Kochin

We are in The South!

We got the overnight train from Bikaner back to Delhi and went straight to the airport at 6am - just in time for our midday flight which was delayed by another two hours. Two flights and a lightning quick stop in Hyderabad later we were in Cochi/Kochin on the west coast of Kerala, on the ocean, with greenness and lushness and coconuts and pineapples and mangoes and men wearing dotis.

Aside from the heat, I think the doti is perhaps most responsible for the laid back atmosphere of this area. The doti is basically a bed sheet worn by local men as a sarong, or at times tucked up into itself to resemble a nappy. Can't help but feel relaxed when all the men look like this. And I am happy to report near to ZERO hassle from these nappy clad men too. Ahhhhhhhh this is nice.

It's lovely here. We feel like we are in another country. After all the travel and the belly sickness we have just been chilling out, doing some yoga again, eating dosai (savoury pancake) and getting ready to board a houseboat to cruise the backwaters.

It's fascinating too - it's a very Christian area, with Christian iconography worshipped with the enthusiasim of the hindus and some Jewish history thrown in for good measure. It was colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British and is now Communist. And it seems to work!

We did spend one day doing some proper sightseeing in Cochi. We got the ferry across to Fort Cochin (no sign of any fort-age but we believe them) and took the above pics.

Now we are in Allepey, and tomorrow we board our houseboat! More pics surely from that.