Cochin - first taste of India

Some locals travelling around the backwaters
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We flew into Cochin from Istanbul via Doha.  Only 8 hours flying in total, but somewhere in there we managed to fit in our first 2 curries.  The airplane food was really good, which either means that curries in the UK and NZ suck, or that Qatar airlines have some amazing chefs onboard.

We flew in over the backwaters and lagoons of Cochin at dawn, where we could see fishermen standing on their boats hauling in the days catch.  It was an incredible first image of India - palm trees, mirror-calm water...and what a contrast to the chaos on the roads on our way to our hotel from the airport!

Our boat 'driver' down the backwaters
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We were driven in an old Ambassador car by a maniac who in between picking his nose and flicking it out the window and scratching himself kept his hand firmly on the car horn, weaving in and out of traffic and almost killing at least 3 pedestrians and one entire family on the back of a motorbike on the way in.  It was so bad it was hilarious, better than the scariest ride at Disneyland and at a fraction of the price.

India was everything I imagined it to be, dirty, dusty, smelly, rammed full of people, but also incredibly colourful and vibrant.  Simon had been before and loves the place.  This was my first visit and I was in love with the place from that first manic drive from the airport.

The faithful leaving church
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Our first meal was coconuts, first with the ends hacked off so you could drink the coconut milk and then hacked in half by a machete-wielding madman so you could eat the flesh.  Enjoyed while standing in the dust by some fish stalls, the contents of which had gone off a day or two ago judging by the smell.  Magical.

We spent 7 days in Cochin, including Christmas Day.  Apart from the above, some of the more memorable moments were....

-  2 parcels of Christmas presents arriving in India from NZ, on time, to the correct hotel, intact, and given to me by reception.  Simon was dubious that they'd ever been seen again after NZ (cynic!)

The 'famous' Chinese fishing nets in Cochin
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-  Christmas lunch at the Malabar House.  A beautiful hotel that we wanted to, but couldn't afford to stay in.  Curry and grilled tiger prawns may not be your traditional Christmas fare, but it was so so good, especially because the hotel had chilled white wine (a real luxury that we very rarely get to have).  We digested our dinner while sitting in a green watching the locals play cricket nearby - they were good too - reckon they may give the NZ cricket team a run for their money.

Our fellow carol singers
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-  A backwaters tour of the lagoons south of Cochin.  Small villages hiding in the  palm trees, set around calm lagoons filled with floating lotus.  A peaceful place to escape the madness of India (Arundhati Roy's book 'The God of Small Things' was set in these backwaters).

-  Spending an evening singing Christmas carols with the locals in the oldest Catholic church in India, complete with punkas (fans hanging from the ceiling, moved manually by 'punkawallas' to cool the congregation down), but sadly no punkawallas.

The calm before the chaos - our first taxi ride in India
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-  Drinking beer.  Always a pleasure anyway, but in Cochin many of the restaurants don't have licenses, so they 'disguise' the beer in teapots and you drink it out of mugs!  A bit confusing the first time, as we thought they had our order wrong, but from then on in, just conspiratorial smiles every time our beer was delivered.

-  The hotel forgetting that they had quoted us 4,000 rupees a night and only charging us 2,500 rupees.  We decided to bank the savings (about GBP70) for all of the other times we're definitely going to get ripped off over the course of our trip.

Enjoying coconuts in Cochin
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In reality, the real pleasure was just in spending hours wandering around, catching local ferries and tuktuks, staring in wonder at the locals while they in turn stared back at us, and eating curry curry and more curry.

The next part of the trip however required some long-distance travel...no doubt an interesting test of our travel stamina...