On my very last night in India, I was walking around looking for an interesting last meal when I heard my name spoken. I turned around and it was Ella, who I first met in Pushkar over a pot of beer, and last bumped into in Goa. She and her friend Victoria had bought two fresh snapper from the fishmongers along the sea front, and were waiting for them to be grilled at a street-side cafe. Since they had way too much fish for two, they invited me to join them, so that was my last meal taken care of. Oh, along with the death by chocolate we had in the very English Teapot Café afterwards.

The fish are caught in the huge claw-like fishing nets, which require four men to haul them in. The nets along the front at Fort Cochin are a bit of a gimmick, as it is normally just done in one big haul overnight. But these Chinese style nets, which are sprawled all over the backwaters, are seen as a kind of emblem of Kerala. They are a legacy from trading with Kublai Khan around 1400AD.

I think I oversold the idea to Ella of a visit to the Pepper Exchange at opening bell on Monday morning, so she decided to cycle there with me - so that explains the photo! Apparently the only pepper (and ginger) exchange in the world, I was keen to see exactly what happens on the trading floor at a commodity exchange. But being India, the opening bell wasn't until ten o'clock, and with a flight to catch; it was a very short visit. We did see the traders in action at their desks, but there wasn't much action to speak of. I spotted a Rubber Exchange around the corner too, but I'll leave you to make your own jokes about that one.

The area containing the exchanges was the most interesting though. Incredibly, Kochi has been an active spice trading port for close to 3000 years, when trading with King Solomon was established. The area is called Jew Town after the arrival of Jewish settlers who became heavily involved in the trading nearly 2000 years ago, and there is a very decorative synagogue here. Much later the Dutch, Portuguese and much less so the British all put their architectural marks on these quaint streets in which you still trip over wandering goats and bags of spices being loaded and unloaded from trucks and carts. All in all, this was a fantastic place to end.

I forgot to tell you that Kerala has red bananas. But there were other snippets too that I couldn't fit in, like having to walk along a railway platform paved entirely with sleeping bodies at 2-0AM when I was beginning to wonder if my train existed. The man who got off his scooter to slap a goat's face, and ride off again. And deep probing questions from both a sadu and an iron ore dealer who wanted to find out the "real" reasons that I was here. This gave me an eerie feeling that there is some spiritual undertone running through this ancient land and it's people. Of course, many people come here because of this belief alone.

Temperatures have started to rise steadily in South India over the last week or two, so I'll be heading soon to the other side of the equator where their monsoon season is now heading into its final month.

I'm flattered by all the positive comments I've received over the months about the blog and the photographs. But it seems so easy in a country where everywhere I turn there is a story, and pointing the camera almost anywhere produces an interesting picture.

A few personal thanks regarding India in particular - to Manish Patel (whose roots are in Gujarat) for his general advice and not-to-be-missed places. Sorry I couldn't get to them all, but even three months is not enough to see everything. And to Ramesh Menon from Kerala for his local tips - without them I would never have found the elephant pooram. And in fact without Ramesh, I probably wouldn't be here in the first place, since he also bought my house! And thanks mum for the tip-off about the Pepper Exchange, which was recently featured on UK telly. I need leads like these; otherwise I would only ever see what the guidebooks tell me to see.

Posted from Kuala Lumpur, 22nd February 2011.