Ranting, raving and special tea!

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The Western Ghats, the mountains ranges in Kerala and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in south India are famous for their tea (and recently also for the amount of pesticide that contaminates the ground water). However we were introduced to 'special tea' by Derek and Chaim in the Anchor Hotel overlooking the water at Cochi (not that hard, lots of islands, lots of water). It was a dry day to celebrate the life of a person dedicated to social justice but .... even though I was after a coffee, the beer in a tea pot tasted great.

Derek "I don't mind if I interject now" is a writer, here to finish his book. Two months ago he broke his shoulder and collar cuff (my shoulder cries out in sympathy) and that, plus the special tea, we think is slowing his progress. He and raconteur friend Chaim fill the space with talk and conversation curls over the room, engaging everyone who walks in. We find out lots about their life; whether it is true or not is irrelevant. Kym is given career advice; included, demanded upon and holds his own with stories. Seeing a tiger is impressive; but Kym has other stories as well. Maybe one day he will contribute to the blog but otherwise you will need to hack into his facebook account.

3 hrs later it is nearly dark, we haven't completed our mission which was to find an interesting place to stay. But we did work out that Fort Cochi is fun.

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