Fort Kochi an interesting start !

Left the hustle and bustle of Mumbai today to fly south to Kochi, It’s very different here, tropical almost. The amount of rubbish is still staggering. We are staying on the island of Fort Kochi. Delays at the airport made sweeter by Zainab’s goody bag. I’m sticking close. Managed to do some sketching whilst waiting for take off. A man snoozing - saggy jowls and bushy moustache just begging to be sketched. Zainab took photos whist Suhita sketched me sketching!

Shaky start to this part of the trip. I restrained from having full on hissy strop when confronted with the darkest mustiest room ever. I guess the humidity doesn’t help. You can cut through it with a knife.

They speak Malayalam here - very different to the other Indian languages. The word may have originated from a local dialect. Mala means hill and Alam may mean depths of the ocean. So Malayalam may refer to the land lying between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. Something to explore anyway.

The main drag seems a bit of a dive. The Blackpool of India. Fort Kochi is a coastal place. More foreign tourists - or maybe it seems that way because it is more compact. It’ll hopefully look better in daylight.

Went to watch a Kathakali performance this evening. Story telling through expressive dance. where the make up session is part of the performance. Colourful and expressive. Fun to sketch.

Thankfully found a bar with excellent prawn tempura and beer. Much needed after a long arduous day. Can’t believe they’ve had four inches of snow at home.Les mer