Now before we set off on the boat trip, the hostel owner now informs us it takes 2 hours (unlike the 1 he orginally told us) to get from the boat to Cochin Airport. We had to be check in at 12.30 pm our boat is meant to dock at 9.30am so it was going to be tight. Well this is what happened....

After docking up at 10am (late arleady) our taxi wasnt there....eeek. So we waited like the true brits we are. Next to a begger who kept grabbing my leg. The captain and cook kept phoning. We stood looking at every car coming down the drive would be ours. Then this clap out nissan turned up with 2 young guys in (townies) we are like that wont be it. Wrong!! Now this is 1045. Turned out this clap out car has broken down already today. But we need to get to the airport, so we look at each other and jump in. They squeezed Helen and Jo (backpacks) into the boot their little faces pressed against the window. So we are ready but......car wont start...bugger......So we jump out, group of guys push start car... its going... we get in and we are off.

We are bouncing around in the back of this car (yes I am banging my head on the ceiling) watching time ticking on.... are we going to make it.... are we going to die....only time will tell. Then signs start to appear for Cochin, things are looking up. We pull in for petrol... time is ticking... car breaks down again... push start we are off again....we are boucning down the road and we have 20 mins when signs for airport appear....we could do this.

We pull in and the muppet heads for International not domestic, so we are driving around the airport, and I am now getting stropy. We tell him to stop. Steph runs with baby helen and jo in to airport to find out where we have to go. I throw money at the taxi boy grab big helen and jo and start to run towards to the airport. Trousers falling down, hot, bothered, 2 mins to spare.

We get to the door with our booking number, secruity wont let us through, we need to get printed ticket, so we get to the office to get ticket, we are ignored.

We get ticket, get through the 2 secruity check to then find.....check in closed..........


.....Bugger!

Hmmm. What do we do now. So we go back to the office. They try hold the plane we are too late. So we pay the fine and book onto the next flight to Mumbai, but will we get our connection to Jaipur.

After consuming a whole funny tasting Toblerone bar each, we get the flight. We arrive in Mumbai 2 hours after our connection has left. The next flight to Jaipur is 5am its 6.30pm We face it that we are having a night in the airport.

back waters lokation is excellent sight seeing place to the travellors,floating house boats will offer the relevant distractions our liesurly period,and there r private pools and ayurvedic centers also there,the sight is very close to the Nature.

Much to my delight, my friend Elissa came to India for work, and at the last minute found out that I’m here, too.  Elissa had a four-hour (!) conversation with our mutual friend Sharon last December, and the subject of India never came up.  Thankfully when Elissa talked more recently to our other mutual friend, Gabby, she mentioned her upcoming trip, and Gabby told her I’m here.  Phew!  That was a near miss.  Elissa and I decided to spend a week together in Kerala, a state on the southwest coast of India. 

I’m adjusting to life in India and slowly making connections in Bhubaneswar; that said, I was so looking forward to seeing a friend.  During our planning phase, when Elissa was at a conference in Bangalore, we had several giggly phone calls.  Elissa is such a trooper: She attended a conference all day every day, gave presentations, slogged through jetlag and luggage lost somewhere in Paris, and then did half the research for our trip and talked to me late at night.  Elissa, you’re a rock star!

The day I left for Kerala, I got a care package from my folks, filled with all kinds of goodies I asked for, plus a few extras -- including homemade cards from my nieces Maya and Eva, the best presents I could’ve wished for.  Some women are born naturals with children; I’m not one of them.  But those girls -- my god -- I'm crazy for them.  They mean everything to me.  Words fail me in describing it.  Ah, but I digress.

