Monday 28 Mar 2011
Kochi, India
Onward to Kerala
As predicted by the sunset the evening before, I woke to a beautiful cloudless day in Port Blair. Perfect for scuba/snorkling... and not for travel.. c'est la vie.
I left the Andaman Islands and travelled to Kochi via Chennai. A long day of travelling.
After being "on the road" (in the air, more like) for 12-14 hours, I couldn't face a 2 hour drive to Kochi from my arrival airport, so I booked the first hotel I saw in the airport arrivals area... despite it's name "Abad Hotel" wasn't half bad with lovely staff and they even included breakfast in my "special" tax-less room price of 3,000 Rs. It also had 24 hour reception meaning that, as I checked in at 8pm I could check out at 8pm the next day.
On arriving in Kerala I felt like I had landed in a different country: the smell of flowers filled the humid air, the landscape was lush and green and no longer dusty. Fragrant spicey scents eshewed forth from shops and restaurants as you passed. It was this land of spices that brought traders here in the past. As the old seafaring adage goes, "You could smell the spices of Kerala wafting on the sea breeze long before you could sight the mainland"