March 4, 2008 - Cochin, Kerala - India

Notes from the past two days – traveling from Tamil Nadu through Bangalore, Karnataka to Cochin, Kerala.

Departure times should include a1 hour Mad-is-always-late contingency timeframe.

Bananas do not travel well. Ever. Even if they looked tasty.

When the cellphone stops working, do not trust Evy to wake up to the watch alarm – she could sleep through anything, even if it means missing the disembarking location. Instead hope that fear of losing the 007 backpack will keep Mad tossing & turning and awake at 3:50am.

When the train guy tells you not to get off, make sure he actually understands which train station you want to get off at.

When you book a hostel, it can work out nicely to pick one that belongs to a family who send their son at 4 in the morning to pick you up from the train station 1 stop past the one you were supposed to get off at.

When you set your watch alarm so as not to sleep through the entire day, do not trust Ev or Mad to wake up – they could sleep through anything.

Guesthouse owners who feel you should experience their more expensive other guesthouses on the beach are pretty cool. Especially when they provide fresh watermelon & bathing trunks (belonging to the caretaker?) to make your bathing suits a little more decent (at least, that’s what we assumed they were provided for!).

Ocean water by Cherai beach in Kerala is practically typical body temperature, just slightly cooler. The closest you’ll get to feeling like an embryo again?! It makes for a very relaxing swimming experience.

When traveling on ferries (in this case from the guesthouse island to Fort Cochin) always maintain a firm grip on headgear. When aforementioned headgear is lost to the wind (Evy’s), there are fortunately many stalls selling hats on the shore.

Don’t let your rickshaw driver drop you off anywhere except within easy visibility of the site you requested. This is the second time we’ve been dropped off ‘just up the street’ from where we wanted to be (ie around 2 blocks and through an alley).

Just because it says ‘international money transfers’ doesn’t actually mean the business actually does them. We waited and waited for the guy to finish with the person ahead of us. Finally the little old man turned to us. ‘What?’ (rudely). ‘We’re wondering about the international money transfers, you do do them?’. ‘No!’ (turns back to his work with disgust). We waited briefly for some other form of acknowledgement, then gave up and left.

At tourist attractions, if the ticket lady is nasty, perhaps it’s not worth it after all. The Jewish synagogue next to the castle, an apparently famous sight, was more notable for the sheer volume of ‘Don’t Speak’ ,‘Don’t Touch’ ,‘Don’t enter’ and ‘Don’t Photograph’ signs than anything else. The tiles on the floor were kind of interesting, they reminded us of Omi’s dinner plates, but other than that there was nothing to not photograph but the odd so-so painting and an altarpiece entirely covered with wrinkled pink silk so you couldn’t see anything. I did desperately want to take photos of the immense number of ‘Don’t’ signs though!

When Lonely Planet’s recommendations start wearing a little thin, ignore them completely. The café they recommended was fine but uninteresting, the dance exhibition was borderline atrocious. Both were entirely populated by Caucasian tourists, which should really have been a tip-off.

Ignoring the 2 inch cockroaches/beetles on the nighttime ferry while sitting in front of the dirty old man whorking up a lung behind you is a lot easier said than done. There’s a reason why they recommend traveling during daylight hours.

Guesthouses who provide you with a card with detailed directions in English & the local language for the rickshaw driver to drive you safely back are awesome!

Final tally:

Guest House – *****

Fort Cochin business owners - **

Lonely Planet - *

One particular Rickshaw driver’s sense of humour - *****
(‘Hey ladies, want a ride in my Ferrari? It’s air conditioned!’)

Day on the whole - ****