Three Wheels on my Rickshaw

Our second full day in Kochi began with a leisurely late breakfast after we had all slept soundly to complete the catching up process. With nothing specific organized other than looking for gifts for Hannah to take back for her friends, we wandered off in the general direction of the Chinese fishing nets and took in more of the sights, sounds of smells of our location.

Typically colourful Kochi buildings

Kochi in bloom

En route to the fishing nets we were persuaded by a jovial autorickshaw driver to take a detour to see the Jain Temple, a place of interest not included on our guided tour the day before. We had already thought we might pay it a visit though, so it didn't take too much cajoling by the driver to lure us aboard his three-wheeler.

Our 'air-conditioned' autorickshaw!

As we passed through neighbourhoods more rundown and overcrowded than we had seen before, it became clear that our 'official' city tour had been the sanitised version. Even so, there was bustle, life and colour aplenty and no shortage of friendly smiling faces and waving children to continue to make us feel welcome.

The Umbrella Family

This road was much larger until T.A. Kunjali shrank it.

A ride on an autorickshaw is a multi-sensory experience. Not only do you get to see and hear what's going on (as is the case in Jaya's air-conditioned Four by Four), you get to taste and feel what's happening too: heat, dust, cooking, drains, the lot. All at rock bottom prices too; our 20 minutes trip (not including time in the Temple) cost under a pound and included some very helpful background information about the Temple and other points of interest too. We instantly became autorickshaw fans and travelled this way a number of times more during the rest of the day. There are some real comedians amongst the drivers. One took great pleasure in impersonating a cat every time a dog came near to his vehicle. Admittedly as our journey proceeded this did progress from being confusing to funny to slightly irritating, but it was a more original attempt at entertainment than 'you'll never guess who I had in the back of my rickshaw the other day?'

Elephants guarding the entrance to the Jain Temple

Jainism is an Indian religion that preaches pacifism and a path of non-violence to all living things. Its origins can be traced back to between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. In line with the philosophy of Jainism, the temple was a serene and peaceful place in which the only discernible movements were the smoke rising from numerous joss sticks and the elderly man seemingly gliding along as he swept the floor. Initially it was a little disconcerting to see so many swastikas adorning the temple, before a little research uncovered that long before the Nazis corrupted the symbol it was adopted by the Indus Valley Civilisation of ancient India, and remains widely used today in Hinduism and Buddhism as well as Jainism.

We spent at least two hours over lunch in a very basic cafe, mainly waiting for our food to be cooked (due, it seemed, to many ingredients needing to be obtained from elsewhere by the waiter, who was constantly sent scurrying from the kitchen to neighbouring establishments). Nevertheless it was worth the wait, the quality of the food belying the modesty of the surroundings.

After an hour by (me) and in (Juliet and Hannah) the hotel swimming pool, we set off for a boat trip around the harbour as the sun was setting. Due to it being the end of the tourist season, we had the whole boat to ourselves and although there was not much of great interest to see from the boat, it was a lovely two hours in the sunshine with the sea breeze to keep us cool. The sunset was modest, and was snuffed out by the arrival of thick clouds that preceded the brief but heavy downpour that began just as we were being served our dessert on an outside table beside the sea an hour or so later.

It's those fishing nets again!

It's one day on as I write this and it will be Sunday before I'm able to upload it to the blog. In the meantime we've moved on from Kochi, and my next blog in a day or so will report on our latest adventures.

So far this holiday has been every bit as fantastic as I'd hoped for. Loads of highlights and nothing to spoil the fun as yet. Well, that's not strictly true. No dodgy stomach episodes thus far, but in spite of stringent application of insect repellant I have succumbed to my first insect bites. Only four so far, which is not bad at all when you're as attractive to biters as I have always been. And thanks to the combined power of piriton and anthisan, administered after the first inkling of an itch, the bites have so far been no more than mild irritants.

However, it seems that something about the trip so far has taken exception to me and decided to plant right on the edge of my lower lip the most enormous angry looking pus spot in the history of the world (think of the biggest zit you've observed on a teenager with acne and multiply it by 10). It's unsightly in the extreme and most uncomfortable. As a teenager I never ever suffered from spots; in fact to my acute embarrassment a very attractive young female French teacher once remarked on my 'lovely peach like complexion' in front of a class full of 15 year old boys! However, it seems that due to some form of natural justice, all those zits I didn't have as a teenager have now been visited upon me in one enormous serving. Perhaps it's down to the humidity, maybe an excess of spicy food or it could be completely unrelated to my current whereabouts. Who knows? What I do know, however, is that we are off into the forest tomorrow morning to look for wild animals, and I only hope that my appearance doesn't frighten them all away.