The International Hotel Kochi

... coming in the sky was an awesome sunset with colours of pink, orange and purple. If we were just an hour earlier we would have caught the sunset properly over the ocean instead of from the train. Hopefully it's good again tonight cause I didn't get any sunsets in Goa. I've got another cooking class tonight so hopefully learn a few more tricks. This one included fish dishes and the lady seemed really nice. I'm also gonna go check out a boat cruise to do tomorrow on the backwaters

... this *s it's very quiet *nd re*lly moves *t its own p*ce. It *lso g*ve Jutt* *nd Brigitte time to m*ster some of my more origin*l English phr*ses *nd incorpor*te them into their voc*bul*ries. I m*de it cle*r to them th*t these *re not in common use in GB but they like them *nd like to use them loudly in public. I *m proud to h*ve *ctively decre*sed their st*nd*rd of English through cont*ct with me. Amongst their f*vorites *re; 'Bigg*dy Bosh ...

... obwohl ich auch hi** nicht mehr so elanvoll an die Sache h**anging. Wichtig war mir jedoch, dass die Kind** wussten, dass ich sie sehr g**n habe und sie nie schlagen würde. Ich wollte unbedingt V**änd**ung schaffen. Ab** wie?<br><br>Nach einem Monat dann besuchte mich eine deutsche Freiwillige, welche in ein** nah gelegenen Schule unt**richtete mit den Mitarbeit**n d** Organisation, welche sie betreute. So bekam ich das **ste Mal die Möglichkeit üb** mein Probleme und Erfahrungen zu ...

... you have time in hand this is what you can do here --- 1) Go on jungle trekking. Groups of 5 are allowed per trip and are conducted in the morning. 2) In the evening forest deptt. conducts Night Safari from 7 to 8 pm which should also be interesting. I felt it will be more fun and adventure rather than getting to see animals. 3) Then there is a 3-day Tiger Trail conducted here. 4) Indulge yourself in one of those Kerala style ayurvedic massage centers ...

... it seemed the right time to try and catch a breeze while watching the fishermen using their brilliantly simple 'Chinese' fishing nets. Even by the river there wasn't much of a breeze so we decided to indulge ourselves and headed to the Taj Malabar hotel for a swanky air conditioned lunch. The food was excellent, the waiters charming and everyone was most understanding of our need to play Marvel Max top trumps between courses. Some of you ...

... and shorter than we had thought. The travel person at Hotel Arches had said that the ride to Alleppy by bus would take 2.5 hours, 1.5 by car. Either the bus went faster than usual or was an express bus, b/c the ride took 1 hour. Brent and I had ample room on the bus, which had high seats (I couldn't see in front of my seat) and sliding windows. [Naresh: I could see out the front of the bus. It was insane. I was insane for watching, but I couldn't ...

... institutions tick. The tour is being organised by the United States Educational Foundation in India. The scholars will focus on Mathematics and Science subjects which preserve the talent pool they are looking for. They will observe the classes by teachers of various Bhavan's schools at the Elamakkara campus to understand how Maths and Science are taught to children here. At the Centre for Science in Society at Cusat, the group will ...

... already arranged an overnight stay in a tree house inside a nearby national park. It was a ~30min trek to reach the isolated hut. This was daunting considering i could barely lift my pack. Anyway we made it/ The trek there was actually really cool. We saw some wild elephants along the way and Clint and I started excitedly yelling out to each other. That was until our panicked guide shushed us and made us back away up th path. Turns out wild elephants ...

... we had planned to crack on south and get to the beaches as soon as poss but were flat exhausted and had to stay 2 nights just to recharge. Its a cute, smallish village with a decent tourist season so there were plenty of menus in english and the odd "egg n chips" on offer too. Best thing was at last getting a view of the Arabian sea (even if it did look and smell like Tynemouth at low tide) and watching the local fishermen - 4 at a time - work these ...

... was amazing to see these birds up close...so regal. Even with their wings clipped. And, the highlight of the day was that we wre treated to a special display of duck herding. Yep - not sure why or how, but hundreds, maybe thousands of ducks were herded across the river by 2 very experienced duck shepherds... The lazy day was perfect except that after a few hours we were starving (despite having eaten loads of fresh fruit, dates, cashews - all so cheap here ...