Fort Kochi

Yesterday afternoon the fatigue became overwhelming. We both lay down for a short power nap about 2 pm and woke up half past 5. Our initial group meeting was in 30 minutes and so it was a bit of a hurry to get cleaned up and ready. At the meeting we met our leader, a Nepali man named Pravin. A very nice fellow who has been a tour leader for 8 years - a very long time in that work. We are also traveling with 4 Spanish women, only one of which speaks any English and has to translate to the others, an Australian man, and 3 young women from England. They all seemed like good travel companions for the next couple weeks.

After an excellent night's sleep it seemed we have finally adjusted. I feel just about as I should for this time of day. Susan's cold seems to be 90% better, too. So far we have no trace of food borne illness. I have even tempted fate by using tap water to brush my teeth. I did run it through our very nifty portable water sterilizer first.

Right now I am writing you from an island just off the coast of Kochi. It is called Fort Kochi, but we have not seen what may have been a fort. It is MUCH nicer than the city insanity in Kochi proper. (Kochi? or Cochi? It is spelled either way.) We have been here most of the day wandering around old churches, temples, and ancient streets. We saw the grave of Vasco de Gama, who died here. Our guide kept saying it was Marco Polo and was a bit embarrassed to be wrong. It is very much like Zanzibar here. There is little traffic, the coast is right along the town. There are fishers working the water, but not catching much. Many touts try to sell us their wares, but thankfully they are not terribly persistent and leave if ignored. I just had a firey hot chicken stew on naan bread. It was wonderful. Susan had a sandwich that she said was good. We ate with two of the women from England - one is 18 and the other is late 20's, I guess. They are a bit shy, but did share some of their stories from the visit to the north of India, where we will be going in a couple weeks. They said it is even more intense there, and almost like an entirely different country.

It is a bit difficult to get pictures online here, but I will get a few here: http://picasaweb.google.com/indiaadventure2007/SingaporeAndArrivalInIndia

I don't think that the link will work for you. This is a very slow connection and I cannot wait for it to finish collecting pictures.

This evening we are going to attend a traditional regional dance performance. Tomorrow we are on the road. I am not sure when or where we are headed so there may not be any reports for a while.

I forgot to mention the incredibly smart cockroaches. We were walking down the sidewalk along the water. You could not see the bugs as you walked, but as soon as your foot came down they miraculously skittered away from you. They also have tiny little skitter bugs on everything. They don't seem to bother anything and when you put your finger near them they all run away in a frenzy like little animated specks of pepper.

Namaste!

--
Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com