So I am now back in the UK. I flew in on Friday just in time to have a really lovely sunny bank holiday weekend in the glorious Devon countryside. I don’t mind telling you that it is a very strange thing to be home for the foreseeable future. Already I have this rather heavy feeling of needing to get on with my “real life” (well I suppose it had to happen eventually).
However if you will kindly indulge me I would like to tell you just a little about my last two weeks in my wonderful, noisy, slightly smelly adopted native land of India. Well my last two weeks for now, I know I shall be back before too long. Where I left off last time Alan had arrived and been very rapidly thrown into the thick of it. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that I did take some time off from the hospital in order to take him on a little bit of a holiday. The first instalment of this was a long weekend in Kerala, the medical students were going so it seemed sensible to take the opportunity to tag along. I can say now that I am so glad that we did. Cochin, where we had our base, is one of my favourite places ever I think. I have visited a couple of times before but I never get tired of it.
For one thing it is a wonderfully old place, being an ideal strategic position it has of course been occupied and influenced by a variety of different ruling forces. Portuguese, Indian, Dutch, Chinese and Jewish settlers have created a wonderful patchwork of culture and architecture. In modern times it has become more of a draw for tourists and travellers but it still holds its credentials as a naval port and trading post. It manages to be touristy but also retain a degree of authenticity.
As someone who has been in small town rural India for quite some time the main draw for me and the excitement of my Saturday was the cosmopolitan café culture (obviously with a traveller friendly touch). We had our breakfast at the Kashi art café. You walk through a stylish little art gallery and out the back there is a cool shady walled garden feel. I couldn’t fail to be excited with a menu which included breakfast cake and fruit platter as well as possibly my favourite sweet lime soda in the whole of India. Lunch was at the Teapot café, another spot which I can’t come to Cochin without needing to visit. A beautiful old building with high ceilings decorated with every piece of tea making paraphernalia that you can imagine. For dinner Alan and I snuck off to have some Indian food (the medical students were planning to hit the big city for some clubbing which we didn’t quite fancy). We went to Dal Roti, a first time for me and highly recommended by a previous med student visitor to the hospital. It lived up to its good review with simple but extremely tasty North Indian cuisine. It was also quite interesting because we met a rather lovely but eccentric Australian lady who told us all about her experiences in India as a “Dental tourist” having come over originally for some dental implants she had suffered a rather awful sounding botched job and had to stay for an extra five months or so to get it all fixed. She seemed extremely jolly about the whole affair, I am not sure I would have been quite so philosophical!
Well reader you may be starting to think that all we did in Cochin was eat but I assure you that is not true, it’s just that we did eat quite a lot and it was rather nice. On Sunday Alan and I did a day on the back waters. This was very relaxing as you can imagine, a combination of hot sun, warm breezes and dappled light reflecting off the water. In fact I was so relaxed that at one point Alan assures me I was completely asleep, such is life.
On the Monday (Independence Day in India therefore a bank holiday) we set off for a day at the beach. The beach in question was Cherai beach on another island just across the water. On some (rather brief) consulting of borrowed guide books we decided that the very best way to get there was to take the ferry, then a bus and then walk the short distance from the bus stop to the beach. In retrospect this is not a route I would recommend. The ferry was simple enough after we worked out which ticket counter we needed to queue at but the bus was more crowded than any other mode of transport I have ever tried to take. Think about the tube in rush hour then add half as many people again and subtract any western ideas about personal space. Then factor in the midday heat and humidity of sticky south India. To paraphrase Alan there were small Indian ladies in saris crammed into parts of my anatomy I didn’t even know I had!
After the bus came the short stroll to the beach, unfortunately not as short as we thought it might be and again in the absolutely boiling midday heat. I thought I was being steamed alive and I have never seen Alan that drenched in sweat. By the time we reached the beach all we could do was locate the only air-conditioned resort in a five mile radius and sit down to lunch. After a really lovely meal and a lot of cold drinks we finally motivated ourselves to brave the heat and hit the beach. The lovely thing was that being white and western we were in the massive minority. The majority of pleasure seekers were obviously Indian out enjoying their own coastline on a national holiday. I decided that if I was going to fully enjoy the Indian ocean I was going to do it the proper Indian way and fully dresses in my Salwar Kameez I strolled into the waves to squeal and giggle like the heroine of a Bollywood movie!
Well there you have the highlights of our trip to Kerala, always a pleasurable experience. I might write a quick rundown of the rest of our travels, the last part of the trip was spent in Mysore and Bangalore, but not today. I fear you are probably worn out enough by my attempts at travel writing for now. And besides back here in the real world I need to get on with job applications!
Lots of love and see you soon,
A x
Boys flying kites next to the seaside in Cochin
me wading into the sea
did the tourist thing and let some woman stamp "Henna" on my hand, I think it is actually ink
did even more of the tourist thing and went to see some Kathikali dancing
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