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!)