Fort Cochin

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Wednesday, Nov 11th - Ford Cochin - Kerala

The train ride was pretty OK. I slept most of the time, so the twelve hours went by fast. As I arrived in Ernakulum, I was lucky to catch a local bus to Ford Cochin. Standing at the local bus station, obviously looking pretty lost I got picked up by a guy who took me to his guest house. The room was very decent, clean and the owners very friendly.
So I started wandering off to explore the surroundings - and ended up in one of the nicest little towns, I’ve seen in India so far - Matancherry. It’s very cute and exactly, what you’d picture an Indian village to be - busy, loud and friendly. There were no other tourists around and it wasn’t easy to find a place, or better a ‘hotel’ to have lunch. I don’t think I told you, yet, but restaurants are usually called hotels, even the smallest little shack serving two dishes has a sign saying hotel so-and-so. In the beginning I really wondered where the rooms were supposed to be :-)

Later on in the day it started to pour. I mean like pour -pour. So I was stuck in my hotel room for a good three hours, cause smart as I am I already sent my raincoat away, not expecting rain in India in November… Whatever. Today the weather was a little better and besides exploring Ford Cochin (nice, but somewhat touristy), I took a ferry to Vipin Island and then a bus to the beach. I love taking local buses, they’re super cheap and pretty reliable and you get a free sightseeing tour, since they always take forever. So to find the right bus, you just need to go around asking people, cause first of all, the signs in the windows are usually in Hindi, and second of all, they’re usually wrong. And don’t be afraid to miss the bus, cause after you asked a couple of people, they’ll start shouting, as soon as your bus arrives. A backpacker I talked to said “Everything in India is slow, except for getting on and off the busses” What a wise statement. The buses hardly stop, but , mostly slow down with one guy at the door yelling the destination and for people to get on. The beach wasn’t that much fun, cause in was thunder storming, but the trip was nice anyways.

Tonight I was very determined, to have a quiet evening. Just go out for dinner and then read a little and sleep early. Instead I met Rachel from London over dinner and we got along superwell, so e decided to go out for a couple more drinks. It was fun and I really enjoyed talking to her a lot. That’s the thing, even when you’re travelling by yourself, you constantly meet people. It’s pretty awesome, the only thing that sucks, is that accommodation and stuff like rickshaw rides are a lot more expensive, cause you can’t just share. But I’m pretty sure, I’ll come across a new travel buddy eventually.

Enough for today, tomorrow morning I’ll meet up with Rachel for breakfast and then catch the bus back to Ernakulum with her. She’s going to Goa, I’m leaving for Munnar.

Good night

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Comments

[Someone who knows how to spell]

"poor. i mean like poor-poor" no you actually mean "pour"

[purplekitty83]

someone's paying attention :-)
Thanks for spell checking my blog... I'm way too lazy to do it myself...