Friday, January 14, 2005
a day in the life
8.00 woke up
8.10 fell out of bed
8.20 dragged a comb across our heads
9.00 have coconut pancakes cooked by joseph, guest house owner
10.30 take rickshaw into centre of town
10.45 post photos to internet site in small cafe in town
12.00 take rickshaw to post office to send parcel home
12.13 reach post office
12.15 realise there are no packing facilities at post office
12.16 enlist help of friendly post office employee to get parcel properly packed
12.17 take rickshaw to shop to buy cloth to wrap parcel with
12.25 walk around the corner to further shop to get tailor to sew cloth around parcel
12.30 walk to yet another shop to buy sealing wax to seal parcel according to regulations
12.35 walk to street stall to buy another candle to melt wax onto parcel
12.40 mission accomplished, we - p,c and friendly employee - all take rickshaw back to post office
13.10 manage, after further application of string to secure parcel, to persuade post office to send it back to london for us
13.25 have lunch in indian coffee house. chicken biryani and vegetable curry.
13.40 walk to nearby barbers, the only one in town with electronic clippers apparently
13.45 barber on lunch so sit out on pavement for 20 minutes waiting for him
14.05 have haircut and shave (only p)
14.30 agree to participate - starring as 2 token westerners - in indian version of candid camera
14.35 meet camera crew and producer for briefing
14.40 taken, in flash 4x4 cars, to nearby tourist office
14.45 get out of car as secret covert filming begins
14.46 stand, looking as western as we can while tv man pretends to houseboat owner that he is our agent and we want to buy houseboats, find keralan brides and groom to marry, and have an air conditioned canoe
14.47 animated conversation continues while we continue to look western as instructed
14.50 to great hilarity, the joke is revealed to the unsuspecting houseboat owner
14.51 disappointingly, jeremy beadle fails to appear from the nearby forest
14.55 camera crew film us being given presents from 'our sponsors' to thank us
15.00 camera crew promise to send us tv programme video once aired
15.30 relax back at hotel
16.45 take rickshaw to beach and walk along to watch sunset
18.34 further rickshaw back into town to eat at kream korner, for the 3rd night running
20.00 final rickshaw back to the hotel, doing internet on the way back
22.00 bed
now you know how many holes in takes to fill the albert hall.
8.10 fell out of bed
8.20 dragged a comb across our heads
9.00 have coconut pancakes cooked by joseph, guest house owner
10.30 take rickshaw into centre of town
10.45 post photos to internet site in small cafe in town
12.00 take rickshaw to post office to send parcel home
12.13 reach post office
12.15 realise there are no packing facilities at post office
12.16 enlist help of friendly post office employee to get parcel properly packed
12.17 take rickshaw to shop to buy cloth to wrap parcel with
12.25 walk around the corner to further shop to get tailor to sew cloth around parcel
12.30 walk to yet another shop to buy sealing wax to seal parcel according to regulations
12.35 walk to street stall to buy another candle to melt wax onto parcel
12.40 mission accomplished, we - p,c and friendly employee - all take rickshaw back to post office
13.10 manage, after further application of string to secure parcel, to persuade post office to send it back to london for us
13.25 have lunch in indian coffee house. chicken biryani and vegetable curry.
13.40 walk to nearby barbers, the only one in town with electronic clippers apparently
13.45 barber on lunch so sit out on pavement for 20 minutes waiting for him
14.05 have haircut and shave (only p)
14.30 agree to participate - starring as 2 token westerners - in indian version of candid camera
14.35 meet camera crew and producer for briefing
14.40 taken, in flash 4x4 cars, to nearby tourist office
14.45 get out of car as secret covert filming begins
14.46 stand, looking as western as we can while tv man pretends to houseboat owner that he is our agent and we want to buy houseboats, find keralan brides and groom to marry, and have an air conditioned canoe
14.47 animated conversation continues while we continue to look western as instructed
14.50 to great hilarity, the joke is revealed to the unsuspecting houseboat owner
14.51 disappointingly, jeremy beadle fails to appear from the nearby forest
14.55 camera crew film us being given presents from 'our sponsors' to thank us
15.00 camera crew promise to send us tv programme video once aired
15.30 relax back at hotel
16.45 take rickshaw to beach and walk along to watch sunset
18.34 further rickshaw back into town to eat at kream korner, for the 3rd night running
20.00 final rickshaw back to the hotel, doing internet on the way back
22.00 bed
now you know how many holes in takes to fill the albert hall.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
more photos...
