Abad Airport Kochi

... the boat, and a wonderful moment was had by all when Jyoti screamed "no no no, we dont want lobsters", and the fisherman quietly said, "yes madam, they are prawns, not lobsters".  The grilled prawns that evening tasted wonderful and so fresh.

I loved waking up every morning to find we had been moved to a secluded spot, ready for our breakfast.  I enjoyed ...

... is full of debris. (The streets are dirty and the open sewers run along the street out to the harbour). We were hounded by street peddlers to buy things. We saw many cows and goats in the streets. We made a rest stop at the only place that was acceptable for tourists but this was also connected with a carpet store and a jewellry store. The stores had some beautiful things but very expensive. Our next stop was the "Mattancheri Palace" , built as ...

We arrived in Cochi after a decent 6 hour journey back down the mountain road. The rickshaw driver asked me if wanted to go fast to the guest house and naturally I said yes. Ordinarily perhaps I may have been concerned by his driving but as a veteran of the Cardamon mountain road I laughed at his 40kph flat road antics. (It was nervous laughter). The place I picked from the Rough ...

Ok, so this relaxing thing is actually getting a bit old here. I am really looking forward to the start of my tour on the 5th. Woke up late again today, had breakfast at the Teapot, had a fitting for some pants I am having made (about 400 INR or $10 each), had lunch at a new place called the Kashi Art Cafe which is a very cool art gallery and place to grab a small healthy bite of non-Indian food and drink...except of ...

Cochin, much like Pondicherry, is strange for the fact that it is one of the biggest tourist destinations in south India, yet is totally underdeveloped, and really really small. However, don't think I'm complaining - this makes it brilliant, as it means it's not just pandering to the tourists, by providing 5-star everything! We met Patricia (a french ayurvedic masssage student) on the ferry over to Fort ...

... couple from Oz. We had a great time snapping a zillion pictures, inhaling what I think was biodiesel and taking in the beauty. The scenery change from the high mountains to coconut covered sea level was just spectacular. Arriving in Metypalyum, we realised we all were traveling to same place so here I lucked out with some partners in crime - always good to make some new travel friends especially when you have an overnight train ride ahead. We crammed onto the right train from ...

... are also some neat beaches, but we didn't get that far. On our first day in Kerala, we headed to a part of Cochin, known as Fort Cochin. Essentially, Cochin constitutes an area of small islands that are accessible by ferry. It sounds nice but isn't necessarily.. The waters are big and murky, and an irrepressible (sp?) smog hands over all, thanks to some massive industry on the waters.. Some parts of the water system are lined with massive container ships (again, in India ...

... with them that looked like some sort of mutton or something. But it was all wrapped in banana leaves and they ate it with their fingers. It was really neat to watch. I spent most of the time reading my book which I finished so that was good! The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - highly recommend it. There was some sort of disturbance on the train at some point. The ticket agent ran back and pulled on the emergency cord which of course didn't ...

... bus in goa that said 'standing 11 people' on the wall, and counted at least 36 standing! smelled 36 different types of BO at once! 6. ordered a massive tandoori kingfish caught fresh from the sea, it was so good! they bring them round on a platter first and you choose which one you want! 7. at a book stall in the station in coimbatore, noticed they had at least 6 copies of 'mein kampf' (by a. hitler) for sale, in 2 different editions. why? why? why? 8 ...

... FORMER ENGLAND CAPTAINS HAVE SAID.  Hear Goochy tell the one about the monkey, the breeze-block and the cigar?  How about Mike Brearley and the Yorkshireman, the Lancastrian and the Cumbrian?  Or Mike Atherton's quip when Soft Mick slipped on a banana skin?  Then again maybe you've hear Beefy Botham's one about Scunthorpe?  There might be limited mileage in this newsgroup, but there's no harm in trying.  Send "Subscribe HTFECHS" to you know ...