Hotel Pearl Continental Kochi

... and hard leather seats to pull out of the dirty station at 8AM. The bus had no windows and I guess to keep the rain out had a pull down steel shutter, which we didn't have to use. We spent some time chatting to the English girls, and most of our time staring out the window in wonderment at what we were passing in our great chugging, gurgling bus with the squeaky breaks. The villages past in their dozens, people looking curiously at us as we passed, some venturing a wave, which ...

... coffee machine at the bathroom break. This seating arrangement meant that i could see and feel every close shave we had with other vehicles as the driver swerved and floored it around hairpin turns and mucho traffico. Sometimes i still speak in Spanish in moments of unconsciousness. The windowless bus made lots of stops and it was an overcrowded, hot, dusty and rankus stankus slug machine all the way to Ernakulam. I hit commuters peak hour in town but somehow ...

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... by a coastal lake, and so ferries are in abundance to take you to wherever you want to go for just 2 and half rupees each. There was a lot of shopping options on MG Road (everywhere has an MG -Mohatma Ghandi - Road it seems) and an abundance of cinemas, these guys love their film, I counted at least 5 in the MG Rd area alone! The rest of our time was mainly spent in Erankulam, as it was just easier. We took the ferry over to Fort Cochi on ...

... a lot less paperwork. We stayed in the old 'factory' shed which has been converted into a guest room with a stunning outside bathroom. It backs on to one of the rivers that make up the Keralan Backwaters and is surrounded by coconut trees. Dinner was fantastic, real home cooking with coconut as a key ingredient in both the fish and cabbage curries. The change from the urban chic of the Hans Plaza in Delhi to this rural idyll could hardly be more pronounced.

... patchwork of green tea plantations, and water cascades through narrow gaps in the rocky mountains into streams and rivers below. I took a small trek through the tea plantations down to one of the waterfalls. I got quite lost enroute (the rickshaw driver and I had a miscommunication about directions...) and ended up walking into small villages, greeted with looks of 'what the fcuk are you doing here, westerner?' That ...

... next to her shop for some ginger tea and cookies. Outside, some tourists were lining up to visit the synagogue. In Kerala, there are still three synagogues, but the one here is the only one still open and is a protected heritage site. A series of large oil paintings in an entry room of the synagogue tell the history of the Jews in Kochi. The first painting depicts King Solomon's merchant ship greeting Indian leaders and trading peacocks ...

... before.. Jim and I soon rationalised that sundays didn't actually constitute the "next day" for devout catholics and reasoned that in future we'd interpret all intel with the messenger's religious leanings in mind.. Nonetheless, we continued out the door to be accosted by a tall, well-spoken fellow who insisted we head trekking with him. In all honesty, alarm bells go off whenever someone approaches us (Jim and I have resolved that a rickshaw driver's reliability ...

... Good to know. If I can piece the story together I believe that a group of three people were going to get on the train and the guy got on but the women did not so the guy ended up jumping off at some point. This all created quite a commotion and everyone in the car had to go look. People in India are very curious to say the least. They always want to know what is going on in everyone's business. I can appreciate that given my love of gossip ...

... filled with antique shops and spice stalls. There had been a large Jewish population here for hundreds of years until the 1950s when many left to live in Israel, perhaps that explains the lack of atmosphere in the street. We returned to Fort Cochin again to see a Kathakali performance. This strange dance drama is unique to Kerala and is distinctive for its elaborate makeup. The performace we saw was the story of a demon woman who ...