to be added soon. the package necessary to post them is playing silly buggers and so we've been cut off mid posting. normal service resumed tomorrow when we can find a different internet cafe.. PROBLEM NOW CORRECTED - SEE BELOW...
no fish were harmed during the making of this photo 
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
if she knew what she wants
and so, the deep south... before that though, i must thank all my close friends, and especially my immediate family, for their kind words of support regarding the recent debacle at mumbai airport.
anyway, back to the backpack saga. cochin, kerala. apparently the only state in the world to democratically elect a communist government. who'd have thought it?
mercifully for the locals, the tsnuami had lost most of it's power by the time it reached these shores. the areas we've visited - so far - only experienced waves that went 20m or so beyond their usual place. still, the communities are visibly affected and most people keen to talk about it. we've been told of fishermen refusing to go back to the sea and they are dragging their boats further ashore on the beaches every night as a result. people don't really seem to appreciate the global perspective of the whole thing, though one guy did ask me if the waves reached england.
we spent 3 days in cochi - a delightful town littered with dutch, portugese and british colonial era buildings. it even has a so called village green, complete with dozens of cricket games and the obligatory indian piles of litter.
and of course, 2 became 3 during our stay. no, not another junior wylie, but instead none other than aasha shamsuddin, friend from london. there we were, minding our own business in the train station when we spotted her. visiting her keralan uncle for the first time. who'd have thought it? such a coincidence...
cochi? well, we did a dolphin spotting tour. the boat owner advertised that if you didn't see one in the hour ride then you didn't pay. unfortunately my visions of a free hour long cruise were cruelly shattered minutes after leaving shore when we saw the first of 20 or so dolphins. back on shore we spent most of our time eating. fishermen sold a fantastic array of fresh fish, alongside their ancient chinese fishing nets, which once purchased you took to small shacks along the beach and they grilled them for you. everyday we ate our way through our very own seafood mountain.
kerala is also the home of kathakali theatre. otherwise known, as per the chinese opera and the start of the whole bobbins debate, as bobbins. at least i didn't have to miss any palace games to watch this one. the first 90 minutes involved watching 2 men putting make up on (2 fellas, i ask you?). the next 45 minutes involved a woman twitching her eyebrows in many different ways. the final hour was the story - a large part of this involved a man standing behind a big rug. cultural and authentic it may have been but, edge of the seat entertainment it was not.
and the weather was hot.
anyway, back to the backpack saga. cochin, kerala. apparently the only state in the world to democratically elect a communist government. who'd have thought it?
mercifully for the locals, the tsnuami had lost most of it's power by the time it reached these shores. the areas we've visited - so far - only experienced waves that went 20m or so beyond their usual place. still, the communities are visibly affected and most people keen to talk about it. we've been told of fishermen refusing to go back to the sea and they are dragging their boats further ashore on the beaches every night as a result. people don't really seem to appreciate the global perspective of the whole thing, though one guy did ask me if the waves reached england.
we spent 3 days in cochi - a delightful town littered with dutch, portugese and british colonial era buildings. it even has a so called village green, complete with dozens of cricket games and the obligatory indian piles of litter.
and of course, 2 became 3 during our stay. no, not another junior wylie, but instead none other than aasha shamsuddin, friend from london. there we were, minding our own business in the train station when we spotted her. visiting her keralan uncle for the first time. who'd have thought it? such a coincidence...
cochi? well, we did a dolphin spotting tour. the boat owner advertised that if you didn't see one in the hour ride then you didn't pay. unfortunately my visions of a free hour long cruise were cruelly shattered minutes after leaving shore when we saw the first of 20 or so dolphins. back on shore we spent most of our time eating. fishermen sold a fantastic array of fresh fish, alongside their ancient chinese fishing nets, which once purchased you took to small shacks along the beach and they grilled them for you. everyday we ate our way through our very own seafood mountain.
kerala is also the home of kathakali theatre. otherwise known, as per the chinese opera and the start of the whole bobbins debate, as bobbins. at least i didn't have to miss any palace games to watch this one. the first 90 minutes involved watching 2 men putting make up on (2 fellas, i ask you?). the next 45 minutes involved a woman twitching her eyebrows in many different ways. the final hour was the story - a large part of this involved a man standing behind a big rug. cultural and authentic it may have been but, edge of the seat entertainment it was not.
and the weather was hot.
