Kochi, the 'homestay' and a hilarious cinema experience (take 2)

Hi guys!

Ok, for all you 'regulars' I have to warn you that this is only my second attempt at a blog entry as Jen normally handles this part of our responsibilities as conscientious travellers who want to share their experiences with their friends, family (and the rest of the world). I'm looking forward to it though, so wish me luck.

Well, theres not much to report on as we only did an entry a few days ago, but we were just on the way back to our 'homestay', and I'll clarify what is meant by the inverts there in a jiffy, when we saw a nice looking internet cafe where we were given a free cup of tea with the seriously fast connection and so figured it was a good idea to keep you guys up to date.

Our journey on the previous entry left you at the end of our real homestay in the jungle, where we were literally attacked by leeches. We arrived back to civilisation in Mysore (South of Madikeri and our last stop in this part of India before the crazy North), we experienced another Thali for 25p and prepared for the night bus to Kochi. This night bus was refreshingly good and consisted of almost-fully-reclining chairs, some personal space and only one crazy snorer...however..it was the most expensive journey to date in India and cost us all 10 dollars, yes 10 DOLLARS to do 12 hours. In terms of travel in the UK, this is amazing value, but in India we have done the same length at least 3 other times for half the price. Guess thats the price of 'luxury'. For me the best part of this bus journey were the Tibetan monks all congregating in the bus station after a protest in Mysore due to 15 of their comrades being kidnapped in China I think....these guys are seriously good human beings and very, very polite to approach.

So we managed a bit of sleep on the bus as we were only awoken 3 or 4 times for tea breaks -where the lights came on the bus. At a few points I remembered waking up and looking out of the window only to see very thin, windy, jungle like roads as the bus meandered over the mountains towards the south.

Ten am, 17th of March we arrive in the tourist city of Kochi. It appeared to be so due to the ratio of westerners to natives around the bus station and for the fact that were almost immediately (nearly) ripped off by a rickshaw driver whom tried to charge us 150 rupees for a 2km journey that should have been 20 rupees (25p). Tired and all stroppy we (Jen, Isabelle and I) managed to negotiate a rickshaw for the correct price to the jetty where we decided to take a boat to another part of the town called Fort Kochi. This is essentially an island part of the city with Portuguese architecture and seriously high prices for everything in the tourist section!!

After a very reasonably priced 2.50 rupees (2p), 20 minute boat journey across to this part we explored and found a 'homestay' room for 350 rupees a night (about 10 dollars).....the cheapest and cleanest we could find. BUT...this was not a homestay we had experienced before and was basically a 4 bed apartment in a big building where a young couple rented out 3 of the rooms. It was still technically a homestay though, so they could market it as one.

No sleeping for us though, 12hours on a bus with about 3 in sleep mode is sufficient...off to explore some more. Bags down, showered with cold water and ready to rock, we set out to find some good food. As aforementioned, the food was all expensive and the regular, dumb tourists would happily pay 60 rupees for a thali...where we had been used to 20 for the same thing. We set a few goals where we wanted to find somewhere to do laundry, somewhere to eat and some chilling. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere wanted our money to do laundry so we purchased some powder and planned to do it ourselves!

A nice rickshaw driver gave us a bit of a tour under the proviso that we 'looked in a few shops'....haha. This is the age old trick of the rickshaw driver taking a few tourists into a shop, you dont buy anything, and then he gets some commission...or how they term it, 'some petrol vouchers'. So he took us for a good thali at a very acceptable 17rupees a piece, then we looked in the shops! There was no way we were buying anything though as they were crazy expensive!!! One man majorly looked down his nose at me due to the stains on my dirty shorts...haha...so I put him in his place and asked him about where in the world he had travelled...teach him to be nasty to travellers! 1-0 to the shabby, dirty tourist!!!

The evening came, the 2hour hand washing mission in the room was completed and we were ready to hit a cool local dance show called Katkhali (I think). We were psyched for the 2 hour show entailing men in costumes, speaking a strange body language to one another whilst accompanied by a dude singing in the background to a drummer...and stuff. Unfortunately, lethargy got the better of Jen and I, so we slipped out the back door during a part in the show where they use a big curtain and we wouldn't feel so bad....haha.




On the way out from the show a crafty entrepreneurial rickshaw driver managed to pursuade us to go into another posh shop...but this time we got paid 50rupees for it!!! Fine by me. I suggested we do the same with 20 shops the following day so we could make up some of our travel deficit from the long expensive bus journey...to no avail...haha.

Today arrived and we were all feeling quite lazy again. I had porridge for breakfast after establishing that my landlady did not grasp the concept of toast from our 20minute discussion. The porridge was fantastic though so we were both happy...toastless, but happy.

The three of us set off on another boat journey back to mainland. Refreshed and less sleep deprived we were stunned to see beautiful opportunistic, what seemed to be Bottlenose dolphins jumping out of the river on our way over. Once on mainland it seemed we were on a mission....not any old mission...but....A PIZZA HUT MISSION!!!!! Hell yeah we were! Porridge aside I was ready for the heavenous experience. Straight to pizza hut we went and boy did we splash out compared to our previous meals...but it was all worth it. I had my cheese fix (in fact I've saved a bit in my bag for tonight)...but there was no stuffed crust. I dont know what it is but we just can't shake the craving for western food. Every now and then we have a cheese relapse and have to splash out.



After pizza hut we trekked to the bus station and train station to check on times and availability over the next few days for our various departures. Specifically we looked at how to get to an amusement park called Veega Land, we looked at how to get to the 'Backwaters' and to the airport.

So we are now very satisfied from our food, we have our exit strategy planned, its raining - but who cares as its still hot...what would tip the day off is only the cinema right!! You got it. 10,000 BC was playing at the local cinema, and this one seemed like a big, professional cinema as it had a tuck shop, Britney spears playing over the PA and lots of posters of the next film to be shown (a Hindi film called Race...looks good too). For 50 rupees (65p) we got to see this, I thought, pretty cool film.

Out of all the empty 200 seats in the house a cool Indian dude sits next to me and starts to converse. Hes called Peter, is a tiler and has a brother in England studying. Speaks great English too. The fim starts and the locals cant help but keep their mobiles on. But I learn from Peter what 'turn your phone off' is in Hindi...luckily didn't need to use it though!

As with our previous cinema experience this one turned out to be hilarious. It was a great film and had all the lips in sync, lots of fighting, a love story and other bits. It also had a half time break of 4 minutes where we had salt popcorn. The end of the film experience here was friggin hilarious. For some reason everyone left 10 minutes before the end of the film!!!! I have no idea why....we concluded that they all chose to go home and make up their own ending to tell their friends and family, why else would you leave a film early!!! A deer with no eyes....(no idea). In fact, a deer with no legs and no eyes (STILL no idea).

Tomorrow we go to the backwaters which are a collection of waterways and streams that you can explore by houseboat. We discovered that its cheaper to go a bit further south and get off the tourist trail to experience this....wish us luck!!!

Hope this entry hasn't been too shabby!...Peace out

P.s from Jen....Note: Terry's blog is all about the money as usual. That'll teach me to allow the 'financial controller' to write an entry!!!






Here are the views from the 6000 feet mountains we climbed, me and tel at the top, with cloud all around us!





LEECH ATTACK!!!!!!! OUCH!!!!! This is Isabel's white leg!!!

Below is the house is our home stay in the middle of a huge coffee plantation, with amazing views all around.