North to South

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Am currently in the town/island of Fort Cochin in the Coconut State of Kerala on India's South West Coast. I think I must have travelled some 2500kms since my last blog and seen very little. But that should hopefully all change soon as I make my way slowly back up the coast taking in the beaches and backwaters of the beautiful-looking state.

My journey started last friday afternoon from Udaipur as I took a coach from there overnight down to Mumbai. I immediately regretted not taking the super-deluxe Volvo coach...not because it had A/C or super-recliner chairs. What I really wished for was some decent suspension on the bus, which mine certainly lacked. The roads, allegedly major highways, were an utter disgrace to be frank. Even now all the rattling and shaking has left pins and needles in my right hand (which was placed on a metal handrest for most of the way). Anyhow the bus got me there eventually, although god knows where the bus driver dropped me. Certainly not central Mumbai as I'd requested.

My stay in Mumbai was very brief to say the least. Not brief enough to stop me getting ripped off by another taxi driver however (that's 2 out of 2 now). I'm not the greatest fan of Indian cities but Mumbai seemed fairly decent in parts (although north of central mumbai was one huge slum) with some magnificent Victorian and Edwardian buildings. I may return back there for a day or so to see a bit more.

I arrived in Cochin on Monday afternoon after 28 hour train journey which was fairly comfortable as 28 hour train journeys go. Fort Cochin is actually an island off the mainland and there is quite a bit of foreign influence here. The Portuguese used to use it as a trading post and there's also Dutch and English parts as well. There's catholic churches everywhere as well as a synagogue in a little area of town called Jew Town. In addition some of the locals have really english names. Met a travel agent yesterday called Stanley Wilson!

One great thing about this place is the seafood which has been a welcome change to my diet. At one end of Fort Cochin there are huge chinese fishing nets on cantalevers which bring up plentiful catches throughout the day. Behind the fishing nets are a plethora of fishmongers where you can choose your catch then have one of the local shacks cook it up for you. Helped myself to some delicious king prawns and a Red Snapper last night.

From Cochin I plan to head a little further south today to a beach town called Varkala before coming back up north to Allepey to see Kerala's famed backwaters. After that I am still a little undecided but it's sure to involve a beach somewhere along the line.

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Comments

[cc]

soft c@ck
tommy ... being an educated yorkshireman why do you keep on getting ripped off ?? surely after 6 weeks you are astute enough to know what's next ...... would love to hear their 'tictacs' .... might even adopt a few

[Tommyarch]

in my defence
nothing to do with being astute. the guy had a meter so it wasn't as if i could have agreed to a price beforehand. Plus I was tired and vulnerable. I knew straight away he was ripping me off but just couldn't be bothered to argue. He'll get his bad karma for that one mark my words

[Angry Earnshaw]

Who Magazine
Tommy... Imagine my surprise when I opened the pages of Who magazine and found pictures of you and Nicole Ritchie in the "separated at birth" section. Please eat something...