Fleeting the Fort Onwards to Sunny Varkala....

I am not entirely sure how time has flown by so fast! I only have one more week in India and then onwards for a brief layover in Italy to regain my language skills, Chicago and then home. I must say since this is nearly the end, I am looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone that I've missed.

Fort Cochin was a nice place to sit back and relax. Even though this is a trip and more-or-less a vacation, it doesn't mean that it's always relaxing (usually quite the opposite). Two of my friends and I decided to stay on the Ernakulam side for pure convenience. The boat jetty is just down the road and convenient enough for us to make our way to Cochin proper.

The Lonely Planet describes this area as the flourishing cosmopolitan area of Kerala (albeit nice, it's still a bit of an over exaggeration). Some times the brutally honest description of a place in India, just doesn't fit either, I prefer to think of these descriptions as riddles. Meaning that pay close attention to the chosen adjectives and items described in any guide book. The maps and logistical information have become the only really helpful things, ignore the rest, well maybe sometimes the sights too (broken go-kart tracks should not be a point of excitement in a guide, reference Ooty).

After some much needed rest and buckets of hot water for showers, we made our way on the ferry. Finally, it had been a while since I've touched any hot water, soap cannot remove all of the dirt and pollution when it does not lather. Apparently, we cast a curse on anything mechanical around us. Our bus broke down on the way from Coimbatore to Fort Cochin and then our ferry broke down on the way to Cochin proper!! The only way to really handle this is to laugh it off and hope your life-jacket-less boat doesn't sink.

Fort Cochin is very small and easy to navigate by foot. We visited old Jew Town, the remnants of the Dutch palace (both closed and somewhat unimpressive), and of course tried to avoid all of the shop hawkers at all costs. Rickshaw drivers are keen on picking up tourists in Fort Cochin since the commission racket is very much alive (even sponsored by the government shops). Some rickshaw drivers were offering money to us and a free ride, if we stopped in a couple shops and looked at the things (and from experience I am doubtful that the stores make up the money lost on commission fees). We ended up running into the other trio that comprised our whole group in Ooty at the Kashi Art Cafe (wonderful food by the way). We hammered out our plan (or really lack thereof) for the backwaters. Next day buses for them to Alleppey, and us a lovely lovely train.

This lovely lovely train just happened to be 1 hour late and another 1.5 hours on the train. We were so crammed in sleeper class and not really paying attention that we nearly missed our stop. The other trio managed to line up accommodation and transit (we made it a rule for them to go first and find a place after the bed bugs incident in Ooty). We stayed at the Brown House in the center of town (a lovely place and very very clean!!). The Swedes had to part, as one was off to make another journey in SE Asia and was a bit short on time. The remaining four of us booked a house boat and did the typical 24 hour boat tour. Good food, very little actual boating, asked for 'school pens' by a couple adults (no children in sight), lots of insects (I hope not the malarial-type), and excellent company.

Next onwards to Varkala, which is a bit more south. We lined up our accommodation through our man Ameer at the Brown House, and I was pretty ecstatic when we were picked up for free at the station (even though we were 4 hours later than the tickets predicted, oops). And get this, the owners are Italian! The Skyline Resort was nice and fairly inexpensive, but I enjoyed the company most. I spent a couple nights going out with the owners and their friends; they made me feel at home. Everyone was so shocked to meet an American who speaks another language, especially Italian. I hope I broke that stereotype a bit, fingers crossed. My visit was very short, but I found that I could have spent much more time there indeed. I bid my Irish friends a goodbye, (already we were old friends, in travel time 3 weeks is a long while) and started making the long trek to Goa for a brief stop over.

Here I am in Goa and on my way once again to Pune to visit a friend's family before settling things in Mumbai and catching my flight on November 9th.