I flew down to Bangalore to meet Elissa, so we could fly to Cochin together the next morning.  We stayed with a colleague of Elissa’s.  Finding her apartment was a bit of a challenge; we knew we were nearby, but eventually we realized we were literally driving in circles.  At one point the driver got out of the car and left us there for 10 minutes, and he was literally nowhere in sight.  Turns out the house numbering system in India is a little… um… different.  Say all the houses on a street are numbered 1-50.  If a new house is built in between, say 10 and 11, instead of being numbered 10A it’s numbered 51.  Oh, and there are almost no street signs.  I don’t know if this is true in all of India, but it’s definitely the case in Bhubaneswar (where I live).  Anyway… we eventually found the apartment building and visited with Elissa’s colleague, who was lovely and a most gracious host.

On Wednesday morning we flew to Ernakulam.  Waiting for the ferry to get to Cochin, we saw other white tourists wearing completely inappropriate clothing: one woman wore shorts and a spaghetti strap top, with her bra straps (and lots of skin) showing.  It made me feel embarrassed to be associated with her by skin color -- it's so disrespectful of this culture. 

We made it to the Leelu guest house and collapsed.  Eventually we rallied and went down to the water, saw the famous Chinese fishing nets (which have been used in Cochin for over 500 years), and people selling clothing and trinkets on the side of the road.  Later we had a lovely dinner at The Tea Pot, a British-inspired restaurant, unsurprisingly filled mostly with tourists.  We actually had Keralan food, which was quite delicious and turned out to be our favorite meal of the trip. 

The next morning I went back to The Tea Pot for a much-needed breakfast of familiar foods: scrambled eggs, toast with butter, a big bowl of bananas and pineapple, and coffee, but sadly no bacon -- an ironic thought since I was about to head to Jew Town.  Yes, that’s right, Jew Town.  Cochin was a safe haven for Jews as far back as 700 BC.  While there are few Jews left here today (most have emigrated to Israel), there’s still a functioning synagogue.  For a little perspective, the girls living in my hostel in Bhubaneswar have never heard of Jews, and can't get their heads around the fact that I'm an American but don't celebrate Christmas.  We autorickshawed it over to the synagogue, which is on Synagogue Lane!  The synagogue was great, and we sat for a while and waxed philosophical about being Jews and how amazing it was that Jews found refuge here.  (And if Elissa heard me say "I'm a Jew in Jew Town!" one more time I thought she was going to lose it.)  We walked around in the spice, blanket, and jewelry shops, and sadly realized it was time to head back to the guest house and then head down to Alleppey. 

Back at the guest house, I got a pleasant surprise: Earlier in the morning when I went to pay for the room, I had a different memory than the proprietor as to the price she’d quoted me via email.  We compromised -- a little higher than I wanted, and a little lower than she wanted.  When we got back after seeing Jew Town, her son said they checked the email, saw that they had in fact quoted me the price I claimed (which was an error on their part, lower than the normal rate), and gave me some money back!  It wasn’t a lot of money -- the equivalent of about $5 -- but it made a big difference to my spirits.  Unfortunately I’m used to being overcharged for everything, and dealing with an honest businessperson was quite refreshing.  Off to Alleppey…

6/29/07

New Video - There are three short, new videos of the famous Kathakali Dance from Southern India.  Scroll to the bottom of the screen and double-click them to view...

Somehow we managed to wake up at 3:00 am ready to head for a lovely 5:00am flight to Cochin.  Murli actually tapped on our door wanting to make sure that we were up.  The taxi guy was a bit late but sped through red lights and little traffic and got us to the airport in plenty of time.  We flew on GoAir, one of several low cost airlines in India that hopefully has relatively new equipment and legal pilots.

After we checked in, we were waiting for our flight in the terminal where we ran into Matt, one of the Canadian kids that we met in immigration on the way into Delhi. He booked the cheapest flight possible home and was flying to Mumbai where he has a fifteen hour layover, then to Singapore where he has another six hour layover, then to San Francisco (6 hour layover) and finally on to Calgary.  Youth has energy, we don’t and are already dreading our 16.5 hour flight to Chicago and six hour layover…It is pouring out in Delhi and he wasn’t sure what to do so we loaned him our India book and he researched things to do in Mumbai with fifteen hours to kill on the plane.  By the time we landed in Mumbai it was a deluge and we are not sure whether or not he made it out of the airport.

