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Published: March 3rd 2008
Hello again!
Cochin proved to be a good choice......not the main town, but Fort Cochin which is one of the islands of the coast there. I say Island, I think Fort Cochin is actually connected to the mainland, unlike Wellington and Viper Island which are only reachable by boat.
The bus ride there was also pretty hair raising. They have some busses over here which they call 'superfast', which basically means they're stopping for no bugger. It certainly was a 'superfast' ride and you could certainly feel the breeze on this one! Luckily they had quite tall seats in the bus so unless you made a point of sitting up to look over the seat infront, you couldn't see how close to death you were actually getting, which I think on this particular journey, may have been a good thing.....judging by the horns and various screeching of tyres. We did make it to Cochin from Allepey in just over an hour though which is pretty good going. The bus dropped me in Ernakulam, which is the mainland to Cochin and from there I had to find the bus stand for Fort Cochin busses..... Always good entertainment in the heat of the day with your backpack! Luckily it wasn't far from where the bus had dropped me and the Fort Cochin bus came along within 10 minutes or so.
Fort Cochin is fantastic.....really cosmopoliton, with some really lovely cafes. Princes St is the place to go if you want to check them out. I particularly liked the art cafe which did a great western style breakfast and lunch. (Don't get me wrong, I'm still partial to an uttapam in the morning but every now and then its really nice to get good western food. Most of the time when you get western food its pretty awful!) The meals were set and there was only one choice per day (breakfast consisted of farmers omlette (tomato, potato and onion filling), wholemeal toast (a real treat in india) and fruit and for lunch homemade soup with either a toasted sandwich one day, or potato salad and garlic toast the next) but the service was really quick as a result and everything I ate there was fab. The tea and coffee were really expensive but the meals were only 75 or 80 ruppees which was good value for what you got. (Western food is always more expensive than the local food wherever you go). They also did a water refill for 5 rups, so you took your old bottle in and filled it up for a third the cost and felt like you may be helping reduce the rubbish problem india seems to suffer from! ( Not sure a few bottles would make the slightest difference to the enourmous piles of rubbish you see everywhere here, but I guess every little helps). Also, you could get a lunch and a water bottle and then go and get a chai for a few ruppees instead of the 40 50 ruppees they wanted in the cafe! The setting was really too.....it felt like you were in a western garden cafe.....definitely didn't feel like you were in India!
Apart from nice food and the cosmopolitan atmosphere, there isn't an awful lot in Cochin. I went to see the palace which turned out to be just a couple of rooms open with a few old bits and peices in there, and then wandered further down to the 'Jew town' area to see the synagogue. That was quite nice, but nothing really to write home about.
After that I went to see a performance of the local martial art practiced in Kerala. That was pretty amazing actually. There were only about six of us in the audience and four of us had sat in the front row. That was a big mistake which we realised when they brought out the last weapon......a handle with two long, flexible knife blades which the person swings around at a hundred miles an hour. We were only a couple of feet back from the stage and no kidding, there were sparks coming off the concrete stage onto the front row where the blades hit the ground as they were being spun. We were all leaning as far back into our seats as we could get as it really felt like we were about to lose part or all of our heads! I think the boys doing the performance were all highly amused by our faces!
The second day in Cochin I took a boat over to Viper Island. Apparently there was supposed to be a really nice beach there, but when I finally managed to find a bus to take me there, it wasn't that nice after all. Certainly not somewhere I'd feel comfortable sunbathing anyway. So instead I had an icecream sundae and hoofed it back to the jetty. From there I took a boat to Wellington Island which is the other Island in Cochin. Again, there was nothing really there apart from a couple of luxury hotels. As I was walking past one of them, curiousity got the better of me so I went in and under the guise of 'my parents are coming to Cochin for a few days and need a nice hotel', got shown around their luxury rooms! Very nice too. When I asked the price they told me 11000 ruppees plus 15% tax, so about 12500 ruppees or 150 pounds. I had to bite my tongue.......my automatic response nowadays is 'is that your best price?' :O) they did have a nice infinity pool, but 150 per night in india is particularly outrageous! Was nice to have a look n see how the other half live though!!
