One Life ...

Check out time was 11am and we stayed in the room until the deadline approached. We packed our bags and tried to arrange them to meet airline requirements. Tomorrow, is the start of our flights home. Bags packed, we walked for tea by the sea. We then munches our lunch at our little restaurant before catching the ferry back to the mainland. This time we went to a closer metro station. We rode on airconditioned comfort for the half an hour journey to Aluva. Here we switched to the airport bus. Another short ride and we were dropped at the airport. We had a 10 minute walk to our hotel so we stopped for a short tea break at a 24 hour cafe. Hotel was great. Clean friendly. Perfect. We went out to eat dinner at the all night cafe. A masala dosa and a masala uttapam. Yum! We had a short look around at a few shops and cafes before waiting at the hotel for our airline check in. No mobile boarding passes could be used and the app issued invalid ones. The hotel helped us print the documents which...

We woke up at a lazy place and took a ferry to Willingdon island. First stop near the ferry stop was for dosas and chai! Pretty good dosas and real cheap. We walked along the beach front passing many Chinese nets and a church running a service. The church was next to a convent. It was quiet so we assumed everyone was inside the church. It was pretty packed out! We got the ferry back as we didn't want to walk to far on the heat. We went for lunch at the awesome little cafe overlooking the sea / harbour. A Kerala meal each hit the spot. Full ... The afternoon was spent on another ferry over to the mainland. Coffee in the India coffee shop before mall exploring in air con style! Fancy shops though quite expensive. Ferry back to homestay followed by an evening beach prom walk with Indian snacks.

As we left our accommodation we noticed the building opppsite was being set up for a wedding.  We will have a look later to see if we can see more. First we wandered down to the seafront and had tea.  We then wandered along the prom, passing the Chinese fishing nets and little stalls selling all sorts of gifts.  One stall in particular caught our attention.  It was a little plastic device which the man was demonstrating by putting rice flour dough in and producing all different shapes of pasta, cake icing etc by changing the little discs.  As Christine is a bit of a kitchen gadget collector the 100 rupee.(less than £1) price tag was too good to pass up.  We will await the master pieces when we get home!  Onwards with our walk and nestled under a tree we saw 8 tiny little puppies.. We asked a man if he knew where the mother was and he showed us a picture of her and said she wasn't far away.  We were pleased to see there was food and water for her. A little further and something else...

Today we are leaving our little bit of paradise in Anachal.  We packed our bags and had tea and breakfast with our friend. When it was time to leave our friend was heading in the same direction on his scooter so said he could take our bags and one of us, if the other was happy to walk.  Darryl kindly offered to walk so Christine took the lift. Whilst Darryl was walking up the road a taxi pulled over and kindly offered him a lift to town, no money! We didn't have to wait long for the bus, which would take us to Adimaly, where we would catch the connecting bus to Cochin. It was a short trip and when we arrived the bus conductor directed us onto the next bus.  There were 2 seats left but unfortunately whilst Darryl was lifting the bags onto the bus a lady snuck past and grabbed one of the seats.  The driver kindly moved his bag so Darryl could sit on the centre console.  A lady sitting with Christine offered us a sweets which turned out to be crystalised ginger and was quite spicy.  I...

The last couple of days we have decided to rest, after a lot of hiking in the hills. Both days have been the same - late breakfast, relaxing in the beautiful place we are staying, surrounded by birdsong, tea planations and spice gardens. Early afternoon a walk into town for late lunch of a Kerela Meal (rice, curry, chutneys and papads) - refilled as many times as you like.  After lunch a walk around town. We found a pretty little temple we hadn't seen before.   Then, before heading back to base, tea and halwa.  A leisurely walk back to our accommodation.  More R & R before a light dinner and watching something on the internet. And rest ......!