Is it spicy, ma'am?

I woke up once around 5, the train was all quiet except for the A/C fans. Everyone appeared to be sleeping as I snuck through the car, and the door next to the restrooms was open. We were stopped at some small platform, but there were no-one about. It was nice walking about a bit, all alone. Doesent happen very often in India I think. After what was probably only a few minutes, but it felt like a private little eternity. The locomotive sounded its horn and I jumped aboard as it slowly woke to life and started moving. I was sleeping again shortly after, far deeper than I had been earlier. Susanne woke me up around 8. The others in our compartment had gotten off already so we had it to ourself, was practical for packing all our stuff again. We both skipped breakfast, neither of us were hungry and we were not sure how long it was until we arrived at our station. Susanne got a lot more done on her blog (should be coming up about the same time as this goes live, http://cosmaasworld.blogspot.com/ ) and I finally had a chance to send the update I wrote last night via email as it turns out that the Eee takes an aweful lot of time parsing the java used in the Blogger text entry field.

We arrived in Ernakulam Junction ca. 10. The heat was just as striking as we expected it to be, my phone being of the oppinion that it was no less than 31 degrees celsius.

We were to be picked up by someone from our travel agency, but saw noone as we came into the station building. Susanne called our agent, and he explained that the car was 5 minutes out. "Oh no", we thought, remembering the "just another 5 minutes" in Delhi two weeks ago. Making a long wait short, several phonecalls, "5 minutes later"'s and well over 1 hour later, we were finally told to take a taxi to the hotel as the car was still stuck in traffic. Indian efficieny at work. 5 minutes later I got an SMS with the hotel adress and as soon as we set foot outside the trainstation the taxidrivers descended unto us like hawks for a hare. We found someone who knew where it was and the price seemed right so we jumped in. Finally we got to ride in one of the old cars, an Ambassador Grand (no idea who makes them, will have to wikipedia that later.) A piece of Indian history on wheels. I sounds like a tractor, drives like a spunge and is as comfortable as a car can get without wearing one of the German or British luxury badges.

It said in the hotel voucher that the hotel was ~2km from the trainstation. 2km in India is a lot further than in Norway as one drive around each and ever other car, scooter, tuktuk, bus and pedestrian trying to get in your way. After asking a few people along the way our taxidriver found our hotel and we got unloaded. This hotel is stylish, posh even. In the delicately decorated lobby there was a well dressed smiling lady ready to check us in, a first for us on our journey. The problem was that we never got our hotel vouchers in Agra like we should have, and they could not find us in the system. A few phonecalls later (they sorted everything, we were just sitting in the nicely airconditioned lobby and waiting) and we were shown to our room. As far as Indian standards go, our room is about as luxurious as the Owners Suite my dad and I booked on our Oslo - Kiel - Oslo cruise last year. While we dont have the minibar of Agra nor the WiFi connection of Udaipur, this is by far the cleanest and nicest and most exclusively furnished room (and hotel) yet. The city of Cochin in general seems a lot more clean and the people come across as far friendlier than up in Rajasthan. There are also far less animals in the street. I've seen only one goat so far and he was trodding along in a backstreet. Perhaps the fact that cows are on the menu here keeps them off the street.

After the long trainride and the uninviting shower in Agra, it was so nice with a long warm shower. Sadly it was too late for laundry (would have been delivered tomorrow evening), so I am rather short on clean clothes now. Good thing I bought those clothes back in Jaisalmer, they are also perfect for this heat. We then ventured up to the rooftop restaurant but found it completely deserted - even the furniture was gone. The nice ladies in the reception directed us to a restaurant/café on the groundfloor. The service was all one could wish for and then some - our waiter was even putting food from the bowls onto my plate. I went for a nice mutton roast with spices and fried coconut leaves, a local speciality.

Susanne tried a platter of various traditional Kerala meals. While my food was spicy, hers was bordering on live fire. Her face was sort of glowing in this interesting red hue and her lips/mouth was quite swollen. Our ever-present waiter came over and asked in the most natural way possible; "Is it spicy, ma'am?". Imagining the steam slowly rising out of her ears was by no means a long leap for the imagination, but the waiter was nice and she tried her best not to falter from the spices as she admitted that it was probably a little too spicy for her taste.

Susanne tried their watermelon juice and ananas juice. The watermelon one was really nice. I ordered 7UP and got Pepsi, but it was still nice after the heat outside. Once we were done eating we went back to our room to repack our bags for warm wather excursions and went downstairs. Before going outside we had the reception change two Rs1000 notes into 100s as they are easier to use here. We then inquired about the closest medical store (I had read that it was the best place to purchase chewing gum here) and how best to get to the boat going to Fort Cochin (an area, old town, not a fort).
I am addicted to chewing gum and I had the last one I brought from Germany on the train this morning, so it was a welcome sight finding a pack of Orbit. We then tuk-tuked to the boat jetty and got in line. Their idea of efficiency here is to only start selling tickets once the boat has docked. This way there is a long queue waiting, only one person selling tickets to the two lines (gents in one, ladies in the other) and lots of running. Susanne had found a nice Indian couple in the ladies queue, both were in IT and as the queue went on she got us invited to their wedding in Mumbai sometime around xmas this year. Perhaps combining that with Thailand? I really have to come up with some devious plot to earn enough money to keep up with her traveling plans. Anyway, as the boat arrived, Susannes newfound friend bought us all tickets and we ran aboard the boat as one of the last to make it (still a long queue left). The boat was nice, an old wodden contraption with a roof, no windows. The engine rumbled along in the middle, fenced in but not boxed in. I am not sure how long it took to cross the harbour to get to our destination but it was quite some minutes. Once there we made our way into the streets. The Indian couple adviced us where to go and we found another tuktuk. Along the way the driver asked us if we could do him a favour and have a 5-minute looksee in a shop along the way, as he got points every time he brought someone there. We agreed (the shop didnt look shady) and it was actually worth a visit. Susanne found a nice spice box but it was too big to bring and we wouldnt have time to get it shipped before leaving for Backwaters tomorrow. We tuktuked on to the Kachi Arts Café (or so), and had a look around. We stopped by a nice perfume shop where Susanne picked up a bottle of pink Kerala flower, smells really nice. We then made our way back towards the water and walked along the beach as the sun set. While the people do seem nicer here than in Raj., I was still not comfortable walking around too much in the dark and we found a tuktuk to take us back to the ferry jetty. Like the other one he asked if he could stop by a shop where we could have a looksee but we declined as it was getting late (turned out to be the very same shop). At the ferry terminal we were among the first in the line, but it was quite a wait. In Susannes book, the "Rough guide to India", it said that the ferry leaves "every 20 to 50 minutes". I am not sure how long we waited, but it was getting cooler so it was OK. Once we had the tickets we were shuffled into a large cage where we waited some more until our boat came. Then everyone in the cage made a run for the boat to get the best places.

The cruise across the harbor at night was really nice with all the lights. The seem to have a far more evolved traffic culture on the water than on land, so there were none of the "almosts" we were used to from the streets. Back on our side we tracked down a tuktuk, but the driver was unsure about our destination. Asking some others there he said he knew where it was. Once we were on our way, he explained that it was just hard for him to read it on the phone as he could hardly see anything when it got dark. Hm.

After picking up a bottle of mango juice for Susanne (she is hooked), we went back to our hotel and awoke the airconditoner in our room. Susanne says she is still full, and I think Ill just have something light delivered to our room later. If we make it down to the foyer before it gets too late we should be able to upload the pictures from the last days as well.