After an hour on the ground in Mumbai, it was off to Cochin where we hopped in a cab and headed to the luxury of a Hilton stay.  The airport is close to an hour away from Fort Cochi and Willingdon Island where the Hilton is located so we settled in for a long cab ride.

We finally crossed a bridge onto the island and it appeared to be a little less idyllic a resort than we had hoped for.  In fact, Willingdon Island looks a lot like the seedier parts of the port of Long Beach or San Pedro, CA and right smack in the middle of it, surrounded by nothing but Port Authority offices and a Naval station is the Hilton.  Great.  Stranded.  Things went downhill when we checked in.  If you read the entries from the start of our trip in Rajasthan you will recall that the Trident group who runs the Hilton’s here, just doesn’t treat us as well as elsewhere in the world (given my lofty status of course J).  We were given an “upgraded” room (which was nice but exactly like all of the other Trident rooms and smelled kind of like cat pee plus had the weakest water pressure in India) and were told that we did not get breakfast included.  We did however have access to the “Executive Lounge” where we were told we could “entertain our friends!”.  Too funny - the Executive Lounge was completely empty including no employees, food or drinks.  Oh well - at least the bed is comfy!

We wandered out in the humidity hoping we could find someplace local to eat and were lucky, stumbling on a nice little place with really good Thali’s and Masala Dosas.  Dinner at the Hilton was expensive and only marginally good so we figure we will head over to Fort Kochi tomorrow and spend the day seeing the sights of the island.

6/30/07
We woke up kind of late and decided to hang by the pool which is quite nice before heading over to Fort Kochi.  We walked all the way to the end of the island to catch the ferry across the water only to find out that the map was wrong and the ferry was back towards the hotel.  Luckily, just then, a guy with a rowboat popped up and said he would take us across for 50 rupees which is supposed to be the local price so we hopped in.  He was quite funny and tried to convince us to let him row us all the way to the far side of Fort Kochi where the “Chinese fishing nets” are located.  We said we would walk. 

The island is a strange place with a huge Catholic influence as well as Chinese, Portugese and even Jewish immigrants.  There is a place affectionately called “Jew Town” where there are shops, a cemetery and a synagogue.  We walked up past canals teeming with southern Indian life and boats to the far northern point of the island where the Chinese Fishing Nets are erected.  These are huge, blue nets attached to a catapult looking thing with rocks on the end that were brought here way back.  The net is submerged for a few minutes, then pulled back up by the guys with the big rocks tied to thick ropes.  The catch is a slithering, silvery bag full of tiny little fish that the locals all gawk over before they head off to the market for sale.  Pretty fun to watch.   

We were getting hungry and walked to find a place for lunch before we ran into a group of Keralan kids in their 20’s who wanted to practice their English.  They were very intrigued with America (often asking the most personal of questions about religion, politics, kids, etc.) and we talked with them for a while before trying to find a place to eat.

After lunch, we visited a couple of the big churches and an old Dutch cemetery, then hopped in a tuk-tuk to check out Jew Town, a cool old museum with incredible carved ceilings and the spice market which was pretty uneventful.  The tuk-tuk driver did try to stop at several shops including a spice shop and a tea/ginger/pickle shop to make some commission.  At least the southerners aren’t as pushy as the guys in Agra or Rajasthan.  Generally, once you say you are not interested here, they seem to leave you alone.

Our “guide” took us back to a place where they perform the local Kathakali Dance as well as some other dances.  We were told to show up early to watch the dancers put on their makeup.  Little did I know that it was two men putting on lots of face paint instead of something out of Moulin Rouge.  At first we were the only two people there and we were worried that no one else would show up but eventually a few other people straggled in.  The dances were pretty interesting (Cindy took several videos that we will eventually upload) and all in all it was a lot more fun and less touristy than some venues like this we have been at (like in Tibet!).  It was pouring rain afterwards and we waded across the street for a pretty tasty seafood dinner before grabbing a tuk-tuk back to the confines of the Hilton.

