Long Hauls....

Wheeeew, am sitting at an internet cafe in Cochin (South West Coast) after finally putting stuff from last week onto the blog.

Been a long couple of days. Starting yestreday with another trip to Navsari, packing for the our first Tour and leaving Matvad at 10pm for the drive to Mumbai. Again, a ridiculous drive (see above)

Found ourselves in what looked and felt like a different country after our flight. Bloody hot too at 31 degrees! Before long we were in a taxi and headed for the Kochin CBD to setup a game plan for the next few days here. Got a 5 ruppee (just over 10cent!) ferry across to the island of Fort Kochin and have got a room at a backpackers-type place here. Quite a different feel to the other places I've been in India with people being more friendly, a lot more tourists (all Germans so far) and more english being spoken. Had some yum Portugese-style fresh fish feed and have got a 7 hour houseboat tour of the Kerala Backwaters planned for tomorrow. Should be good, looing forward to bed tonight though!

Lots of cool architecture and even the 'Santa Cruz Basillica' here which was first built in 1510. Different stuff around because of the influence of the Portugese and British who had both setup decent sized colonies here.

Nick