Train from Cochin to Mangalore

Day 22 – 10th April 2006

We’re back on our own, left to our own devices and masters of our destinies again.

Even though we’ve grown an extra head – Jaz – we still couldn’t work our way out of ‘Fort’ Cochin until the early hours of this morning. Wandering around Ernakulam ( the main part of Cochin) in the searing midday heat and being unable to secure bus nor train passage back up the western coast, we gave up on Friday and stayed in the Grand hotel for another night.

In an effort to sort things out on Saturday we checked into a cheaper hotel uptown – Hotel Hakoba – after we’d sorted out a train ticket to Mangalore for 1.30am Monday morning. It looked like a reasonable place to me, a bit shabby but basically clean. James didn’t think so that evening, despite paying eatra for an air conditioned room. After a few hours the a/c (with no outlet vent) the humidity increased to such an extent in his sweat box, that some friendly visitors came out to fill the vacant side of his bed: Mr. Cockroach, the lice cartel and an army of ants. Only a lizard really did poor old Jim any favours by lapping up some of the insects buzzing around the (by know) soup like environment. By 2am after opening his internal window onto a brick wall and cloud of mosquitos, Jim abandoned all hope of sleep and decided to make his escape. Outside his room, sadly, the building was cloaked in darkness and James couldn’t find a saviour light switch and he was then incarcerated until dawn. He then immediately checked into the posh Sealord up the road for some respite. James later dubbed Cochin a 'festering pustule of shit', but perhaps he was slightly biased.

Other than this little episode we passed the time enjoying traditional traveller pursuits: interminable queuing at train reservation desks, holding fruitless five minute negotiations with rickshaw drivers and eating approximations of western grub to show mercy to ailing stomachs. Cochin is very humid being so far south and it is quite a busy city, so we've been a little stressed at times, but Jaz - bless her - has been calming influence. We did two things of note in Cochin. Firstly we finally got to the beach. Cherai beach is 30k north of Cochin. It was a fair old walk through a neighbourhood caught up in local election fever (the posters and PA systems of UDP and Communist candidates were everywhere), before we reached a very pleasant golden beach and beautifully warm water. We whiled away a refreshing couple of hours before heading back for food in Cherai itself. Here we made – or rather Jaz made – a friend, a local lad who slightly outstayed his welcome at our table in the restaurant, making rather stilted conversation. I’m sure he meant well and he did bring us sweets, but we were glad to get on the bus and leave him behind. We didn’t get very far, however, as part of the exhaust fell of the bus making a juddering sound underneath the chassis. We extracted a suspect refund and caught another bus part of the way and then got a rickshaw.

I went with Jaz to see ‘Banaras’ at the Shenoy cinema yesterday evening. It was some religious/mystical love story which was incredibly cheesy. The mad pouting and bosom heaving was so overt during the boy/girl scenes it was near pornographic by Bollywood standards. We left during the intermission.

Aside from that, I’ve learnt that I’m crap at ‘Shithead’, a card game.