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Published: January 16th 2009
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Time to get a bit more up to date, seeing as we've been away nearly three weeks now but haven't written about a great deal. Right now we're sat in a hotel room in Mumbai biding time until our flight out of India later this evening. I say flight, we've actually got multiples to look forward to, as to get ourselves from Kerala to Thailand we have to fly from Kochi to Mumbai, to Singapore to Bangkok. How very convenient. Nothing we like more than kicking about at airports. I tell a lie, tell you what beats lounging at airports - lounging in overpriced hotel rooms where promised facilities don't exist, feeling generally ripped off (and a bit snotty as I seem to have developed a cold - shucks!). What suckers, eh! I like to blame Chris mostly, as he's proved himself to be somewhat anti-savvy and willing to believe many a yarn spun. Uber-sucker! Wonder if he'll read this before I upload it.
Anyway Mumbai's departure area seemed somewhat lacking to say the least, so rather here than sat on a bench somewhere for 8 hours. Enough of that though, I sound like I'm putting a downer on it
but we've had an amazing time in India and will be sad to say goodbye to such a crazy and beautiful country.
Here's an overview of what we've been getting up to. We're having slight technical difficulties with the computer so aren't sure when we'll next be able to get our pics off our memory cards to upload, but will try to add pictures as soon as we can:
MYSORE
In Goa we dropped our bags at the train station and had time to get a manic bus journey to Benaulim, a beach area in south Goa. Pretty, quiet, nice to relax for a bit. We were headed to Mysore, a city further inland, firsty via an overnight train to Mangalore. The trains were actually less hectic than I'd expected. I'd imagined all kinds of chaos but it was quite calm and not a bad way to sleep despire being semi feverous. Dang!
It took an 8 hour bus journey to get over to Mysore - I'll let you imagine how much fun that was. Mysore itself is a relatively big city - it was weird to be amongst the hustle and bustle after some really
relaxed touristy places, but was a good change of pace. We saw the Maharaja's palace - very impressive - and zoo which was great (at some points I think we were as much of an attraction as the animals!). We avoided some reet scams (go us), ate some proper local "meals" (well cheap, tins of rice and sauces that keep getting topped up. Tucked in with me hands too, proper authentic styles).
KERALA
Next stop, we took an overnight coach to Verkala, in the state of Kerala further south. Way more comfy than the bus before, though bombing along mountain roads in a fat coach at what feels like 70mph, overtaking all in sight isn't so condusive to a great night's sleep. We rickshawed it to the beach front, where yet more beach based laziness ensued. Bonus! We were lazy oafs for a few days - lounging on the sand, splashing in the sea, pausing for snacks and pottering about. Nice work if you can get it, though I was itching for something a bit more to do after a while. There wasn't really a whole lot to see other than what was undoubtedly beautiful scenery and at
times it felt like you could have been at any beach resort, it was so removed from general Indian life.
Next and final stop in India - Kochi.
Kochi is one of Kerala's biggest cities. We took a train journey up there - it's lovely if you manage to get a window seat actually, and can just sit and watch the world go by for a few hours.Kochi city itslf is split into a few sections and islands - Once we arrived in the main built up city area of Ernakulum we took a ferry straight to Fort Cochi, which has a much more relaxed and olde worlde feel to it. It's not built up and has a really interesting mixture of architectural styles - Dutch, colonial, some Portuguese. Beautiful if a real tourist trap in places.
We stayed at a homestay in a lovely building right at the heart of Fort Kochi. From there we wandered around the local sights - churches, Jew Town, antiques shops, Chinese fishing nets .. one our second day we went on a trip around the backwaters. We were punted around narrow waterways in a small boat, shown some local industries
and spice plants, ate some more 'meals' served up on a banana leaf, then spent the afternoon being slowly punted around on a bigger houseboat. Was relaxing bliss and amazingly beautiful. If we'd have had the time, I think we would have gone in for an overnight stay on a houseboat, but alas no.
We took in a Katakali dance/theatrical performance, but my fav part was yesterday evening, our final night in Kochi. We ferried over to Ernakulum where I was surprised to feel some comfort in being in the bustle of the city. There was so much average tourist fare about in Fort Kochi, it was nice to get away from it for a bit. We nipped back just in time for a sunset cruise around the islands which was amazing, then treated ourselves to a ridiculously slap up meal at a very posh hotel, where diners could eat to the sweet sounds of a live classical Indian music performance. Delicate flavours, melt in the mouth poppadoms, pineapple sorbet, actual wine (I won't go into how much that was) cuppa cha to finish. Extravagant to be sure, but a great way to finish off our time in India,
and light years away from a lot of the dodge continental food stuffs served elsewhere. YUM.
PHEWPH
Which brings me round to the present. We got our internal flight to Mumbai this morning - not too long to go before we can head back to the airport for our flight out of here, just enough time to to nip across the road to sn internet cafe (so much for net access at the hotel) get in some room service and let the staff attempt to harrass us into purchasing overpriced beer. Swines. Such fibbers, I ask you - no tips for them.
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