Kochi

I know that I am on vacation or whatever one would want to call it, but I feel like I have been moving and grooving ever since we left the beaches of Goa. We've been setting our alarm for 6am for the past week and filling our days with sight seeing and the like.

Kochi hasn't been any different. We had a miserable train ride here and planned tour after tour to fill up our short 4 days. Don't get me wrong, it's been worth it to see all the beautiful sights, but I'm very tired and VERY hot. Enough complaining already...

We are staying on an Island off of Kochi called Fort Cochin. It's another tourist hotspot, but for good reason. Here you find the backwaters of Kerala. Yesterday we took a full day tour on a non motorized boat through the backwaters. It was absolutely breathtaking. 

On the trip we met a great couple from Melbourne, Australia. They were an inspiration for Danny and me. They said they started back packing when they were in their 20's and never really stopped. They told as all the places that they had been to. They had twin girls and took them on vacations as well. We were astonished. Danny and I gave each other a glance, both thinking the same thing, what fortune do they have. Later in the conversation we discovered that they were both in the school system, one a grade school teacher and the other a vice principal. Ahhh so it is possible. Guess we need to start saving our pennies.


After a long day we grabbed a bite at an ITALIAN restaurant, run by an Italian man who married an Indian woman. All the ingredients were imported from Italy. You would have thought i was in Venice for the day. Strolling along the grand canal and finishing my day off with a delicious and very authentic Italian meal. Not the case, but the backwaters were still beautiful.

We finally had a morning to sleep in. I was so excited. 7 am rolls around and you hear this screaming noise over and over again. I had no idea what the person was saying but they kept repeating it over and over again. It felt like a dog nudging you by your bedside to get up. OK OK im up. We strolled the streets looking for a breakfast cafe and there the noise was again. It turned out that a man was selling the fish he caught that morning. We kept strolling and found ourselves by the water's edge watching the fishing nets. Crazy contraptions.

We rented a rickshaw for the day to take us around to all the hot spots. 50 Rupees an hour, a little over $1. We made good friends with the driver who took us all over town. We went to churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and even a jain temple. As nice as it all sounds, it was another tiring day. Luckily I found the next book to the girl with the dragon tattoo series and spent the last few hours reading and sleeping. We're off to a Keralan Kathakali (Traditional Dance) Show tonight and hopefully another delicious dinner.

Hope the snow is manageable at home. Stay warm. Love from India!