Kerela

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Apologies in advance for all the ridiculous typos that will follow - I think my keyboard has curry in it or something and a virus message keeps appearing...

We are now in Kerela, having made our way down from Ooty to Fort Cochin by sleeper train. This was uneventful, apart from the fact we were both sound asleep when we arrived and had to be woken up by the train attendant. We made our way over to Fort Cochin, with a combination of sunrise and moonlight lighting up the water - not a bad way to wake up in the morning. We were there by about 6.30am - not a good time to arrive in Fort Cochin as NOTHING was open, including all the guesthouses and hotels. When they say it's sleepy there they are not joking. We got adopted by a rickshaw driver, who tried to take us to a few places where he would get commission, but they didn't have room. After a little hunt we found a nice, cheap and central homestay.

Fort Cochin itself is very quiet and also quite small - we had wandered round most of it in the first few hours. It was lovely to sit by the sea watching fishing boats coming in and Kerela already seems to be by far the most charming place we have been to in India. The cantilevered Chinese fishing nets which line the shore are great to watch too, although four men tugging on ropes to pull the nets up looks like a lot of effort for very little fishy reward. On our second day in Fort Cochin we went to see the Jew Town, where there is an old synagogue. We also had a look round the shops and I bought a bedspread with elephants all over it - very cute, but already the bane of my life and I've only been carrying it for a day!!

Yesterday evening we went to a Kathkali dance performance, a traditional Kerelan dance form. It was good fun and the costumes were amazing. Our performance was 1 1/2 hours long, but the performances would traditionally have run from the evening to the following morning - an alarming prospect!!!!

We got the bus to Aleppey this morning, which is the main hub to the Kerelan backwaters. On our arrival, we were besieged by hotel/guesthouse reps, desperate to take us to their places. We ended up going with one guy, but his house was miles away from town, the bed was miniscule and the bathroom was partially outside. He wasn't very happy when we went off again. The rickshaw driver proceeded to take us to a series of guesthouses and by the time he took us where we had asked to go, there was no longer room there. Aaaaargh... We really want to do a houseboat tour on the backwaters, but to do one as a two would cost a not-very-small fortune and so we could really do with making some friends to share a boat and the cost. We have been to a couple of cafes in the hope of finding some boat buddies, but no joy sadly. I really hope we manage to sort something out, because we have heard that this is a real highlight of a trip to India.

Just over a week left until we fly to Sri Lanka now...

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Photos

Chinese Fishing Nets
Fort Cochin