And so it begins...

Hello everyone. We are here!!!! Woo hoo.....So here's the story so far: The flight on the Emirates A380 was awesome..The plane is so huge. Not a bad way to start my longest ever flight. Even when we were flying at night the onboard lighting was lovely and subdued. They had little led's on the ceiling that looked like stars..Ahhhh..Unfortunatley the pilot didn't seem to care as much about his plane as I did. He dumped it so hard on the runway at Dubai that a scared passenger let out a scream on the planes impact with the runway, and even 2 stewardesses that were harnessed in their seats near us gave each other a telling look as if to say "What the hell was that?". Unfortunately for us, Dubai was in darkness during our transfer, so we didn't get to see any of the buildings and islands. The airport was very busy though for 1am and it was huge!! The flight onwards to Kochin was remembered for its turbulence and bumpiness which meant that both of us only got about 20 mins sleep..

We arrived at Kochin at 8am. Loved the lush greenness and palm trees. Formalities dealt with and onto baggage collection.. Lots of people, lots of bags...but not our rucksacks. Less people, less bags....still no rucksacks..2 people, baggage carousel stopped, man in uniform waving arms as if to say "that's it folks"....No rucksacks...Go to man, he points to help desk. As I am walking to help desk, Eri spots our 2 rucksacks laying amongst unclaimed items and broken buggies..How did they get there? We will never know...Never mind

Next: Taxi. Got sorted, driver knew general direction but had not heard of the place we were booked into. Off we go. My face must have been a picture on that journey. My first time in India. Almost immediately came the offensive driving that I had heard so much about: 2 vehicles to overtake including a lorry looming ominously large heading towards us in the opposite direction..No worries!!! We can make that. Everywhere I looked I saw new things: cows wandering around, 2 adults and 1 child on a motorbike with only one helmet.

I'm beginning to learn what all the car horn beeping means. Vehicles and bikes seem to consantly talk to each other. In fact I think that after just 2 days I'm not even noticing it anymore lol. Then as we were driving along, the driver says "20 rupees more". "Sorry" I say, surprised. I am in a pre-paid taxi after all. "20 Rupees more for toll bridges" he replies. Bloody hell, its started already I think...When we finally get to our homestay, the driver offloads our rucksacks and the owner comes out...looking surprised!!!! "Hello" we say. "We're from England.. Lee, Erika!!!" A puzzled look comes back. "We have reservations with you" we state. "We e-mailed". "Twice" I throw in for good measure.. An unsteady moment takes place. We are both shattered after one nights sleep being replaced by a 20 minute nap at 38,000 feet and now it appears that there is no bed for us, which we badly want. It all got sorted though. It turned out that he did have a record of our reservation, but that he had forgotten about it. He found a room next door for us..Its all good.

This morning, I woke a 5:48 local time. No more sleep for me! I lay there listening to cats meowing, birds crowing and other noises. Outside of the window I can see palm trees. What a view. Hang on?? Whats that crawling across the wall. Its a lizard. Must take a picture of that lol. What do we do today? We did this. Walked down to the local ferry, caught it to Vippin island (hoping to see some dolphins. Which we did, although only a brief glimpse), then jumped on a local bus to Cherai beach. The bus was great. Luckily we were at the back of the bus so we couldn't see the reality of what was going on ahead. We did almost bang our heads on the roof though when the bus went over a speedbump at such speed that that all of the back 3 rows of people (11 men and Eri, as all the local women were at the front of the bus with all the guys at the back) left there seats in an upward trajectory. We held on tightly after that.

We got to our destination, walked to the beach, swam (in warm sea), ate, then left. I made some more friends at the beach. Although Eri made more. We must have chose the best spot on the beach because so many guys kept on walking past, looking around, leaving and then coming back again, and again. I think we stood out somewhat even though Eri had even covered up the nice red bikini that I like!!! On the walk back for the bus, we noticed some calves tied up on a small piece of land. After looking at them and discussing if the meat was called veal (we were hungry) we moved on when around the corner comes an elephant. A bloody huge elephant!!!! Pictured here:

I cannot believe how tall it was. Its legs were longer than the whole of me. All of those experiences in such a short time!!!!! And we are not even in proper India yet. Kerala is India for beginners apparently. Next stop: Goa. We have just booked our tickets, 765 Rupees for 2 adults for a 14 hour trip. 73 Rupees to 1 pound. Less than 5 pound per person..

Happy new year everyone. Hope you have a good time tonight whatever you are doing.. And we still dont know what we are doing yet lol..Bye