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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“A little bit of Portugal in India” |
The journey from Trichy to Kochin was our first overnight train journey in India. The carriages are divided into sections which have four beds on one side (two up, two down) and two on the other side (one above the other). To give the impression of privacy there is a flimsy curtain which hides the beds from the main corridor of the train. However, we soon discovered that poeple are quite happy to pop there heads round to have a nosey anyway. Also, the tea sellers seem conviced you will want to wake up to a nice cup of Chai in the morning. The morning being 5am when they start shouting and flapping curtains to make sure you don't miss out!
In the morning, we were both awake by 5:30 and successfully got out at a station in the right city. Unfortunately, the wrong station. We also found that our only guide book to India was still on the train. Pete leapt back on to find it and discovered the man who 'helpfully' told us where to get off had already found the book and taken it to his own bunk. He reluctantly returned it and then waited for a tip pressumably for all his assistance. However, as the train started to leave he gave up and sulked back into the carraige.
After some re orientation we made it to the small ferry port a caught a boat across from the mainland part of Kochi called 'Ernakulam' to the small tourist friendly Island of 'Fort Cochin'.
When we arrive we found a little cafe to have breakfast in and made freinds with the owner George. It turned out George's granfather had visited Edinburgh and he told us in great detail about his family history. Apparently he was writing a novel about it.
After, breakfast we headed to the 'homestay' we had already booked. It was one of the many old colonial buildings designed by the Portuguese when they controlled the area. There was also considerable Dutch and English influence on the architecture as well. However, it seemed there was a little confusion over the price. That is to say, we knew what price we had been told and this had mysteriously increased by 50 percent. As it was still early and the owners kept insisting that the price could not be any less, we just finished showering and to their astonishment paid them for the use of the bathroom and left.
We returned to the breakfast cafe and George arranged for us to have a whole appartment across the road for a fraction of the cost of the room we had booked.
The Island was a very relaxed place and we had very little hassle. We spent a whole day just wandering arround the coast past the pituresque Chinese fishing nets and the Jew town where all the spices are traded. In the evening we went to a Kathakali performace (a mix of dace and mime). It was interesting to see but at 3 hours it was a little drawn out and we couldn't really understand it anyway.
On our final day we woke very early, collected all our washing from the balcony and caught an autorickshaw to the ferry port to return to the station for our train to Varkala.
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