our friend the elephant gave us lots of tips about the local area including the best place to see a sunset - which we'll show you tomorrow - and the best place to go to sample the local brew.

We followed the map the elephant drew us and arrived at the local pub - the toddy shop. Now there is a big difference between our favourite tipple at home - Norfolk Wherry and toddy. Toddy is tapped twice a day from the flower of the coconut palm and becomes alcoholic when allowed to ferment. It is drunk in half pints and looks like watery milk.

We were shown to the V.I.P lounge while we waited for our toddy to be tapped. It felt like we were in a cattle shed made of breeze blocks but we were happy as we were getting an authentic local experience. Sadly we weren't so happy when the toddy arrived and we got our first taste. It's obviously an acquired taste and we weren't around long enough to acquire it. Our photo shows that we did ourselves proud by draining our glass (more than our minders could do) but we can safely predict sampling toddy won't be a recommended activity in the Friendly Planet Guide.


Love George & Yorkie xxx (Hic!)

Perfect Day Out

We could extol the virtues of Vanilla County for ever, but we will make this our last entry as there are other things to tell you about.

While the great accommodation, hospitality and scrummy food (including homemade peanut butter and banana jam) makes you want to linger at the breakfast table, when we found out about all the activities on offer, we couldn't wait to get started.
A real must is the guided tour of the plantation where we got to see lots of the lovely foods we enjoy every day growing: pepper, vanilla, cashew nuts, cocoa, nutmeg tapioca and more. We picked some lemon grass on the way to rub on our fun that evening to keep the mosquitos at bay. We also had a go at rubber tapping and viewed the biggest worms ever seen (bigger than me - Yorkie) in compost houses.

The tour ended at some fantastic rock pools where we stopped for a swim. The water was very fast flowing and kept sending us down a natural slide. It was very hard for our little paws to make it back upstream so we had to jump on a minder's back. As they helped us out we'll let one of our minders appear in our rock pool photo.


The sun was so hot we dried off fairly quickly then leapt onto our bikes to pedal off to visit the 900 year old palace the King (the Maharajah) used to live in. Word had clearly got around that bears were in town and the Maharajah asked to meet us. We felt very honoured and went to see him in his new house. He was 83 years old and very charming and he told us all about his days as an elephant trapper, including the time when he got pinned between the tusks of an elephant and had to be rescued.

Talking about elephants, in the afternoon we went off in our minibus to track down an elephant at work logging. He took a bit of finding as we was in the heart of the forest but the tracking was well worth it. We were astounded at the size of the tree he was dragging. It was about more than 100 Georges long and about 50 Yorkies wide. We thought it best not to stop the elephant while he was working but when he finished and was having his tea we joined him for a chat, and of course a photo.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

5 Star Accommodation

Yesterday we promised to tell you about our great accommodation at Vanilla County.

While most of our group stayed in the plantation house we were given private quarters for our exclusive use. While the house was really lovely, our quarters were completely unique and provided a really fun adventure.

We got to camp, but in a very civilised way. We had a huge tent with a proper floor, beds, a table and lots of room to move around in. As it was so warm we didn't need to shut the tent up at night and we could lie in bed looking at all the stars, then, when it began to get light, all the flowers on the hillside outside.


But the really amazing bit, that made the experience for us, was our bathroom. We had our own bathroom in an adjacent building. The toilet and washbasin had a roof over but the shower was completely open air. The shower fittings were built into the rock face, we stood on a floor of pebbles and we shared the shower with a giant fern. It was fantastic, even though the shower was bracing (no hot water, but there again Indian showers are about cooling down, not warming up).

We got a bit of a shock when we went to use the toilet and found a big frog inside. I suppose it went with the open air washroom experience! We were racking our brains trying to think of a few words of frog to ask it to leave, when it decided to jump out. We could then uncross our legs and use the facilities.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

We Hear from Rajah

Those of you with good memories may recall that the Midlands Branch have a member with Indian ancestry - Rajah.

Thanks Raj for the following comments - Love George & Yorkie

''Rupert & I from the Midland Branch have been following your India trip with great interest, particularly as I joined the firm just after our minders returned from a wonderful holiday in Nepal. We know thats a long way from Kerala but it's still India sort of, isn't it?

