My Diary of India: Eighteenth Extract

I think it's about time that I resume my India diaries. In my last post from my travels, I was about to fly South to Cochin from Udaipur. We resume now on the 8th July 2009:

To my relief I had a brilliant night's sleep last night! I was up at 6am to shower and get ready for our 7am transfer to the airport. It was really sad saying goodbye to Alison, she's become like my tour-mother. Arriving in Cochin was weird. As we drove the 45km to the hotel, we saw the big, industrialised part of the city with malls and complexes popping up along and amid the lush green skyline, punctuating what was clearly once just forest. As we drove on, into the area of Fort Cochin, it became more like Varanasi but greener. The trees and the nature here are beautiful and the contrast to the North of India is stunning. I'm not so appreciative of the mosquitoes though!

I'm really liking the South so far. Once we reached the hotel, we had a group meeting and met the rest of the team who were joining us for the Southern tour. I'm the only Brit but my roomate, Katie, is really nice. This evening, we had the most amazing meal I've ever had. The food is so good at this end of the country, it's all coconut and seafood based. Pru, Kath and I shared a prawn curry, a Keralan fish curry and coconut prawns. It was easily the most delicious, needed meal I've ever tasted. Now for bed...