gross [inter]national happiness

Turquoise sea. White powdery sand. Relaxed coconut palms. Vibrant mangroves. Huge majestic trees. Colourful bamboo huts. A diminutive market that sells miniature mangoes, gigantic jack fruit and ready-to-drink coconuts. More bikes than motorised vehicles. A lone hut in which to buy diesel out of recycled water bottles. No wifi and just one school. This is Neil Island. One of the hundreds of islands that makes up the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Paradise. Glad to see Shell/BP/Tesco hasn't driven this man out if business... Yet. Of course to reach paradise in this age of globalisation one must expect a journey. And that it was. We set off on the 16th Jan around 2pm by rickshaw from our hotel to a catch a local bus from Kollam to Trivandrum. Then a rickshaw to our conveniently located hotel at Trivandrum airport (literally in the car park of domestic departures). We managed 5 hours sleep before a 5.50am flight to Chennai to connect with a 10.20 flight to Port Blair. We

Only in Kerala will you see a man in a canoe herding a flock of ducks down a canal Enter Kerala and you step into a distinctly different, altogether more chilled, corner of the Indian sub-continent. Lush and green, hot and humid, with its locale and climate also reflected in the way people dress and by what they eat. Men all wear Mundus/Lungis, wearing them down to their ankles (which is more formal) or folded up to their knees (which is cooler). Although they are much more likely to be found in a constant fidgety flux between the two. And the food tastes fresher and zingier, with healthy quantities of coconut and fish ever present. Mundu fiddling We arrived in Kerala at Ernakulam rail station in Kochi (Cochin), after a long overnight train journey from Goa, and jumped straight into a cab to head the further 2 or so hours south to a lovely homestay in Kumarakom , taking in this fascinating new land and people-scape on the way. And while awaiting the arrival of the remaining mem

After a hot journey 3 hours south , in the company of a rather large spider who refused to leave the vehicle, we arrived in Patnem. Another gorgeous beach. Different to Mandrem in that it is a horseshoe bay rather than a wide expanse, prettier in a way because of that. We were staying at Salida del Sol and knew that Paul Harris should already have arrived. After over 2 months without seeing friends you could say we were a tad excited! And lo and behold, there he was. Hugs all round, happiness and catching up. Over the next few hours and days more arrivals, hugs and happiness and finally we had the full gang together - Robbie, Grey, Amy, Nina, Liz, Vix, Jim, Kirsty, Paul, Angus, Jo and myself. And what fun we had! Days were whiled away lazing on sun-loungers, swimming in the sea, doing Yoga (well I went once), playing football, kayaking, reading books and having the odd snooze, while nights saw us working our way through healthy amounts of fresh fish and even healthier amounts o