Alleppey to Kochi

Today we had planned to travel from Alleppey (sad at having to leave the boat behind) up the coast to Kochi. We travelled by bus which was a first for us, after trying to buy a lottery ticket instead of a bus ticket and helping out a couple of clueless Americans we boarded our bus. Conditions were cramped but for 50 pence each for a 1.5 hour journey we couldn't complain!
It was a pleasant change to view life in India from a bus rather than by travelling by plane / train. The most notable sight was an elephant being driven along the highway on the back of a very small lorry. I'm sure this was far from what the elephant had planned to be doing!

The bus staions are not tourist friendly places and the locals stare in more amazement than normal as we walked through. We quickly swapped over to a tuk tuk for short trip then onto a ferry before arriving in Kochi.
When we arrived in Kochi it was clear to see the Portugese and British Raj influence on the area, although most of the buildings were now in a poor state.
After checking in at the hostel and refuelling (chicken biryiani has become a favourite) we walked along the coast ticking off the sites. There were many fishermen along the coast using an old chinese technique that involved a large net in the water connected to a long length of wood that pivoted in the middle. After 5mins the fishermen would pull on ropes which would force the nets to rise out of the water and fish in the nets removed. As we walked along a fisherman shouted over to us and thinking he needed help pulling his ropes down we want over. After viewing the dismal catch so far we helped raise they nets out of the water to find we had helped catch....... nothing! It soon turned out that the fishermen only wanted money from us apparently because the tsunami of 2004 had massivley depleted fish stocks, gave them a pound.

We spent the afternoon on what was described as a magical beach and it would have been had it not had every Indian family for miles around sat on it, unfortunately it was their bank holiday.
Dinner was at a lovely little place called 'Tea at the Teapot' where Gem had here first cup of green tea since leaving home, I also squeezed in some chocolate cake, nice to have something without spices! The evening was spent planning, our planned itinerary proving too ambitous to keep to. We decided to give a visit to tea plantations a miss in favour of a trip to a wildlife park a safari. Not a hard decision you might think but Gem does like her tea!
Whilst planning the trip a hawk was perched on a tree behind me and Gem took great pleasure in teasing me that it was swooping down to attack me so planning ended early!
Next stop was to be Calicut by train which apart from a mouse in our compartment was uneventful!

Answers To Gem's Silly Quiz:

1. Snowy - Ice Cream of course!
2. Auto Cadets - Mechanic. (Not sure if i'd like a cadet fixing my car though)
3. Smilie - Dentist. You should have all got that one!
4. Love Juice - Juice shop. What else?
5. Devil Medicines - Pharmacy. Would you like the devil to cure you now?
6. Miss World - Sewing shop. Random
7. Lube Shop - General Store. Although, we didn't look out the back.
8. Vanessa - Ladies inner garmets. Hhmm.
9. Poopally - Milling shop. what?
10. Seeman. Wedding Shop.

Full marks? Well done!