From KL we got a late night flight to Kochi (India) and stayed overnight in a basic hotel a few minutes from the airport. Got to it about 1am and there was confusion as we had one room but with only a rock hard double & a single bed. We tried asking for another mattress but it was about 2cms thick. In the end we slept three to the double bed and M in the other single. At least it had AC and hot water.

Breakfast was at a veggie place down the road where we immediately got herded into the “fish bowl” – a separate, air conditioned area of the restaurant. Not sure if this was so all the locals could safely observe us or for our own protection 🤔 Here we got our first proper Indian meal: a thali style (lots of small dishes) with poori (the puffed up thing in the foreground). It was great to try all the different things but some were spicy (despite what the waiter claimed!). And before we finished a couple of local families joined us in the fish bowl which made me feel better. There were also a vibrant array of sweets which we did not try.

Soon after, we were collected by our driver for the next few days (Ganesh) and headed south to the Kerala backwaters.

We thought about trying to flag down the ice cream boat but we were a bit slow. Probably not good for our tummies anyway – I mean how does the freezer get power on a boat?!? The backwaters were OK, but not as spectacular as I’d expected. It was interesting to see people living on the river – doing their washing and shopping – but we didn’t see much bird life.

We had lunch one day at a more fancy family restaurant (while the driver waited outside in the car – kinda awkward but I guess this is what is done?) and spotted this amusing sign on the door to the kitchen. It seems chefs all over the world are quite similar!

While we have been avoiding the fruit for the most part – except bananas – some of the shops really go all out with their presentation. I think that I’d kinda feel bad buying something as you’d mess up the pattern:

One of the highlights of this part of the trip was our driver taking us to his house and getting several coconuts down from his tree for us to drink and eat. He made it look easy but when M tried it it did not go so well. Amusement all round – including for the driver’s family 😁