The hills are alive

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I arrived in Kochi Saturday morning after spending a lovely night in the Bangalore airport, met some interesting people including a girl who was about to do a 10 silent meditation retreat where you have to sit for 10 hours straight a day with a 5 minute break. Sounds hellish to me. A guy from Germany also gave me the name of the hostel his parents own in Varkala which was very useful. At the airport in Kochi I met two British Indian guys who shared a cab with me to the main jetty from which we took a ferry to Fort Kochi.

Fort Kochi was a great place to ease into India, very relaxed with a lot of history, especially from the Portuguese and Dutch rule. It also has a whole section of the city called Jew Town which is where a Jewish community settled in the 1500s under the protection of the Raj, they even built a synagogue pretty much on his palace land which is still standing. Otherwise I did a bunch of wander, there are a bunch of old Chinese nets which are on the water which take 4 people to hoist up and are set with all these rocks as counter weights which were quite cool.

Yesterday I took a bus to Munnar which is up in the mountains and thankfully much cooler and less humid. Lonely Plant describes it as the "Sound of Music of India" which is quite a fitting description, its really beautiful here. All rolling greens hills with tea plantations that we walked through last night. The sound of music soundtrack has thus been haunting me since I arrived. "I am sixteen going on seventeen..."

Also played some cricket with some local boys. And just when I thought I had escaped the embarrassment of playing team sports that involved any body eye coordination. Needless to say, sufficient amounts of athletic inadequacy where felt. Those short lived glory days of goldenboot nachmani have yet to return. Thankfully the night before someone started to explain how cricket is played so I wasn't totally out of the loop. Apparently games range between a day and 5 days! I asked one of the guys I was with how they get any work done during te 5 day tournaments and he just laughed. Really though, I was serious. And still don't really understand the sport but oh well.

Well, this internet cafe smells like paint thinner so I think I will be taking my leave. Until next time folks.

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Comments

[Keep Smiling]

India's national game
What's that? You don't understand cricket? It's really simple: You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out and, when he’s out, he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. Sometimes, you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out, including the not outs, that’s the end of the game. Howzat!

[nisha]

Which bus did you board from cochin for munnar
I am planning to go to munnar, I would like to know which bus did you board, the ticket rates, it was a private one or public transport. Please reply.