Hotel Abad Plaza Kochi

... that ends well.<br>We had lunch at the Elite Rooftop restaurant. We finally found the thali Kerry wanted the day before. It consisted of eight different dishes served in small metal cups on a round tray. The authentic version is served in scoops on a banana leaf without utensils, but I&#8217;m happy to be semi-authentic.<br>There are two old churches nearby - one Catholic, the other started out being Catholic but became ...

... the economy class or lower classes as i do learn more aboot the culture and way of life by being fully immersed, in those few hours than i ever would on aircon 1st class or superior classes. That is just too easy and not true to the culture...and not true to my experience i dont think.<br><br>So then another rickshaw ride to the ferry and then a 15 min ferry to get to the Fort, Kochi...finally. A small, prosperous, friendly place and relatively ...

... We were flying to our last location in India, the backwaters of Kerala on the Southwest coast. The main recreation in that area is spending time on houseboats, but we were going to get there too late in the day to get on a boat, so we went to an old colonial building called the Koder House to stay for the night. It had HUGE rooms. We had half a floor of the building to ourselves, with simple furniture, a couple four-poster beds ...

... that they had doomed humanity, straight into a bookstore. Some of you (maybe one or two people, probably in my family) ma be interested to know that i've started reading in quite a big way. When I was 8, Mrs. Dixon said that I had the reading age of a 13 year old, I was chuffed. I kept a tight grip on that reading age for about 15 years, and have never really been into books. I can feel that changing. Books I have read since being here: 'Fight Club' 'Off ...

... we decided that that could put too much pressure on the trip timewise, and boarded a train straight to Chennai. For those of you with poor geographical knowledge, this is one mammouth train journey, from one end of the country to another, South. For those of you that dont really care about the geography, it was a scheduled 32 hours journey! We climbed aboard, logged ourt luggage, and settled down for the journey in our top bunks. Throughout the journey i chatted to locals, ate ...

... Finally figured it out and went to see the tailor who then told me that his employee was coming in an hour and was at the hospital...good sign I thought that all would be going smoothly...But after visiting four other tailors in the immediate vicinity, I returned to the older man I first visited and decided to stick with him since he actually seemed to know what he was doing unlike the other ones that just ...

... veggie option so tore my way through what i think was a chicken). Mind you i did pay 1500 R for my ticket and i slept under the leaking ac unit, totally soaked and cold but hey beats the sleeper carriages. The train even stopped at the right station for at least 7 seconds (no exaggeration) for us to get off. Two girls behind us obviously overslept though as all we heard were screams as they literally threw themselves off the train as it pulled away. onto Goa...

... an awful Will Ferrell movie), Ocean's Twelve, Cape Fear, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, American Ninja and others so bad we've already forgotten them. On our last day Rachel was feeling a lot better and we managed to get round the main sights including the Chinese fishing nets, Jew Town, and the Mattancherry (or Dutch) Palace. We've had some excellent food but also some very mediocre fare including a barely ...

... going for it was the awesome views, looking over the Keralan lagoons - I managed to sneak a few pics but had to be very careful as photography is prohibited anywhere in the compound - eek! After a little hysterical giggling at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, H and I pulled ourselves together and went along to the evening devotional singing in the temple. Didn't understand any of the words, but it was a calming atmosphere and we sat there for over an hour just listening and ...

... it is quite a study in shul decorating! On Thursday (today) we spent my birthday in the backwaters of Kerala, viewing village life (from a riverboat) that has not changed much from time immemorial. We traveled south from Cochin towards the tip of India where the Arabian Sea, The Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean meet. For the first time we traveled by highway, covering 45 miles in about an hour. In Mumbai that would take 4 hours (seriously!). India is in the ...