KOCHI - COCHIN 23.11.08

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After a short sleep, we all meet for a walking tour in the city of Fort Kochi. It is very hot, though cloudy, but the heat hits us badly, as we are quite tired. We see most colonial buildings and the chinese fishing nets, all very famous sights.

We then take a ferry (2.5 Rp) to reach the modern part of the city, Ernakulam, where there is not much to see. There, we buy an Indian Sim card for our mobile phones, so that we can call anywhere for a much cheaper price.

It is also great to enjoy indian street life, with so many colours everywhere.

Dinner with a fabulous chicken curry, so yummy. I definitely love indian food.

FLIGHT - 22.11.08

Today is the big day, flight to Kochi with transfer in Abu Dhabi. It is a Etihad Airways flight. the plane (Airbus A330) is not full, there are still many free seats. There is a good choice of movies (76) and I can watch a few, among them Mamma Mia, quite entertaining.
It takes about 5 hours 30 minutes to reach Abu Dhabi from Geneva, I arrive there short before 8 pm local time.
The 3 girls (Laure, Jocelyne, Josiane) arrive from Paris and I start to wonder as their flight is late and it is almost time to embark on the next plane. But here they are!
Our flight to Kochi is fine. As the plane (Airbus A320) is almost empty, we can lie and sleep. We still have an excellent dinner, chicken tikka masala, to get into the indian mood.
Coming out of the Kochi airport is fairly quick, it is not as busy as Delhi airport.
We take a prepaid taxi and we get a nice Ambassador. I love those cars. Price for the 4 of us! 742 Rp. The taxi takes us to the accomodation booked through Internet. It is called the Chiramel Homestay and it is in the old part of Kochi (Fort Kochi). We are very tired, it is 5 am and we need sleep, after such a long flight.

Soon off to Kerala!

Here I am again. In two weeks, we'll be enjoying the south indian heat and sun.
We.... who's that? Jocelyne again, (she just loves travelling) and two other girls who answered my ads on various travel sites. One being Laure from Paris and the second one being Josiane, living near Toulouse. Both of them seem to be very nice and quite enthusiastic.... I am sure we'll be a wonderful team.
We are leaving November 22, so that's just around the corner.
The 3 girls leave from Paris, all on the same flight. I am leaving from Geneva, flying the same airline and we'll meet at the connecting airport in Abu Dhabi. The 4 of us will continue to Kochi (Cochin) our final destination where we'll arrive early morning the next day.
http://ey.innosked.com/
Our airline is Etihad, it will be a first time experience for us all.
Our plans are to tour around the Backwaters during the first week, then we'll tour around Munnar and Kumily for the second week. I have booked a car with driver for the second part of the trip, let's see if that will be as nice as with our dear Jassi, back in February.