07/01/07
We figured we would start the day off enjoying the pool again but as you can see from the picture of Cindy, it was kind of raining rather hard.  We ended up taking advantage of HBO in the room and watched movies for a while before heading out to our little local place for Masala Dosas for lunch.  Even though I emailed it to them twice, the people at the front desk hadn’t received our Hhonors reward certificate which ended up turning into a huge problem.  The girls who work at reception have huge smiles on their face and not an ounce of intelligence at dealing with a problem.  We ended up having another expensive, mediocre dinner (which really pisses you off in India where the food is usually cheap and tasty) and just to top it off, found out that it is a “dry day” every first of the month.  Luckily they restocked our mini-bar!  The phone rang around 10:15pm that night with one of the vacuous girls downstairs informing me that they still haven’t received the email with the award certificate.  If I was more energetic, I would have walked downstairs and berated her but instead I told her I would deal with it tomorrow and hung up.  Good thing I am a Diamond as I would hate to see how they treat the regular public!

12/10 - 12/12

The bus from Munnar reached Cochin Edapally station around 10.30 AM. I wanted to get my cell phone back from the rickshaw driver. However, I could not find him at the place where he mentioned he would be. I tried to call on my cell phone but it was directly going to the voice mail. Most probably it would have run out of power. A couple of hours of effort trying to identify this person didn't quite help. I decided to leave it and move on. The disappointing part was that I couldn't call Annooz and say that I won't be able to visit her (She later told me that they were expecting us and her mom had prepared lunch for us).

Anyway, before heading for Aleppey I thought I will take Prashant to show the Chinese fishing nets - an iconic symbol of Cochin. We took a bus to Fort Cochin where these fishing nets are still in use. The array of fishing nets is an interesting view and has been photographed by many many people. I joined that group with this pic. These fishing nets are operated manually purely based on physics/mechanics (no electrical or electronic circuits at all).

We spent about an hour at the fishing harbor - watched the fishermen operate the Chinese fishing nets for a catch, walked by the shops who display the freshly caught fish that you can pick for a meal (they will cook it and serve it with your favorite drinks and sides), bargained at few local stores selling shells and other craft items. We also helped ourselves to tender coconut fruit and the juice which is known to be an energy boosting recipe.

Around 1.30 pm we got into a bus that would take us to Aleppey from Cochin.

We were awake by 5 AM so that we can get ready and catch the morning bus service to Munnar. We had a place to crash in Cochin - a rented 3B home of Sam, PR's friend whom we met at the bar previous night - thanks to the arrangement made by PR. There were 3 morning bus schedules from Cochin North Bus Depot to Munnar - at 5.30 AM, 6 AM, and 6.30 AM. After these morning schedules the next bus service is only at 3 PM. We packed our bags and left Sam's place in an auto rickshaw to catch the 6.30 bus. As we approached the Bus Depot I saw the 6 AM bus coming in the opposite lane. We thought of taking a chance and asked the auto rickshaw driver to stop immediately before the bus would cross. We got out in a hurry after paying the fare (and tipping the driver). Standing by the road side we waived our hands. The bus driver saw us and stopped the bus. We got into the bus and there were a few empty seats in the front row.

I wanted to call Sam to say that we boarded the bus. Sam also had given us a contact number in Munnar that we can use for finding a place to stay once we reach there. He had a friend who knew some lodge owners in Munnar. It is all human network.. Better than Verizon :) But my phone was missing. I remember keeping it safely in my cargo pants pocket while packing my bag and since then I had not used it. I checked my bag but I couldn't find my phone in there.  It struck me that in my hurry to pay the auto rickshaw driver and catch the bus I might have lost it somewhere. It turned out that the rickshaw driver found my phone and he promised to return it next day after we come back from Munnar. I also told Sam about it and he also called up my number to get the driver's information. I had a few numbers stored in my phone that I wanted for the rest of our trip including Annooz's.

