Blogs from Kerala, India, Asia - page 7

Woolly says – Our last day in Kochi arrived with the sun blazing in, a slow get up and the need to pack everything back into the bags, it never ceases to amaze me how much mess can suddenly disappear into two backpacks and three rucksacks, but it does. A breakfast of boiled egg and toast hit the mark well and we set off to amble around the fort town for the last time. Fort Kochi has little left and is now more about the small town rather than the fort itself, the Fort was built in 1538 as a Portuguese settlement and remained in their possession until 1683, when the Dutch colonial troops captured the territory and destroyed the Portuguese institutions. The Dutch held the fort in their possession until 1795, when the British took ... read more

Woolly says – Our journey from Madurai took around nine hours, it just seemed like a lifetime. Having been unsuccessful in procuring train tickets we had our first bus journey to look forward to. Climbing on board and finding our seats was the easy part, the lack of space, even with legs as small as mine and Jo’s, once the seats were reclined, was small, it also meant that the person who was reclining towards you had their head nearly on your lap. It was a long night as we went over huge bumps in the road at speed nearly jolting my tusks out of place, listening to the constant barrage of honking and blaring horns in between the snores from the gent in front of us. Our arrival in Kochi at six in the morning ... read more

7 Oct 17 Setup flight monitor prices on Skyscanner 30 Oct 17 Book flights (Going with air India direct from Sydney 12.5 hours cause life to too short to mess around in KL with cheapo airlines). 31 Oct Book dog boarding 4 Nov read guide book & blogs 5 Nov work out itinerary 6 Nov Passport interview for 1 expired pp 6 Nov Book internal flights (Chose Vistara cause again life too short for budget airlines with their b.s. extras) After more research 6 Nov Book Delhi hotel 6 Nov Buy travel insurance 7 Nov Book Kochi hotel 7 Nov Book Varkala hotel 8 Nov Book Thekaddy hotel 8 Nov Book Munnar hotel 8 Nov Book Kochi last night hotel 9 Nov Book Aleppey hotel 9 Nov attempt to cancel one hotel in Kochi as found ... read more

After a short flight from Colombo we are back in India in Kerala State , Cochi which is an old Portuguese town. The airport is in the new commercial part but we are picked up by "Reggie" and taken to Fort Cochi which is the old port and Old Harbour Hotel which is a lovely old colonial building. We are here for one night but then back in 6 days for another night and then to Bangaram Is for 4 nights and back to hotel again. We are quite keen to have a drink and the hotel has beer and Indian wine but we decide to go out to find a wee bar. We pretty quickly find out that there is no such thing and in fact there is only one government wine shop (wine shop ... read more

Day 17: Alleppey - Kumarakom 4 October 2017 Kumarakom is a popular tourism destination located near the city of Kottayam famous for its backwater tourism. Debbie was keen to buy some copper pots and Moran said there might be some for sale in the markets of Kottayam. We parked the van and walked along the busy market street, moving from one shop to another. The results where that we both bought sari material and Deb also found several small copper bowls but sadly, no large ones were found. The men also found a café which sold excellent cappuccino so we all had one, including Mohan. Fishing, agriculture and tourism are the major economic activities in this area. Kumarakom's perfectly balanced tropical climate is very conducive to cultivation. The place has expanses of mangrove forests, paddy fields ... read more