Weekend in Cochin

Had a really good weekend in Cochin, i wasn't really sure that i was in the mood as have been thinking a lot about Mick and have been dreading this week but in fact it was exactly what i needed as it was really good fun. We caught the sleeper train on Thursday night which wasn't too bad although i didn't do a great deal of sleeping! Highlight of the journey was an indian man trying to grope Zoe through the partition, she feigned disgust but i think she enjoyed it really! We arrived after about 12 hours of travelling and only then realised that we din't know the address of the hotel that PA had booked for us! After trying to make numerous attempts to call PA and only succeeded in speaking to some random people who were absolutely no help at all we decided to go with the taxi man who assured us that he knew where he was going! Never believe an indian taxi driver or rickshaw driver, they always lie! He was so eager to get our fare that he tried to leave with just me and the bags, everyone else had gone to the loo! It was only when i pointed this out that he waited! He really wanted that 300 rupees! We finally arrived at the hotel, after asking about 10 people the way (i knew he was lying!) and checked in. The hotel was in the middle of no where and we decided to move to a more central one. However this news wasn;t taken very well by the hotel man who was very cross with us, in the end we ran out to our waiting rickshaw and found a nice hotel called the Princess Inn. It started raining at about 7pm that night and didn't stop till about midday the next day. No problem as we spent the next day at a place called 'Veegaland'. This was probably the most bizarre and random thing i have ever done or likely to do in India! It's a amusement/water park full of indians wearing all their clothes and shower caps! Very surreal! I spent the day in my pyjama bottoms which were fine until they got wet and then i turned into porno woman! Now the indian men really had something to stare at! Anyway it was a really good day, although there was a point when we thought we may die, but luckily Zoe managed to scream at the top of her voice that she was convinced that the ride wasn't safe. Not that anyone took the blind bit of notice of her, in fact the man operating the ride cranked it up even more due to her screaming!!! My favourite part of the day was watching Victor's face on the 'Humping Frogs"! Excitement over and we had a nice evening in a very posh restaurant and then went to a bar!! Yes, had my first beer for weeks!

Unfortunately when i got back to the hotel we had visitors! Poor Katherin was cowering on her bed as we had 2 of the biggest spiders in our bathroom!! I am not exaggerating but they were the size of my hand! I tried and failed to put one under a jug, we then had to call the hotel man - whose name luckily for us was 'Saviour' to come up and kill them. So not only did he he have to put up with 4 screaming girls but he had to kill 2 monsters! Armed with a broom, some kind of spray and sheer bravery he killed the buggers and we were safe! We then nicknamed 'Spiderman' for the rest of our stay! Arn't we hilarious!

Sunday was an organised boat trip by PA, not alot to look at but fairly pleasant. The guide asked us not to take photos of the warships (why would we want to anyway) and when i asked why not he answered, "because they are warships"! Ok point taken! In the afternoon 3 of us hired bikes and cycled around Fort Cochin, a lovely calm activity for a Sunday afternoon you would think.... it was apart from the fact i had chosen the bike with no brakes! Stopping was fun or rather not stopping was fun! We went shopping on our bikes, at least i had a good excuse not to stop when being hassled by a million stall holders!

All in all had a great time and really enjoyed hanging out with Zoe and Claire. My favourite sayings in India are; 'It's all an experience' and 'Patience in India'. We seem to use these catchphrases all the time! Another one that is becoming popular is; 'if it makes sense, it won't happen in India'!