Getting back to Fort Cochin from Wellington proved to be slightly more tricky, but after nearly getting off the boat in the wrong place I did make it back ok, which was lucky as I was desperate for the loo by that stage! Having got back to Fort Cochin, I legged it to the art cafe, hoping they had a loo. Luckily they did, but unfortunately, it was a very flimsy wooden structure in the corner of the cafe. Not sure if it was the icecream I'd had earlier or what, but by the time I got there, I basically had no control over my rear end and no hope of getting anywhere else where the toilet was more soundproof! (not sure if I should be writing this on the internet but it's worth a chuckle or 2!) As I let rip, all I could hear was laughter from outside in the cafe! I'm not sure if they could hear or not, (they probably could!) or whether they were laughing at me or whether it was just general conversation (probably me!), but I felt so bad! One, I was so embarrassed, but also, I felt bad for them as it can't have been the most pleasant soundtrack to your afternoon tea and cake! :O) When I finally managed to get out the toilet I was torn between getting out of there as quick as poss and ordering something, so they didn't think I just used the loo as a pit stop! Decided to hold face and sit down and get a cuppa tea......must've needed a bit of rehydration after that anyhow! From then on when I went in there, I was never sure if they were just smiling to be friendly, or smiling thinking here's the girl with the incredibly loud backside!!!! It was quite funny though. Guess you had to be there to appreciate it!.... toilet humour eh.....always good for a chuckle!!
That was about it for Fort Cochin. I stayed a couple of nights there and then caught a bus up to Munnar. I wanted to get to Madurai, but Munnar looked about halfway there from the map up in the hills, so I thought it'd make a nice stopping point. It did. It was absolutely fantastic there. It's just a really small hill station surrounded by mountains and tea plantations. In that respect, it reminded me very much of Hapitale in Sri Lanka. I got there about 4pm after probably about 5 hours on the bus. The views at the end of the journey were lovely though which helped pass the time, along with the look on the girls face sat opposite me every time we came within inches of another vehicle! I've come to the conclusion that bus drivers over here are good at driving dangerously. Lets face it, we're all safer driving the way we're used to, so I reckon if they tried to drive slow, or as we see it, safely, they'd probably be really awful at it! They all seem to know what they're doing and they've got the near miss off down to a fine art. I've actually built up quite a degree of trust in them now!
Anyhow, back to Munnar. It's a really small town, but the beauty of it is what surrounds it rather than what's in it. The countryside is amazing. After I got there and found a hotel, I went for a walk up to a temple and was told from there I could walk up the mountain behind the town. It was a fab walk. I'm not sure how many people do it, because the school children who were walking back to their village over the other side of the mountain were fascinated with me, my shades, my camera.....and of course, my loose change! My shades and my camera I was happy to share with them, and took loads of photos of each of them with my shades on. When we got to the loose change bit though I had to make an escape as I only had a few ruppees in change....not enough for all of them. And to be honest with you, I don't make a habit of giving money to children. I do wish I'd bought a big pack of pens over here though......all the kids want pens. I'm not sure if that's just something they know to ask for, or whether they are genuinely short of pens over here, but if ever you come on holiday, that would be something to bring.
Anyhow, having made my escape, I made it to the top of the mountain and realised just how small Munnar was. Nice. Very nice after Cochin. It was also really cool up here .... as the sun went down, you really felt it. Again, really nice after the last few months. I actually used a blanket at night in Munnar for the first time since Udaipur. I'd forgotten just how nice it is to snuggle down under a blanket at night! My hotel also had hot water....not something I've missed on the coast the last couple of months, but i was really glad of it the next morning! It was in bucket form, not shower, but still really nice.
That night, I went to the Bamboo Hut which I'd walked past on the way back from my walk. It's only a tiny place, but it's got a really nice atmosphere and the food wasn't bad at all. They also had a gorgeous little puppy called Bimbo, who's incredibly chubby and absolutely adorable. During the few days I was there, the owner took on another puppy who had been found on the street outside so Bimbo had a playmate! They both slept in a box in the kitchen (not sure how hygenic that is, but is quite normal by indian standards!) which was obviously prime place for any scraps going begging! No wonder Bimbo was chubby and I'm sure his mate will be catching up with him soon!
