Kieran:
We arrived in Kerala or "the land of god" at noon yesterday. Our homestay seems really nice and we have the next 3 nights booked there. We spent the rest of yesterday and this morning looking round Fort Cochin, doing a little antique shopping in the old European looking Jew Town and giving a helping hand to the fisherman in operating their 19th Century fishing nets along the harbour.
There's not loads to do here, but we've found a really nice teashop with real character, that we've visited twice so far and will probably become our local, being our substitute for the non-existence of bars or any nightlife. Tonight we're excited about going to see Kathakali Theatre! Its the dramatic art of Kerala and is supposed to be something special. Kerala has very similar scenery to Goa although we are now coast to a different sea, the "lackschweep... sea" something like that. ( Actually Lakshadweep.) Anyway, it rained heavily and continuously last night, but luckily we woke up to a hot if not so bright day.
Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Alleppi and the backwater's, where we embark on a 7hr backwater trip. Our plans for the near future include, taking buses inland to the highlands and visiting Munnar (with its vast hills of green tea plantations) and another wildlife park called Periyar. These two excursions should use up our last remaining days before we fly to Bangalore.
We played with the idea of visiting Varkala further down the coast, but decided we were done with the beach scene and wanted to experience something different. Last night we walked along the harbour, amongst a huge crowd of Indians and caught an amazing sunset. Sorry that this blog doesn't really have any logical order! oh well...
Nick:
The train journey wasn't too bad, but uncomfortable, Kieran barely slept... Luckily our hotel is really clean with soft beds. We're going to rent bicycles I think, as it's all a bit spaced out here and oddly quiet! Weird place, we've not explored much yet, but it's hard to tell where in the world you are, all sorts of cultures and religions and nationalities happening all over...We can get a shuttle bus right from our hotel to the backwater in Aleppi and be back the same day, which is very helpful! Might do that Friday, and then catch a train down to Varkala a couple of days, then back to Kochi for our flight to Bangalore. We'll investigate our plan and keep you posted!There's Katakhali (think I spelled that right) to see here, plays with cool face-paint in the evenings. Also lots of quirky art shops and places to eat. Okay, hope you guys are good, we need to get rested and refreshed!
Yeah the hotel is lovely, we have a twin room, so only 250 rupees each per night! It's very comfy and the couple who own it made us an awesome breakfast this morning. The lady is German, and they guy is Indian, they're both experts in the local martial art here!
Really like Kochi a lot, last night we stumbled across hundreds of Indian people on the little beach (we think celebrating Ede, they all were Muslim from what I could tell!), got some great photos as the sun set.
This morning we've rented awesome old bicycles, and been to see the Chinese fishing nets. They caught a small tiger fish, cat fish, and lots of jelly fish. They let us help pull in the nets too which was cool.
After that we cycled over to the antique market in Jew Town, it's amazing! I got a couple of old photos, but I could have spent way more time there, not really Kieran's thing, I'll try and go back before the end...
We decided against Varkala, sounds too much like what we've already done in Goa! Instead we might catch a bus to Periar wildlife sanctuary on Saturday, which is supposed to be awesome, do a night there, then go to the tea plantations in Munnar, do a night there, and then catch a bus back to Kochi, for our last night. We're going to a tourist information to try and work it out... Back waters tomorrow though, very exciting!
Kochi is very laid back and brilliant for photography. Seems to be the case in the south that the food is amazing, and cheap, love it! Last night I even found beef on a menu, and had Ginger and Onion Beef, with a garlic Naan. Mmmmmmm. All for 110rupees, (about 1.30pounds)
Tonight we're off to a Kathakali performance, we're told it's good. Going early to see them do their make-up.
We arrived in Kerala or "the land of god" at noon yesterday. Our homestay seems really nice and we have the next 3 nights booked there. We spent the rest of yesterday and this morning looking round Fort Cochin, doing a little antique shopping in the old European looking Jew Town and giving a helping hand to the fisherman in operating their 19th Century fishing nets along the harbour.
There's not loads to do here, but we've found a really nice teashop with real character, that we've visited twice so far and will probably become our local, being our substitute for the non-existence of bars or any nightlife. Tonight we're excited about going to see Kathakali Theatre! Its the dramatic art of Kerala and is supposed to be something special. Kerala has very similar scenery to Goa although we are now coast to a different sea, the "lackschweep... sea" something like that. ( Actually Lakshadweep.) Anyway, it rained heavily and continuously last night, but luckily we woke up to a hot if not so bright day.
Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Alleppi and the backwater's, where we embark on a 7hr backwater trip. Our plans for the near future include, taking buses inland to the highlands and visiting Munnar (with its vast hills of green tea plantations) and another wildlife park called Periyar. These two excursions should use up our last remaining days before we fly to Bangalore.
We played with the idea of visiting Varkala further down the coast, but decided we were done with the beach scene and wanted to experience something different. Last night we walked along the harbour, amongst a huge crowd of Indians and caught an amazing sunset. Sorry that this blog doesn't really have any logical order! oh well...
Nick:
The train journey wasn't too bad, but uncomfortable, Kieran barely slept... Luckily our hotel is really clean with soft beds. We're going to rent bicycles I think, as it's all a bit spaced out here and oddly quiet! Weird place, we've not explored much yet, but it's hard to tell where in the world you are, all sorts of cultures and religions and nationalities happening all over...We can get a shuttle bus right from our hotel to the backwater in Aleppi and be back the same day, which is very helpful! Might do that Friday, and then catch a train down to Varkala a couple of days, then back to Kochi for our flight to Bangalore. We'll investigate our plan and keep you posted!There's Katakhali (think I spelled that right) to see here, plays with cool face-paint in the evenings. Also lots of quirky art shops and places to eat. Okay, hope you guys are good, we need to get rested and refreshed!
Yeah the hotel is lovely, we have a twin room, so only 250 rupees each per night! It's very comfy and the couple who own it made us an awesome breakfast this morning. The lady is German, and they guy is Indian, they're both experts in the local martial art here!
Really like Kochi a lot, last night we stumbled across hundreds of Indian people on the little beach (we think celebrating Ede, they all were Muslim from what I could tell!), got some great photos as the sun set.
This morning we've rented awesome old bicycles, and been to see the Chinese fishing nets. They caught a small tiger fish, cat fish, and lots of jelly fish. They let us help pull in the nets too which was cool.
After that we cycled over to the antique market in Jew Town, it's amazing! I got a couple of old photos, but I could have spent way more time there, not really Kieran's thing, I'll try and go back before the end...
We decided against Varkala, sounds too much like what we've already done in Goa! Instead we might catch a bus to Periar wildlife sanctuary on Saturday, which is supposed to be awesome, do a night there, then go to the tea plantations in Munnar, do a night there, and then catch a bus back to Kochi, for our last night. We're going to a tourist information to try and work it out... Back waters tomorrow though, very exciting!
Kochi is very laid back and brilliant for photography. Seems to be the case in the south that the food is amazing, and cheap, love it! Last night I even found beef on a menu, and had Ginger and Onion Beef, with a garlic Naan. Mmmmmmm. All for 110rupees, (about 1.30pounds)
Tonight we're off to a Kathakali performance, we're told it's good. Going early to see them do their make-up.
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