kochi

kochi is lovely. i was planning on being here for 3 nights and tonight will be my 5th..... it's such a calm, pretty, relaxed place to be. the first night was a bit stressy as my bus was late and dropped me about 20km from my hotel. then my taxi driver didn't know where my hotel was so we drove around aimlessly for an hour or so to find it. it was all good though and i made it in time to catch the man utd game. kochi is made up of islands and a peninsula, i was staying in ernakulam which is on the mainland and close to the transport hubs.

so on my first morning i jumped on a ferry and headed for fort cochin, the main historical area. i spent the day walking around, looking at the portuguese heritage - churches, old houses and mansions and the like. in the afternoon i went down and had a look at the chinese fishing nets which line the north shore like spiders ready to pounce. one group of fishermen beckoned me over and we sat and chatted a while over chai while they told me about their lives and their work. at the end they asked if i wanted to help them land the catch, which i did (while the oldest guy took some cool pics.) that evening i sat and ate my food and went off in search of a bar with zee sports so i could watch the carling cup final. sadly i didn't manage to find one but along the way i met a german guy and a brit who were also on the same mission so the night wasn't a complete bust as we sat and chatted the night away over some kingfishers and papads.

the next evening i was joined at my table by a girl from salford as there was nowhere else for her to sit in the restaurant. we got to chatting and i joined her for a classical keralan music performance (which we agreed was good but went on a bit...) before going for a pot of special tea. licensing laws in kerala mean that you can't have open alcohol containers on the street, so bars and restaurants which have outdoor seating get around the problem by serving the beer in teapots with teacups to drink it out of which was rather fun and we had a lovely evening nattering away before sneaking a beer to the shore next to one of the nets where we befriended a cat and a dog who were snoozing nearby. becky was staying in a homestay which closed its doors at 11 and by the time we were finished chatting it was almost 1am. the bridge over to ernakulam closes at 1am so we hurriedly made our way to a rikshaw (driven by a nice driver and his barmy friend) and made our way to my hotel. it took bloody ages - i had to get over to fort cochin tomorrow as it was too much effort getting to and from ernakulam. as we got there, there was a surprise waiting for us on my bed... something had managed to get in there and leave me a present on my pillow...... gross. new sheets etc were ordered and we eventually passed out - it's so humid and warm here.

the next morning we decided that it was time for some luxury, so as i write this i am fresh from a night in a 4 poster bed, with attached sitting area, bathroom with a jacuzzi and a swimming pool out the back. it was bloody lush and cost 7000 rupees, which is about 90 quid.

for a few weeks now (well, since hampi) i've been toying with the idea of going to thailand for a mini 2 or 3 week holiday. it started when i heard the canadian girls sharing tales with the people we did the bike tour of hampi with, and has kind of continued as i hear more and more about the place. the way i see it is i have the money right now, i'll definitely be back to india to finish off what i haven't seen, and i just feel like a change for a while. there's every possibility of meeting up with my uni friends davina and david who are in laos at the moment and heading to thailand and the canadian girls are headed that way as well. so yeah, i'm going to spend a few days in varkala and then i'm going to see if i can get a cheap flight to thailand. happy days.