Anyway, as I sat down, I looked up thinking the guy on the table next to me looked really familiar. It turned out to be Andy and Sean from Verkala. It was cool to see them. They'd been there a wk, heading straight there from Verkala pretty much. Andy (and another Israeli guy) had been asked to take part in a film for the tea museum, where they had to play army officers. They got 500 ruppees for doing it as well! Fame at last! We had a good laugh, cos going back to Verkala, another guy who I'd hung out with there, Ben, had been mistaken for Colin Farrel by some girls on the beach, (which we'd all taken the piss something wrotten saying it'd hit the newspapers 'Colin lets himself go!',) but anway, we were laughing saying next time it'd be Andy who had the girls coming up to him saying 'oooh, do I know you, you look really familiar'! :O)
Andy and Sean told me about a waterfall which you could walk to through the tea plantations so that was the next day's itinery. I got a rickshaw to drop me off down the road at Headworks dam where the path goes off the main road up to what they call a view point (the views aren't that stunning from here...they're much better in loads of other places around Munnar) and then down on through the tea plantations to the waterfall. As I walked down the path from the viewpoint, a girl from New Zealand who'd been on the bus the previous day was walking back the other way. She'd been told there was no trekking allowed through there. When I said that some people I knew had done it the day before and I was going to go anyway, she decided to come with me. It was a lovely walk, and no=one asked us where we were going or told us we shouldn't be there. All the tea workers were really helpful, pointing us in the right direction for the falls. It was a good couple of hours walk. Really lovely views and mostly downhill! Fab. It wasn't long though, before I realised that this girl could talk. I mean, really talk, nonstop, and at full volume! (The full volume bit wasn't too apparent until after we caught the bus back into town and were sitting in the bamboo cafe. You could hear her over everyone from the other side of the cafe. ) The waterfalls were lovely though. Really cold and fab for sticking your feet in. We must've spent an hour or two there because Murika (should've been called Eurika!) was really pink, so we headed back off past the falls to where the bus stop apparently was. It was a good half hour up to the bus stop.....uphill this time! All in all, it was a good day though, despite having a bit of a headache by the time we got back.....not sure if that was the sun or the constant earbashing! That night when I went to dinner, this old Austrian guy came and sat down next to me. He had a hearing aid and couldn't hear a thing, but kept asking me things anyway and then when he couldn't hear what i said, kept saying 'what', 'sorry , what was that', 'sorry, i can't hear very well'!, so I had to keep shouting the answer so he could hear it, much to the people on the next tables amusment! Not a good day for communications! not good for the headache either!! :O)
The next day, I caught a bus up to top station, which is basically what they call the viewpoint at the top of the mountain range where you can see down the eastern side of the mountains. It took an hour by bus up there, but the views on the way up were stunning. Again, loads of tea plantations, rolling mountains and lakes. Really beautiful. Up top, there really isn't much apart from a few chai stalls and a couple of view points which you can walk to. To get down again, there was a bus at 2.20 and then the next one wasn't til 5.30. I'd seen what I wanted to by 2, so I wandered back to the busstop thinking I'd get the 2.20 down to the last big lake we'd passed on the way up, called Echo Point, and then walk down the mountain from there as the scenery had been fab. Then I'd pick up the 5.30 bus when it passed back down to Munnar. That was a good call. The walk was fab. It was so nice to be in the mountains again. The air is so clean after the rest of India, and it's quiet. Really quiet. Also, there's no sign of overpopulation, which is the biggest problem in the rest of India. apart from a group of school children, a few tea pickers and the odd car or bike driving by, I didn't see hardly anyone in the few hours I was walking. Absolute bliss. I have to say though, my calves hurt like hell the next day....in fact, the next few days to be fair! I think today is the first day they feel relatively normal again! When I got almost down as far as Manupatty, a guy on a bike pulled up and offered me a lift back down to Munnar. Fab, that meant i didn't need to wait for the bus either.
When I got back to town I headed for the Bamboo Hut for a cuppa tea. The other guy who Andy had been in the film with from Israel was there with another Israeli friend, so I sat with them for a bit and got invited to their big friday night dinner. Apparently its an Israeli thing to have a big family dinner on a Friday night and as they weren't at home, Israeli travellers get together on a friday (and all other nights I think too!!) and do the dinner thing. They really go to town as well, with flowers, candles, jewish blessings, the works! It was a nice evening and I was chuffed to be invited. (not sure all the girls at the table were chuffed I was invited, but hey ho!) By the end of the evening though, the translation thing was getting tiring.....the guys were doing a good job of filling me in on the conversation, but it was hard work by the end of it and I think we'd all had enough! nice though, and I learnt a lot about Israelis and their culture and why they're like they are....they've always seemed a different breed, a bit intimidating almost the way they travel in big groups, but apparently they see it as protection to be in a group.....a safety blanket almost. They all said they'd hate to travel alone. Apparently they don't all know eachother either, which is what I'd originally thought, but if an israeli meets another israeli, they automatically hook up as though they've known eachother for years.
