Well hello there again people, here we are back on the blog, this time in Kochi, Southern India, looking for a little respite after the (mostly) hecticness of touring the Northern/Central cities. We caught a (relatively, 3 hours!) short flight from Udaipur airport, and landed at Kochi to find it noticeably different in air temperature and humidity, and more importantly no smog/fumes as we had been used to by now in most places, which was nice! After going through the usual long winded process of trying to describe to various taxi drivers where we wanted to go we finally arrived in Fort Kochi about an hour from the airport and to our destination the not very Indian sounding Tag & Nacht hotel. First impressions were good, really nice, clean rooms etc (Especially considering the price we were paying...very cheap!) and the young German woman and Indian partner seemed sound enough despite wanting three, yes three photocopies of our passports for God knows what reason although the guy did mumble something about some bomb attacks a few years ago in the region, I mean I'm sure we don't appear as the Al Qaeda type but hey I suppose these people come in all shapes and guises and you can never be too sure! Maybe I should't have even typed that last sentence up on here, probably end up on some government watchlist looking for terrorist key words on the net ha ha. Whoops just done it again, oh well. ANYWAY, after an evening and the next day there it became pretty apparent there aint much in Fort Kochi to see or do really, once we'd had a good walk round it's really quite a small place. Nice people on the whole and the food ok but very Western food mostly. Quite a few swanky big hotels here even though only a small place and lots of tourists, especially middle aged couples it seems. Even though obviously still in India it's surprising how much things vary from where we had been, the people and the culture and even the skin tone, traditions and the food. Some even say the difference between Northern and Southern India is as good as visting another country in many ways. In some ways the people here are more relaxed but in other ways the tuk tuk drivers and shopkeepers can be just as aggressive as we are now used to. Saw the local fishermen doing their thing, walked along the seafront and kept walking looking for some signs of a beach which was the main reason we had come to the area really, it slowly began to dawn on us that apart from a 100yd stretch of sand at one point (no sunbathers, only canine ones anyway, covered in rubbish, seen better quality sand at Travis Perkins to be honest!) the 'beach' was more of a rocky coastline and no more. So after declining endless offers from tuk tuk drivers insisting they take us to visit the 'must see' Dutch Cemetery (sounds a blast, doesn't it?!) we decided to book ourselves on one of the backwater tours that the area is so well known for, this was probably on our third day there, so we were looking forward to that the next morning. On our first night there just wandering about we had come across a little artists studio on one of the back streets and to our surprise as we wandered past we had a glimpse of would you believe it an Indian Rastafarian quietly and serenely working away, surrounded by what looked like some really amazing technicolour artwork adorning the walls and floor, and what we thought was some Bob Marley going on in the background. Interesting, we thought! So we didn't want to bother him what with it being our first night there and it was pretty late at night. Anyway, on what I think was our third night there we we wandering home again and we happened upon the same place and there he was working away in his studio/room late at night, this time with some rather funky John Lee Hooker floating out the door. We decided to pop in and say hello and to see if we could have a look at some of his artwork and glad we did. Turns out the curiosly chilled, dreadlocked Rasta/Indian was an amazing artist by the name of Desmond (Desmond, mon!) Rabero who does some fantastic stuff, very multicoloured pyschedelic art and has had offers to put on exhibitions in London, Paris and other major cities but is happy just doing what he's doing in his home town, for now at least anyway. See the pictures we have put up he's pretty easy to spot! He was very accommodating to say the least and we ended up talking and listening to his stories for quite a while! He told us tales of his life working on the seas, his travels, how it breaks his heart to have witnessed the gradual change in his lifetime of Kochi from a quiet paradise for the locals to it's present day incarnation as a destination for many peoples Indian package holidays and all the commercial downsides that can bring. But he was happy and he told us of his extended family many who had moved overseas and we finally found out that he has a similar aged sister (Desmond was in his fifties) who now lives in Melbourne, Australia. After hearing how he hadn,t seen her in over twenty years and only speaking on the phone now and then we offered to come back before we leave Kochi, take a few snaps and drop by on her when we get to Oz, an idea which pleased him immensely to say the least! Desmond was one of the nicest, amusing guys you could ever hope to meet, chilled beyond belief with a proper hippy hedonists outlook on life (could have something to do with what he smokes all day long maybe, not sure, something we politely declined of course! Or didn't inhale at least, can't remember which it was now!) Anyways we popped back the night before we left to take a few pics, ended up stopping and chatting till late again somehow and we're going to call in on his sister when we get there after Desmond assured us of a warm welcome and maybe even a bed for the night which could be useful where we can give her the pics and send some back to him in India. We also bought a piece of wicked art off him to bring home, hopefully an investment for the future too when he's famous on the art scene hopefully! Like I said, great guy and it just shows how often it's the people who make things memorable, as well as seeing the sites etc of somewhere.
So back to what was to be our last day in the area due to us having decided to cut our stay short and head off back up North to see what else we could find on our travels. We left early for the boat trip and after a short taxi ride we were on the edge of the Kerala backwaters. The trip lasted most of the day and was a really nice chilled out affair on a medium sized longtail boat, no engine just our guide with his stick punting us along slowly while we lay back in the floor of the boat watching the world go by. He took us through palm tree lined channels with just greenery as far as the eye could see plus some unusual and pretty interesting flora and fauna here and there. The only slight downer on the whole journey was when we stopped off at a riverside restaurant type place and...OW!....Sophie's back went big time as she stepped off the boat! Amazingly and despite us being literally in the middle of nowhere there was a Ayurvedic doctor and his wife at this place and after beckoning Sophie to come and lie down in one of the empty huts there they proceeded to give her treatment there and then! They both grabbed an end, one her feet and the other her hands and stretched her and pulled her this way and that, and despite it looking agonisingly painful for her after ten minutes of this and a little tiger balm she was up and walking again! So that was a relief and she's back to normal now im pleased to report. So after that bit of drama and a nice if a little rustic dinner we set sail again, this time going a little deeper into the greenery and again was just a nice relaxing time. On the trip squeezed into the boat with us were a young Polish couple and we got to know them a bit, couldn,t not really stuck in a little narrow boat with them for six or seven hours ha ha. Was interesting hearing there perceptions of England; they had stayed briefly in London before flying out and weren't overly impressed so we told them next time forget the capital and get yourselves out to the Welsh valleys or the Lakes and have a much better time! Again check the pics for some good ones of the boat trip. Well, thats about all there is to tell about our time here, so after a little research and endless coffees in internet cafes we decided to head further up North and we went off to catch a train to Mangalore, a decent sized city a couple of hundred miles up the West coast. Catch ya next time!