Welcome to India

We flagged today as our most horrendous day travelling as we left Arusa at 5.45am and were due to arrive in Cohin the next morning 10ish without any proper sleep. But all things considered it was fine...we had a spell in Nairobi airport which we used to do some photo admin and by the time we got to Mumbai we were feeling very excited about being in India.

We arrived at about 8am into Cochin airport to be met by our driver with his retro 'president' car and made the journey into town. We got to our hotel, The Malabar House, and were greeted by a nice welcome fruit juice. Once we were shown to our room, I crashed and burned, so showered then had a really lovely siesta for four hours. Paul woke us both up with an 'excitable' get up we need to go exploring chant, so we did. We went for a nice little walk along the sea front to see all the Sunday walkers and fishermen selling fish. We then ended up having another healthy juice in the Old Harbour Hotel which was so Zen we ended up booking for dinner.

Got back early evening to be greeted by a lovely surprise in our room; garlands of flowers everywhere. The smell of Jasmine alone was enough to plant a very strong memory of a lovely welcome to India.

Had a quick turnaround, then spent a while listening to a couple playing classical Indian music on the terrace here...the Indian flute (whatever the proper name is) was totally mesmerising.

Off to the Old Harbour to have the first of our 'best curries ever' experiences.
Also had the funniest ride ever in a 'Ferrari' Rickshaw...it wasn't a Ferrari but the gold letters above the driver had named its o. There were blue fluorescent lights underneath and a huge beat box behind our ears - We then giggled uncontrollably throughout our short ride to Michael Jackson's 'Beat-It.

They so love a bit of retro-cheese here...think we are going to have a great time!