Kool Kerala

Time to cruise the Keralan Backwaters in a 'lux' houseboat but before that we needed to sort our train tickets for that journey and to Goa for Christmas....Yes, more 'lining please' but I suppose if you've got to queue you may as well do it the Indian way which involves sitting in a long line of chairs and shifting along everytime the queue moves forward.....As always actually getting what we wanted wasn't possible. The train to Kerala was already on it's way and so we could reserve tickets for when it arrived at our station. Instead we had to buy an open ticket and hope we could find a seat... Well we had hope at least....false hope as it turned out but we were oblivious to that so we had dinner and watched more cricket highlights!

The train pulled in a couple of hours late but we'd happily passed the time chatting to 'Frenchie' who we'd met in Ooty. We jumped on and started our quest for a seat, which didn't looking promising if the first two carriages were anything to judge by. Our progress along the train was being hampered by grannies and chai sellers pushing their way past us and more amusingly every other person stopping Dan to touch the Viru cricket bat. No jokes, they just wanted to stroke it! It was almost as though we were carrying the Holy Shroud of Turin, not a two quid bat from Delhi....

We were beginning to despair after walking through nine or ten carriages when we hit the train's kitchens and a nearly empty compartment. Too good to be true?? Of course it was....It was being used as a food storage area and despite our best efforts to talk the kitchen porters in to letting us stay we were booted in to a hot sweaty corridor. There was only one solution - to sit in the open doorway, Indian style... Who needs an air con seat anyway?

There were two memorable moments on that ride, both involving Hugo and a very fat pilgrim dressed in black who spoke no English.... After an hour in the doorway, he asked if he could stand in the doorway for 5 mins to dry his soaking wet trousers. Seems he'd taken to opportunity to do his washing! About an hour later he returned and asked Hugo which was the next station. How the hell would he know? Does really look like a train spotter? But telling him I had no idea seemed to confuse the poor man further.

The purpose of this leg of the trip was to cruise the backwaters on one of the beautiful houseboats but as a boat for the two was beyond our means we were 'joining' with a Saffa family we'd met the day before ....It was a lovely boat and a very relaxing trip but not one of the 'ten things you must do before you die' as described by the book.

The Keralan backwaters

The food however was probably the best we'd eaten in India; a range of delicious vegetable coconut curries and sauces eaten off a banana leaf with your fingers and washed down with a cold 'Super Premium' beer although it wasn't beer but more likely home brew gin.

The Keralan boat cuisine - tastier than it looks!

Refreshed and recharged it was time for the epic 24 hour journey to Goa but first dinner in Fort Cochin with the Saffas..

We arrived at 6pm, having gone with the Super Xpress bus from Allepey and a driver who didn't mess around. This time we sat up front and had a full view of what was approaching us. There was more than one occasion of hard braking and whiplash but we got there in the end. A quick ferry journey across the river and we were in Cochin and ready to spend a few relaxing hours checking out old cathedrals and churches - the Portuguese influence was certainly apparent and we walked past the church where Vasco da Gama was first buried.

We met the South African family near the Chinese fishing nets. These massive contraptions are manned by about 4 men and are a huge nets to scoop up fish. We strolled along and admired the various fish stalls...fresh fish, amazing tiger prawns, lobster, crab, red snapper, kingfish, squid...you name it. The fishermen are all over you, offering deals for platters by the kg - a bit like Borough Market without the pretentiousness. You buy your fresh selection and someone takes you over to a nearby stall where they cook it for you....brilliant. We take king prawns and squid, lightly dusted with Masala spice and some garlic and butter.

We pulled up some seats and waited in the queue for our seafood to be prepared. This was a popular joint and Dan suggested a couple of beers for the wait... A few minutes later Dan was back with a wrapped up parcel and some water...the Kingfisher waiting to be cracked open and escape the newspaper wrapping. It nearly ended in tears...the quest for the Kingfisher lager had us answering to the police. In Cochin you are not allowed to drink in public and the vendor should've told us. Hugo took a slug out of the beer just as a car approached, it was the police and in trying to be subtle by lowering the paper parcel, he only confirmed the driver's suspicions. They halted and quizzed him about it, whilst Dan was checking on the food. Another officer stood alongside side me cursing the vendor and soon afterwards a kid started cleaning as if he was closing up. Now, police or no police we had been waiting 40 mins for our seafood and there was no way Dan was going to let them shut it down before our feast. After a few minutes of pleading and arguing our case I convinced him to keep it open so he could finish our food....it was a close call , we still finished the Kingfisher off and stumbled off to the train station for the double header...Magalore and then Goa....