Cochin

I got here about noon. Took a bus from Allepey around 10 am. A French couple came also. The bus wasn't actually going to Cochin, but to a town just next to it called Ernakulam, so when the bus was about to cross the bridge to get there, we jumped off to save us having to take an auto rickshaw all the way back. However, we acted a little too quickly, because we didn't really have a clue were we were. I had a map of the area, but that doesn't do much good if you don't know where you are.

So I started asking autodrivers how much it was to go to Fort Cochin, which is where I wanted to go and they were quoting very high prices, so we realized we were pretty far off from our destination.

The French couple decided to go to Ernakulam after all, so when I finally saw a local bus passing with the name 'Fort Cochi' in the window - I ran and managed to jump on just in time. Got lucky there :)

In the end I got to where I wanted and found myself a room in a small hotel. Then I went to have lunch at a nice art cafe that I had passed earlier. When I had a look around me I suddenly noticed this couple I knew I had seen before. I quickly remembered it was some friends of Sonal. I had met them in Delhi a couple of times. Magda & Mark from England. I walked over to say hello and they too were like: "Yes, we knew we had seen you before, but didn't remember where" Quite a coincidence. So we had lunch together. The best lunch I ever had in India. Brown bread tuna sandwich & great mushroom soup.


Chinese fishingnets - Cochin

Magda is working in Ernakulam which is basically 20 minutes from here with a ferry and bus. Mark is working in Hyderabad, but was on a weekend visit. Magda invited me to come stay at her flat for a few days. So I will go there next week. It shall be nice to have a little break from the travelling life.

Today I have just been wandering around here. Its almost no hassle, so it was very relaxing. I also went the the Jewish part of town (apparently there where a lot of Jewish people who came here many years ago. There are many shops with sooo many great antiques and also a lot of spice shops. I bought some Tea masala.

There is also an art festival going on, so something will happen along the beach this evening. I think some puppet show among other things. I will go and have a look in a wee bit.

I guess from my entries this last week, it is pretty obvious that I had a kind of shitty week, felt a bit lonely after leaving Auroville and Mammallapuram, but today everything is good again. This town has a really good athmosphere, that does count for a lot.