Avenue Regent Kochi

... wet clothes against a slanted concrete slab to beat the dirt of our them. The hundreds of pieces of clothing are then hung out to dry in a large field. We looked for my orange tee shirt and some other clothes we sent out but didn't see it.<br><br>The final step is the ironing room where several men were pressing the clothes. they used a cast iron contraption with a lid. It is filled with charcoal made of coconut shell bits and ...

... European built church, built by the Portugese and dedicated to Sao Antonio, the patron saint of Purtugal but converted by later Dutch settlers into a protestant church and rededicated to St Francis. Vasco da Gama lived behind the church until his death and was buried in the church until he body was moved to Lisbon. We then strolled down the street to the beach to see the Chinese fishing nets. These are a series of permanent ...

... up, illustrate that communication is varied, and that ideas and emotions can be conveyed much more subtley than we can imagine. Flash photography aside, it was well worth seeing. And so it is that Kochi is left behind tomorrow for Allapuzha and the backwaters. A short bus ride will take us to what the guide calls "a little slice of Venice" in the East. Venice smells, but hopefully Allapuzha has discarded this distinctly Venetian feature and yet retained its charm and romantic atmosphere.

... All of them waved good morning and before moving on we had to shake all their hands! Trying to imagine this situation back home with any group of teenage lads. So far in India there has not been one situation, setting or street where we have not felt safe.<br><br>After lunch served on a banana leaf at a local eatery our guide took us to Sunset Valley Point where after a short walk along a narrow path to a rock ledge where the world just opened out in front of ...

... I also ask about spiders. The only ones you'll meet, Tempi says, are domestic harmless spiders. Other than that, we'll never see spiders in India. I hope he's right. We disembark for the lime factory, to watch four men in loin cloths pour mussel shells into a furnace lined with coconut shells. Later, when we have left, the furnace will reach 1000 degrees and produce a powder, to which they'll add water and get lime for fertilizer ...

... India there are little Hindu temples along major highways and local alley-ways and in people's homes and everywhere else you turn. What's interesting is that they have "Hindu-ized" Christianity. So throughout Goa and so far, in Kerela, there are little Christian "temples" set up along the highways, and alleyways, and homes, etc. All of the statues of Christ and ...

... recommended. For lunch we went to a place that was famous for its briyanis and fried fish. It was excellent. We sat with a newly-wed Indian couple who were just gorgeous. She was Anglo Indian from Calcutta and he a Sadar from the Punjab. He is a navy man and they have only recently been posted to Cochin. Plenty of stories and we laughed a lot. They also love food and she was saying how much she disliked Southern ...

... reading my screen and asked "what you looking at?" I answered "David Beckham", then he read th headline patted me on my shoulder and turned away and said "see you later"??? Also we were walking past a school and a gang of 8-10 year old girls were waving from the open window. One of them shouted "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" I replied "ADAM". Then she shouted "WHAT IS YOUR FRIENDS NAME?" Ben shouted back. Then they all shouted "HAVE YOU GOT ANY PENS?" We smiled about it for the rest of the day.

... Jewish town was like walking back through the Middle Ages and we saw the largest Vapur in the world, a huge cooking vessel. I even saw a snake temple, but was advised not to go close since there were lots of snakes in the undergrowth. We spent the rest of the day sitting near the beach, writing postcards and enjoying the sunset that didn't quite come (too many clouds that day). Still we managed to miss going to KAASHI ART CAFE which Philip ...

... past Hindu shrines and see Indian women wearing the habit of Christian nuns. What it is most famous for, however, is being the heartland of Ayurvedic medicine, the exact reason that we find ourselves here. Alex and I took an arduous but irreplaceable train ride lasting 56 hours to reach here...18 dollars for this ride or 300 dollars for a plane ticket made the choice simple, plus I so wanted to watch all of the Indian landscape rush past me. I loved how we formed a small ...