MOSQUITO-FEST...in Kochi

Holy crap...this could be the hottest place we've been so far.  Lovely if you want some sort of skin detox, or if you want your clothes to have Eau De Sweat parfum, but not so good if you're trying to sight-see every day!!!  And there are ARMIES of mosquitoes here.  We're not talking about 5 or 6, we're talking dozens of mozzies rallying around trying to munch us.

SO we arrived here from Kodaikanal on an anti-social bus which arrived at 4.30 in the morning.  Insanity.  And nothing was open 'til the chai-wallas started at 6am haha.  So we enjoyed some tea and coffee and hung around at the jetty like a bunch of neds around a bus shelter, without the troublemaking.  The jetty's really picturesque in the morning with the still water and the (unintentionally) good lighting so we took a few pictures.  And at 6.30 we checked in to le Hotel Sapphire which was fairly good value for dosh at 350 rs for a room without TV.  We've decided to stop taking rooms with tellies as we're much more productive without...more music-making rather than us vegging out to watch crappola films.

We think this is where Mosquitoes come on holiday.

Ernakalum (mainland town) has plenty of shops and restaurants which we wandered around, but Fort Cochi is a gorgeous little island just off le coast with small streets and old-school colonial style buildings...chinese fishing nets dot the coastline and fisherman wait for unsuspecting tourists so they can offload their GIANT FISHIES!  Really giant.  A cheapo ferry ride across the water where you can see the wee dolphin greet el boatio and you're in mosquito-ville...this is where mosquitoes come on holiday we think.  A local man explained the bug problem; apparently the drains are being flushed with fresh water rather than salt water which attracts them, and it's a major major problem right now if we're honest.  Never seen so many.

Finally met up with Mama and Papa B which was a lovely reunion...feels tres odd to see them after so long in that it's not weird at all, and feels like it was only yesteday that we last saw them, so we're thinking that returning to the homeland might not be such a massive thing after all.  Hope coming home won't make this all seem unreal...we want to remember EVERYTHING.  Won't is a strange one...looks like it's wrong but it isn't...is it?

Things we've done...went on a wee cruise down the lovely Kerelan backwaters where we sawed palm trees, water, sunshine, little houses, cormorants, prawns, fishies, and lots of dead, decomposing fishies.  Was a nice day out, rounded up by some food cooked for us by a wee local woman...yum yum yum.  It's amazing being in the middle of nowhere with no tourists in sight, just local people doing their local thing.  We've also attended the altar of Cafe Coffee Day regularly to make the most of their iced tea, coffees and ac.  We've watched men do mad things with Tabla and Sitar, we've seen Kathakali dancing which is a tradition here.  Actually it reminds us of Kabuki (Japan) quite a bit...elaborate make up, hilariously overdone facial expressions and men dressed as women.  All very masculine.  Jodie enjoyed the local martial arts exhibition where men fight with all sorts of mental metal weapons.  MENTAL METAL!  MAIR METAL THAN YER MAW'S KETTLE.  Actually, that reminds us...Amok have an album out now on a German label...album's called Downhill Without Brakes and you should all buy it.  I digress, lots of pole spinning and wood chipping and near misses which we always enjoy.  And the cool thing is one of the guys that showed us around the museum before the demonstration was actually one of the masters o' this martial art...he was a very nice guy and we were totally unaware that he could probably chop our heads clean off with the back of his hand.  It's called Kalari by the way.  The martial art I mean, not the act of chopping heads off with the back of your hand.

So today we're off to GOA!  The waiting list on India Rail came through for us again...so far 100% success rate for us!!!  14 hours on the train which shouldn't be too bad as we're in 3 AC which means no more friggin' heat...we're all meeeeeeeeeeeeeelting!

And today I bought a SPIROGRAPH!  For 15 rs.  Cheap as chips and hours of endless fun.  And Jodie bought a coconut, just because.

Other thing worth mentioning is that if you want to do an overnight trip on a houseboat doon the backwaters, check out Stanley Wilson on Princess Street...he only has two eco-friendly boats and the photos he shows you are of the actual boats you get.  He's a nice guy with reasonable prices, unlike most of the tourist operators around!