The bus journey to Munnar is enjoyable. After crossing the city suburbs there are plenty of greenery on both sides of the road and the road passes through many small towns. We had a 20 minute break for breakfast and refreshments at one of those stop over towns. Prashant and I got served to the local flavor of Idlee and Dosa with a warm cup of coffee. You can also buy news papers in English and Malayalam from all these places. We resumed the journey and I felt a little sleepy after having a yummy breakfast. As we were getting closer to Munnar the road becomes steeper and curvier. There are a lot scenic spots on this route - river steams, mini water falls, fabulous views of the cliffs, valleys with tea plantations etc. You can also watch the local people, their houses and living.

Situated on one of the streets of Fort Cochin, Sithara Homestay caters to the taste and needs of the discerning tourists. Present on a street studded with numerous ancient buildings conjuring up an aura of yore. An ideal place to start your discovery of the place and to plan and explore the beauty of Kerala. Fort Cochin is one of the sections of Cochin (The industrial Capital of Kerala), tucked between the Arabian Sea & the backwaters. Situated on a peninsula in the west linked by a complex system of ferries and unimaginatively made bridges, Fort Cochin shares the western location with Mattancherry as its other geographical ally of the old districts, while the eastern part is occupied by modern Ernakulam. Fort Cochin attracts interest mainly due to its extraordinary history of foreign influence and settlement. They are reflected in an assortment of architectural styles. During a wander through their narrow lanes, you will stumble upon spice markets, Chinese fishing nets, a synagogue, a Portuguese palace, India's first European church, Dutch homes, and a village green that could have been transported from England's Home Counties. The city is also one of the few places in Kerala where, at any time of year, you can be assured of seeing Kathakali dance, either in one of several special tourist theatres, or at a more authentic performance by a temple based company. Sithara Homestay offers a wide range of rooms. Starting from Luxury family apartment with balcony and Double AC bedrooms to Single Non AC budget rooms. Water heaters/hot water facility, Laundry are available. Traditional Kerala cuisine and Continental food provided on order. Special rates are available to subject to conditions and availability of rooms. For advance booking or special rates email us at mail@sitharahomestay,com. Airport pickup will be arranged if required. 24 hour taxi service, The lady of the house cooks so damn well, sure to get spoiled in this homestay. 1 hour away from the nearest railway station and airport. very near to the beach...check it really good.... The website is www.sitharahomestay.com

I tried my best not to wake up inspite of the loud crappy movie going on in the seating hall, and inspite of the sickening rocking of the ship. The ship was going making slow progress anyway. Around noon I stepped out onto the bow (or something like that). It was sunny and not too warm. I could see rainbow colours in the spray of water as the ship cut through the water. Just relaxed there for a while, rocking about and watching the pretty colours come and go, and then the occasional flying fish jumping out and gliding back into the deep coloured waters. But got bored of that soon enough and returned to rest through the remainder of the torturously long sea journey.

The ship finally docked at about 17:00. I touched dry land again about 17:30 and rushed myself to the airport, which took another goodly (and torturous) 2 hours to get to. Fortunately I was in time for a 20:45 flight to Bangalore and seats were available. When I entered the terminal India was playing Pakistan in the cricket T20 world finals, and half the hall was glued to the TV, cheering and oohing and aahing with every ball bowled. I left the hall at 20:15 when Indian team seemed to have gotten themselves into a dismal position. A relatively peaceful flight later I was back to Bangalore, full circle - through Cochin and Kavaratti, welcomed by sounds of fireworks. India had won the match and the world cup T20 tournament.

-- Ashish Bhambhani

Come morning and heavy rain pounded Ernakulam for about an hour, and some of the streets were partly flooded. The one next to my hotel wasn't any good either... it had about 8 inches of water on one side. I side stepped it carefully and was off to the "SPORTS" Lakshadweep tourism office on Willingdon island (close to the port). This was the day when I set off... so exciting.