That was a wonderful photo of Emile & Evelyn. What was the name of their well proprtioned bear?

We were surprised that your posh bikes caused such a stir locally. Was this Explore's first cycling trip to Kerala? Fancy getting on T.V!

It must have been very frightening having to abort your landing at Muscat at the last minute. Rupert & I would have dived for the sick bags.

You tour leader Andrew seems a great guy. Our minders say they quite fancy the trip but Mummy Minder is not all that keen on cycling.

Looking forward to the report on the tuk-tuk driving lesson.

Wish Vanilla County was not so far away - makes our tummies rumble.

Love Rajah & Rupert''

Bears Can't Have Too Many Friends

We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to make new friends so easily. Maybe there is a lot that humans can learn from bears (our thought for the day). We rate India as one of the top places for making friends, as we shall say in the Friendly Planet Guide when we publish it.

You've already met some of our new friends, but there are two more we simply must introduce as they played such an important role in making our holiday so fantastic. Here we are with Baby Matthews and his wife Rani who kindly allow people to stay at their amazing plantation, Vanilla County, beautifully situated in the hills of the Western Ghats.

From the moment we arrived we were treated like royalty. We had glasses of delicious fresh grape juice awaiting us which we enjoyed on the verandah. The accommodation was so good that it warrants a separate blog entry (logon tomorrow) and Rani's cooking was out of this world - we hadn't been expecting to put on weight in India but you can't stay at Vanilla County and not eat lots! There were also loads of things to do - you'll have to stay with us for the next few days to find out more.

To whet your appetite you can check out www.vanillacounty.in

Love George & Yorkie

P.S. we're having curry for tea!

New Friends (2)

A tour is only as good as its leader and we were lucky to have a very fine leader in the form of Andrew. Early on he showed his bear friendly qualities and soon became a firm friend of ours. He even managed to spy out some photographic opportunities for us that our minders had missed, and they are well practiced. He also arranged some special events just for us bears, for example a tuk-tuk driving lesson - more about that in a later blog.

Andrew works for Explore who provided our trip. To find out more about our trip and the hundreds of other exciting adventures on offer, check out their website at www.explore.co.uk

Thank you Andrew for looking after us so well and making the holiday a really memorable one for us. Hope you like the photo we had taken on the beach.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

Living With the Locals

While we enjoyed our first few days checking out Indian hotels, we were very excited when we discovered that we were due to spend a couple of days living with an Indian family in their house on the Kerala backwaters.

How lucky we were to stay with such a charming and hospitable family as the Jacob family. We had a great time learning some new Indian games and helping make chapattis for our evening meal. We were also able to observe all the comings and goings on the waterways from the front door.

We formed a special bond with Emile and Evelyn who introduced us to their Bear and gave us a lovely bear hug. Hope you like the picture we took.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

In Praise of Two Wheels

The great thing about cycling is that you are travelling at a speed that allows you plenty of time to look all around and take in lots of interesting sights (this is especially true when your legs are as short as ours are!). It also allows you to meet lots of interesting people and to go to places that cars can't reach. One of our favourite places that we pedalled to on our holiday was the cliff top viewpoint which you see in this photo.


While we cooled down with a cold drink, we looked out across the thousands of coconut palms to the sandy beach which was covered with fishing boats, some of which were putting out to sea. We wished we had a parachute so we could float down and order some fresh fish for tea - curried of course.

Love George & Yorkie xxx

Wagons Roll!

As our Indian adventure was primarily a cycle tour we thought the best place to start would be with a picture of us riding our bikes. These were quite a novelty in India where 21 speed mountain bikes are almost unheard of. We have a lot of respect for the Indian people who kept overtaking us on old fashioned delivery style bikes with no gears and rod brakes. However, if our bright yellow and red bikes generated a lot of interest our cycle helmets caused even more. They were greeted with peals of laughter and lot of pointing and we began to feel as if we were martians who had just arrived from outer space.


We were quite pleased though when the novelty of a cycle tour in Kerala got us not only in the local paper but also on local television. Actually we're not sure whether it was the fact that a cycle tour was taking place, or the fact that there were bears on it, which generated the press interest. Either way it was another first for Bears Unlimited.

