After a good night's sleep we both woke up early and got ready for breakfast early as we expected to have a long day ahead of us, visiting Ernakulam via a boat service. At breakfast things however were somewhat slow and we ended up spending nearly an hour there until 9:00 before we had everything served and eaten, plus the coffee drank. They must have been under-staffed in the Fort House restaurant - but being tourists we are not in any real hurry and you just have to take these things in your stride and enjoy the view or read the newspaper instead of fretting - not something our couple of girls at the table next to us seemed to grasp as they were constantly at the staff - not that that mattered at all as regards delivery time - the waitresses were pretty good at the good ol' trusty first-come-first-served paradigm ;-)
Afterwards we walked (slowly! It's sizzling and really humid here even at 9:00!) down to the ferry and were quickly on our way given some lucky timing on our part. The boat ride only took about 20 minutes before we arrived at the peer at Ernakulam.
I quickly plotted out a rough rectangular route for us, which obviously included M.G. Road where all the shops were, that we followed around. Went to the pharmacy for more tubes of Nadoxin, went into a phone shop and bought 5GB of data over 60 days for €20 (yes, pretty pricey - but Vodafone has excellent coverage and given recent experiences we really want good coverage for Google Maps, WikiTravel etc ;-), then off to CitiBank for cash withdrawals (the only bank we have found so far that will allow withdrawels of more than Rs.10K - thereby minimising our Moneybookers €1.80 withdrawal fees) and finally into the D.C. Books store on Banerji Road, which incidentally no traveller should miss. It is stacked with loads of really interesting books, from Gandhi biographies to various fiction, from Stephen Hawkins&Richard Dawkins to Arnold Schwarzenegger's encyclopedia on body building - this book shop has it all. If you ever come here and have any interest in books then you can easily spend 1-2 hours in this place.
After finishing our tour around town Claire decided that she wanted to spend some time in a shopping mall. I had a look for one on the phone and found the Oberon Mall. It was about 6km away and after negotiating with a bunch of auto-rickshaw drivers we finally found one that would do it for Rs.100,-.
The place wasn't really very big but it was quite new and we found that at the top was a food court. So after having a look around in the shops we went up for a lamb pizza (yum - although no thin crust) and then had a dessert in the form of a dark chocolate cake and a white chocolate cake - both lazed in chocolate and a black and a whie coffee, made to perfection - not bad India, not bad... ;-) Claire even bought donuts to go...
So at around 14:30 we finally succumbed to tiredness from shopping and eating and found an auto-rickshaw outside the shopping centre, which brought us to the boat. Again, we had a bout of good timing and got on the boat immediately as we arrived and returned to Fort Kochi in 20 minutes, then walked back to the hotel where we relaxed - Claire reading out on the veranda and I on the bed, before I succumbed to a snooze - the heat really knocks you for six...
Afterwards I had the 2nd shower of the day and afterwards we went down to have something to eat at around 19:30 in the hotel, which is rated second for the dining experience on Fort Kochi. I had a tomato&tuna pasta, which was really nice with fresh fish - Claire had a fish curry, also with really fresh tuna.
Afterwards we simply retired to the room and watched Burn Notice before going to sleep again.
Afterwards we walked (slowly! It's sizzling and really humid here even at 9:00!) down to the ferry and were quickly on our way given some lucky timing on our part. The boat ride only took about 20 minutes before we arrived at the peer at Ernakulam.
I quickly plotted out a rough rectangular route for us, which obviously included M.G. Road where all the shops were, that we followed around. Went to the pharmacy for more tubes of Nadoxin, went into a phone shop and bought 5GB of data over 60 days for €20 (yes, pretty pricey - but Vodafone has excellent coverage and given recent experiences we really want good coverage for Google Maps, WikiTravel etc ;-), then off to CitiBank for cash withdrawals (the only bank we have found so far that will allow withdrawels of more than Rs.10K - thereby minimising our Moneybookers €1.80 withdrawal fees) and finally into the D.C. Books store on Banerji Road, which incidentally no traveller should miss. It is stacked with loads of really interesting books, from Gandhi biographies to various fiction, from Stephen Hawkins&Richard Dawkins to Arnold Schwarzenegger's encyclopedia on body building - this book shop has it all. If you ever come here and have any interest in books then you can easily spend 1-2 hours in this place.
After finishing our tour around town Claire decided that she wanted to spend some time in a shopping mall. I had a look for one on the phone and found the Oberon Mall. It was about 6km away and after negotiating with a bunch of auto-rickshaw drivers we finally found one that would do it for Rs.100,-.
The place wasn't really very big but it was quite new and we found that at the top was a food court. So after having a look around in the shops we went up for a lamb pizza (yum - although no thin crust) and then had a dessert in the form of a dark chocolate cake and a white chocolate cake - both lazed in chocolate and a black and a whie coffee, made to perfection - not bad India, not bad... ;-) Claire even bought donuts to go...
So at around 14:30 we finally succumbed to tiredness from shopping and eating and found an auto-rickshaw outside the shopping centre, which brought us to the boat. Again, we had a bout of good timing and got on the boat immediately as we arrived and returned to Fort Kochi in 20 minutes, then walked back to the hotel where we relaxed - Claire reading out on the veranda and I on the bed, before I succumbed to a snooze - the heat really knocks you for six...
Afterwards I had the 2nd shower of the day and afterwards we went down to have something to eat at around 19:30 in the hotel, which is rated second for the dining experience on Fort Kochi. I had a tomato&tuna pasta, which was really nice with fresh fish - Claire had a fish curry, also with really fresh tuna.
Afterwards we simply retired to the room and watched Burn Notice before going to sleep again.
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