I reached the tourism office well in time, only to find out that nothing else was happening on time. The ship that was to take me to Kavaratti - the M V Amindvi - was delayed till 3 PM or so due to some paperwork. Sigh. Eventually me and 2 couples (who were also going on the same tour) boarded the ship arond 4 PM. Most of the passengers were locals from the islands.

The ship wasn't quite a big one, and didn't have any cabin accomodation. So we were supposed to sit it out for the next 20 or so hours. I had no idea what was in store, this being my first sea voyage on any ship. Basically, this was this was the first ship going to the islands post monsoon season. The weather still wasn't the best ... urrp. A few hours was enough to realize that I was going to be verrrry sea sick. After dinner I couldn't take it anymore and finally asked around, and got some medication. Guess it wasn't soon enough... purge... and feeling a bit better. Managed to finally fall asleep, even though the common television was blaring some old print of the bollywood movie "Mein Khiladi Tu Anari" (only after a chain of more inane old songs).

-- Ashish Bhambhani

'Twas an early morning for me today... 7 am wake up (damn early for me). Got my weary rear ready and promptly reached the travel agent guy. He set up the first day tour for me starting 9 am. This was a 3 hour or so boat ride through the backwater canals in one of the villages south of Cochin (near Kumarakom). The canal wasn't like any river backwaters I had done any cruise on before in Kerala. These were irrigation canals, about 4 feet deep and maybe 7-10 feet wide only and with vegetation, farms, houses all around. However it was a very gentle peaceful ride through the slow waters, with the guide telling us miscellany about the vegetation that grows around, the farming and other such mundane daily things in a villager's life. Quite interesting for an urban yuppie. I saw tonnes of coconut, banana and bettlenut ("supari") trees. Many wild pineapple and pineapple shrubs lining the canals. Also saw how mats are made from wild pineapple leaf strips, and how coconut coir is obtained and processed into ropes et al. And there was the occasional kingfisher, water snake and pretty flowers (water lilies, hibiscus) to keep us interested and looking around avidly.

On return I managed to grab a quick lunch of "mutton roghan josh" (ultra spicy but not great) and kerala parota, and set off for the boat cruise around Cochin harbor.

Managed to reach on time at 14:00 to the boat jetty, only to find out that the tour boat was famously late. Boarded the boat finally at 14:30 when it arrived and it took us on a peaceful 25-30 min ride to "Jew town, Cochin" travelling close to the harbor/port. Jew town is a quaint old locality with a whole bunch of shops selling touristy stuff, handicrafts and expensive antiques. "Dutch palace" located here is an old small building gifted to the then king, and painted on the insides with scenes from the 'Ramayana'. There is also an old synagogue to be seen in the vicinity. Followed by a short boat ride that showed us the mouth of the river (meeting the Arabian sea) and the "chinese fishing nets", reached dry land sound and safe.

Found meself a better room, and after shifting to the newer room, was time to look around and find another nice place to have an epicurious delight on some more Kerala food in the evening. Roamed aroung on M.G.Road for a while and found a nice place where I ate some excellent Kerala special freshwater fish "karimeen" with equally nice "appam" and "idiappam".

Couldn't wait to get up the next morning and set off to Kavaratti island!! Farewell Cochin.. for a few days atleast.

Caught the early morning 6 am train from Bangalore to Ernakulam Junction. Sleeping most of the way since I was kept awake the previous night due to the ridiculously interesting/thrilling India - Pakistan 20-20 cricket match. Anyway, I woke up around Pulakkad and there were beautiful mountains in the distance covered in thick clouds, with lush green paddy fields and coconut groves in the foreground.

I have just reached Cochin(Kochi) and found myself a cheap little cubbyhole for the first night here. Cant wait for 17th morning to set off on the cruise to Kavaratti.

Meanwhile just intend to enjoy the local cuisine ... should be lots of yummy and spicy seafood for the offering. Bet my roommates are dying with jealousy right now.

Well so finally, nothing much exciting happened the first night in, just looked around, most everything already closed due to late weekend. Ended up going to some restaurant and gorging myself on some yummy appams and prawn curry :) Next day should be more exciting with some city tour likely to happen for me.

