Sweltering in the South
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
10
17
Trip End
Feb 10, 2007
Cochin, India
Thursday, November 16, 2006
From Fort Cochin we went south to a little town called Allepey where we boarded a house boat for a 24 hr cruise of Kerala's inland waterways. Although this sounds like we might have been adventurous and made our way off the beaten track, that is not the case - we saw plenty of other sunburnt Europeans gawping at native villages. BUT - for all the tourists it was well worth it. We had a lovely boat, complete with chef who wondered around in Spurs away shirt (didn't know who the team were, but I soon revealed the worst to him), some of the villages were great to see, and a short trip through the jungle in dug-out canoe made us feel like explorers.However, what the backwaters lack in development they more than make up for in heat. Life on the boat was exceedingly sticky - so it was from there to the fresh air of the beach.
The beach was good and bad. First the bad: after hardly seeing a cloud throughout our time in India, our final 4 days "topping up the tan" were actually spent diving for cover from the residual monsoon. But now the good: first, the one day we did spend in the sun turned us both a quite awesome shade of lobster so it was just as well it rained the other 3 days; secondly, we stayed in a wonderful, chic little house called Villa Jacaranda which we heartily recommend (run by a v friendly and v camp ex-Allen & Overy paralegal called Ajay); and thirdly we met some lovely people (a banker, a squaddie, and a chap who was at the same prep and public school as me, only one year below...).
All in all, a fitting end to a fabulous time in India.