Anyhow, interesting evening. The next morning I packed up and headed for Madurai. It was 2 busses there, changing at Theni. Changing is always a pain, but there was only 1 direct bus a day leaving Munnar at 2.30 which meant I'd get there in the dark which is worse than having to change busses. Changing busses was no problem.....the problem came when we arrived and I thought the bus was just taking a pitstop! I'd hopped out looking for a place to use the loo. The bus nearly pulled off with my backpack! Having retrieved my backpack, I thought they meant we were changing busses so I followed the direction they were pointing in to a bus station around the corner. After getting a few wierd looks from people when I was asking for a bus to Madurai, a guy finally told me 'this is Madurai'! Oops! Turned out we were at the new bus station which is about 4k outside the main town where the big Sri Minaksi temple is. Next came the usual rickshaw driver bombardment, all taking the piss over fares. From one end of the bus station to the other I'd had several telling me it was anything from 5km to 8km into town and all wanting 50 ruppees. It should have been 25 max and I wasnt paying anything more than 30. Eventually one guy just came up to me and said, temple, 30 ruppees. Fab. Got in and arrived in the old town. Having walked around in circles for 20 minutes, I found the Sri Devi hotel which had been recommended by a guy in Verkala as it had an amazing view of the temple complex from the roof. The rooms were basic, but it was cheap and altogether fine. I was knackered by this point, and I have to say, Madurai was not doing it for me at all. Typical big city with noise, dirt and hassle. Once I'd got rid of my pack I decided to go have a look round the temple which was supposed to be amazing. The carvings I have to say are amazing, but unless you're a hindu, you're not allowed actually into the two temples in the complex. You can walk around the rest of the complex and the lotus pond, but you're not actually allowed into the temples. How many Catholic or C of E churches do you see turning away non christians? Not very holy as far as I can see. By this point, I was really tired, feeling a bit pissed off and regretting having left Munnar to come to Madurai. I thought I'd try and rectify things by trying out the panneer masala dosas that Ben had recommended. I have to say, they were pretty damn good. It was a local restaurant which was absolutely heaving with locals so they spilled out into the street whatever time of day you walked past. It was all local styley too, so banana leaf and no cutlery job. The food said it all though. I ate in there every meal I was in Madurai. That night, I was determined to leave the next day, but I really didn't know where to go. The next morning I still wasn't sure, so I thought I'd to and see the markets and the palace quickly and then come back and grab my things and head to the station, by which time, I'd hopefully decide whether to go to Kodaikanal, Trichy, Ooty or Pondicherry. I walked off in the direction of the markets and found the fruit and veg market. It was well worthwhile seeing, real hussle and bussle, people walking round with huge sacks on their heads, amazing colours of the fruit and veg, amazing looking people, cows, cowshit, rubbish, the usual indian scene I guess! Fascinating to see though. On the way out this little old guy was desperately trying to get me to take his cycle rickshaw siteseeing. He was realling off all these places he'd take me to. All I wanted to see was the markets, the palace, and then get the hell out of there, and I was really quite happy to walk. He really persisted though, to the point where I would normally get annoyed, but I think it was something in the way he said 'please, I'm a family man, please come. just 50 ruppees one hour'. Now I know they probably all say that, and I'm probably a mug for falling for it, but just something in the way he said it made me relent. 'OK, I only want to go to the palace and the markets'. 'No problem' he was so chuffed he went running off to get his bike and put the top down and pat the dust off the seat for me. Well, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I ended up spending 4 hours with the guy. He took me everywhere and pointed out everything there was to point out (mainly marriage halls!), I saw every market imaginable, the banana market, the sari market, the flower market, the palace, the slums by the river, the watertank, the ghandi museum, you name it, I saw it. These guys work really hard as well, just cycling with no gears is hard work let alone pulling someone in a cart behind you. Half way round when we topped at the watertank, he was dripping buckets, so we stopped and I bought us both a chai. He didn't want to stop long though and hurried me up and back to the bike. Other than that he got a rest when I was in the ghandi museum and the palace, but apart from that he kept going. I ended up giving him 300 rups, (just short of 5 pounds) which I know is way too much, but I liked him and in my book, he deserved it, and I was happy to give it to him. At least he's working for a living (flipping hard work as well) as opposed to the people on the street holding their hands out to tourists expecting a handout. And he changed my mind about Madurai. Not completely, I still wouldn't go back, but at least I saw what else it had to offer, and there are a few nice or if not nice, interesting things to see there.