This is a very family place with an air-conditioned/cooled and a non-cooled section. Slightly upscale feel, ambiance was decent, clean place and service was quite helpful. Language at-least was not a problem, like it is at several places in Kerala - the waiters spoke understandable English. The local food turned out to be well made and served hot. Didn't keep me waiting much, especially the breads were served quickly even when ordered midway in the meal. For dinner, I had the local freshwater fish speciality - Karimeen Moily, along with some hot Appam (soft sweet Kerala bread). The fish was juicy and the curry was excellent, not too hot and just spicy enough. It wasn't cheap, nor expensive, well worth the delicious treat though. If you are at M.G.Road, this place is worth considering. -- Ashish Bhambhani

We headed to Kochi from the home stay with a boat and bus ride - about 3 hours.  In Kochi we set up in the hotel and the girls went to get henna while me and the boys went down to the harbour to see what there was to do.  Not muh - lots of indians wandering along the promenade - a bad smell from the sea - probably from indian toilet stops in it - indians piss and shit anywhere that is possible - and then we went and found a wicked local cafe style restaurant and after some confusion paid for our food at the counter - gave our drink and food receipts to different people, and got our wares from each repective person!  It was pretty tasty and dirt cheap.  This is what I had been expecting on the trip, and it was much more fun to eat with the locals - esecially now we were braver with what to eat! 

That night we went to see the Kathakali dance - check the pictures.  This is not a dance exactly - in the sense that it is not supposed to be entertainment.  The dancers are considered to be priests - as they become the Gods that they are playing - and the dance is actually a medium of communicating with the Gods and honouring them.  It is normally done in the temple - but this is for tourists to see it and for the dancers to make some extra cash!  It was really good - very different.  First we watched them put on their make up and then they danced a scene about a God and a Goddess - where the Goddess has been invaded by an evil spirit - and tries to seduce the God.  But the realises and banished the spirit.  The methos of dancing is really odd - everything is done with facial expression and contortion.  Theidea being to keep your feeling inside and not open your mouth i think!  Certainly an experience.

Afterwards we went to another  5* hotel for an expensive dinner I couldn't afford.  There was a pizza hut on the same steet - wish I'd gone there!  Didn't do much after except go back to the hotel - watch braveheart - and knock my mole off my arm on the light switch.  Great!

Next day we left mainland Kochi for Fort Kochi - a wicked man made island that actually had character and charm.  I really liked this place- little streets with antique and misc shops.  We visited a beautiful synagogue, the maharajas summer residence, and a church, as well as seeing the chinese fishing boats.  We went for lunch at a cool little art cafe full of backpackers - and got pumpkin soup and a veggie toastie for about one pound!

Had to do the rounds for some family xmas pressies, seeing as the stuff was good and this was a port town.  Got some nice things - and wrote all my xmas cards, and jumped on a boat to the mainland to try post them.  Had to have them stitched into cotton at a tailors - which they over charged me for hideously - and pushed in a the post office to send them but didnt have enough money and had to run because we had an overnight train to catch.  Bit of a disaster - have to post them in mysore i guess.

This time we had the upper class sleeping carriage on the train - much better.  People cant wander through and its air onditioned rather than pen windowed with fans.  Slept much better and felt safer too.  Nice.  In the morning we were already in Mysore!

Yeah this place is in the heart of Fort Cochin , in Cochin city , people calls it the queen of Arabian sea , In This cool seren place there is homestay which really feels as our home, and the lady of the house cooks so damn well that her pampering will really spoil u :) ..bbut the food is damn good they got real exotic dishes this place cannot be found in travel guides. if u go to kerala state in India u gotta check out sithara homestay, its a cool place to stay .. very near to the beach ...near to all the tourist sites but in a seren and calm and beautifull place . check their website out and its cheep too www.sitharahomestay.com can contact thru their website i am also uploading a photograph of chinese nets in fort Cochin Regards Harry