Kochi

Having had a couple of hours sleep and a shower. We felt refreshed enough to head out into the town for a wander. The weather was warm and the sights and sounds (and smells) of India came flooding back.

We're staying at the hotel Fragrant Nature (https://www.fragrantnature.com/mobile/kochi.html) which is right at the North of the island and is a bit of luxury before or tour starts.

We walked from the hotel and through the streets around it heading for the coast. The roads are all quite narrow and bustling with auto rickshaws bikes, motorcycles, cars, people, goats and other animals. Our aim was to walk to the place where the Chinese fishing nets are and this was about 15 minutes walk away. But we had to walk along a canal which is really rather smelly and then down some side streets before we ended up on the coast and saw the fishing nets.

Quite a few locals said hello and one pair were even keen to have a selfie with us.

Having seen the fishing nets and walked along the shore for a bit, we headed back through the town and to our hotel. Now it was around 4:00 p.m. and definitely time for a refreshing beer on the rooftop.

We returned to the room and whilst Ed had a rest, I went back up to the rooftop for a swim in the pool. It was lovely to be able to swim whilst overlooking the rooftops and onto the water with the sun setting.

After a quick shower and a phone call where I spoke to the group leader for our upcoming tour who suggested some things we could do before the tour starts on Friday, we went downstairs for a drink and some food. Full and tired we headed back to the room for an early night.Read more