Love George & Yorkie xxx

The Boys are Back in Town

Today we are safely back at home and re-united with our Bears Unlimited friends. We are regaling them with all our adventures so that they can choose the best ones for us to publish to you over the next few days.

As we travelled home yesterday we realised just how far away the south of India is. We got up at 4.00 a.m. Indian time (10.30 p.m. English time) to go to the airport and finally got home at 1.00 a.m. this morning. 27 hours without sleep is a new Bears Unlimited record.

We'd like to commend Gulf Air for their special seatback bear holders which we demonstrate in the picture below. This was a lot better for us than being restrained in the elasticated back of seat pocket which never has enough room in view of the need to share with duty free magasines and all the other flight paraphenalia.


One of the reasons it took so long to get home was because we had a 6 hour transit at Muscat airport. We had a heart stopping moment coming into Muscat when we thought we might not see ours Bears Unlimited friends again, as we had an aborted landing literally seconds from touch down! Just as we were bracing ourselves for the bump the nose went up and we made a rapid ascent. Apparently the previous plane took too long clearing the runway.

After landing, we saw our quick reacting pilot in the transit lounge and popped over to thank him for handling this drama so well. We then felt the need to release some tension so tried a spot of camel riding. It was great fun.


More news soon

Love George & Yorkie xxx

It's very hot today, how's it in England?

Today we are happy bears as we are having a good day and we've at last made it to an internet cafe with the right lead so we can include a picture.

The sunset cruise last night around the offshore islands of Cochin was lovely although we had to put our paws to work to help out the boat owners when they suffered a water hyancinth prop wrap. We dived down to cut the weed away and were pleased when we were rewarded with a big bottle of Kingfisher beer each.

The Kathkali dancing was amazing and we were especially fascinated by the eyebrow and eye movements of the dancers. We've tried it ourselves this morning but having heard it takes 7 years to master weren't too surprised when we struggled to master it.

This morning we were up at 4.30 a.m. to catch an early morning train back to Trivandrum. We think Indian trains are great especially when you're in an 1st class air conditioned carriage (probably the only time we'll get to travel 1st). Our picture shows us enjoying the view from the top of the seats - there was so much to see.


Our cycles awaited us when we got off the train and we had a hot peddle back to our seafront hotel at Kovalam. We have just dried off from an hour's boogie boarding in the surf of the Indian Ocean to come and write this blog entry.

Love George & Yorkie
xxxxxx

More News From India

Hi all

We haven't forgotten you but Grrowwwwwwlllll we still can't publish a photo as we are desparate to do, as this time the card reader won't read our card and our minders forgot to bring the right lead - we despair.

We won't say too much now otherwise we'll end up repeating ourselves when we eventually publish our pics. However, we still think India is great although we are getting a little tired of curries. We are currently in Cochin and shortly will be heading off for a sunset boat cruise around the islands off the old town. This will be followed by a Kathali dancing display and we are especially looking forward to seing the dancers put on their elaborate makeup.

Bye for now

Love George and Yorkie
xxxxxxx

Your foreign correspondents report in

Hi everyone, George & Yorkie here. Sorry we've been off-line for a few days but our holiday is proving to be quite an adventure and our travels so far have taken us well off the tourist trail and we have now been several days without a sighting of an internet cafe. In fact we're only able to report in now thanks to a kindly rubber plantation owner, whose house we're staying in, who has allowed us to use his computer. We can't post any photos today though as this home PC hasn't got the right connections, but don't worry we have been taking lots of photos so you will have something to see soon.

Anyway, where are we? We'll give you 3 clues: curry, bananas and rupees. Yes, we are in southern India where we are enjoying a cycle tour of Kerala. Over the last week we have pedalled away furiously in 35 degree sunshine and had lots of adventures which we can't wait to describe to you when we can post the accompanying photos. We've been elephant riding, temple visiting, boating on the backwaters, rubber tapping and today we even had a chat with a maharajah in his palace. It is all very exotic and we think it's wonderful.

Hope to be able to tell you more soon.

Love from a very bronzed & sore bottomed George & Yorkie xxx