By the time I'd finished it was gone 2 so I got him to drop me at the station. I'd made up my mind to go to Pondicherry. I really wanted to see it, and I'd decided to go despite the long journey. I wanted an overnight train and when I got to the station, it turned out there were 4 every night. Trouble was, they were all full for that night. That meant another night in Madurai, which I really couldn't face, or trying a bus. There was an overnight bus, but it was 350 rups and only the back seat left, ie the bumpiest one on the bus. not only the back seat, but the corner back seat which doesn't recline. nice. Given the choice of another night or maybe 2 in Madurai until a train seat was available, or a night trip on the back of the bus, I chose the bus and prepared myself for the shit night ahead. I had to go to the travel agents where I' booked it at 9.30 where a guy would walk me down to the bus stop. I got there, but we had to wait 15 minutes for another guy on a bus to Chennai, who'd dissappeared off saying he needed to get something to eat. Eventually he turned up and there were words taking place between him and the guy who was supposed to be showing us to the bus stop. I think it was something along the lines of 'you've taken so long, we are late now' and then the guy getting funny and saying 'don't talk to me like that, where's the bus. what do you mean I have to walk? I wasn't told I've have to walk for the bus. Ok I'll walk but I hope you're carrying my bags for me.' Basically a real up himself, middle classed indian businessman, and like most middle classed indian men, they really talk down to people they consider below them, like the guy showing us to the bus. Ok he was a simple guy but he didn't deserve it. Off he trotted with the guys bags and left me walking behind with this awful little man. It didn't take him long to hit onto the conversation, 'where's your partner', then 'don't you miss sex', ''dont you miss fucky', 'english women like sucky and fucky, not like indian women', 'you want come to chennai with me'. Disgusting little man. I couldn't believe it at first, but he went on and on. In the end I told him exactly what I thought of him. Disgusting little man. When we got to his bus, he resumed his arsy approach with the guy when he realised he didn't have a window seat. People like that really give Indian men a bad name. When I finally got to my bus I was all set for a real shit night. It hadn't started too wel and I thought it was probably a sign of things to come. Funnily enough though, I ended up sleeping through most of it. I remember one pit stop where I got off and had a chai and a pee....that must've been about midnightish, and the next thing i knew it was light, before sunrise and the other people who were sitting on the backseat were gone so i stretched out on the back seat under my blanket, and the next thing i knew we were getting kicked off the bus in Pondy. Fab!
I was still tired though. So tired I got in the rickshaw and went with him to a hotel! - the one thing you should never do as the rickshaw normally gets comission from the hotel he takes you to which all gets added to your roomrate. I was so tired though, I really couldn't walk anywhere! The hotel is actually ok as well. Clean and with set rates which are up in reception, so I'm happy I'm not paying extra than I would have done if I'd turned up without a rickshaw in tow.
It is very french here....from when in was a french colony I guess. It's very nice though....you even get french bread and cakes!! I've just had a warm baguette with bbq chicken and salad, followed by chocolate cake....mmmmm! :O) Hence feeling very full and v tired now, so thought I'd come and sit down in the internet cafe for a bit!! Earlier today, I came across a little street cafe making samosas. They were still warm and absolutely delicious! 1 and a half ruppees each, so about 2pence! Maybe I shouldn't have had my skirt taken in a bit after all!!
Tomorrow, I'm going to see a place called Auroville, which is an international community set up just north of Pondi. Apparently they sometimes take volunteers there. I met a french couple at the train station who have been working and living there for a month and really enjoyed it. Apparently they're setting up a garden there right now and may need some gardners. I'm looking forward to seeing it. If I like it, I may even see if I can volunteer for a bit. If not, it's off to Ooty pretty soon before my clothes no longer fit!
Hope you're all doing ok back home. Missing you all but having a fab time. Loadsa love xx
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Jackie
non-member comment
Ooo hello !
Hi hunny, Sudo Cream is very good for a sore bum..not that i have had one .....recently ! At least you can get a good cuppa tea ! Love Jackie xx