Back to Reality...

After discovering Munnar we were on top of the world...new game plan...new leash on life...India isn't that hard... On new goal was to head north to Goa, spend new years partying with all the Israelis on the beach, then head inland to Hampi, so that we could please Dean and tell him that Hampi was WAY BETTER than when he was there. Confidently, we strolled into the train station, filled out the forms (about six of them just to book 1 ticket!) and then presented ourselves at the counter. The woman took one look at our form, pushed it back at us and said. "No trains north until the 10th!" We strolled back defeated to some seats where we then noticed about 10 other westerners with the head-in-hand, "I am screwed" look. Not us! We quickly went to plan B. There had to be a travel agent who could find us some way to get to Goa. We started walking...and kept walking...and more walking...where was a g'd damn travel agent when you need one!! Finally we found a small shop, walked in and told them we need to get up north soon. They then asked if we were under 30 (you get a special discount). "Sure I said". "Show me your me passports" she said. Ah I was caught! I quickly back tracked "You said over thirty right, yes we are over thirty and proud of it, in fact my wife turns 36 tomorrow"....then this little voice spoke up from my right. "today...." AHHHHHHHHHH, Leslie birthday is today, how could I have not know what day it was. All day she has been waiting for me to say something and I blew it...Now I am stuck in southern India with no way to get north, sweating and smelling like a cow and I have forgotten my wife's birthday...How much more worse can it get!! We quickly gathered our bags, said thanks and bolted from the travel agent to a small coffee shop that look like a wanna be Starbucks. I ordered a pizza and a piece of chocolate cake..."whatever the lady wants I said...it's her birthday, treat her well." We sat there laughing a little and crying a little, realizing how quickly our Munnar bliss had worn off. We decided that we would take the ferry across the water and stay in Fort Cochi that night just to come up with another plan. We hailed a rickshaw and went to the ferry station only to find out that the ferry was closed due to more Tsunami warnings.
We told the rickshaw driver we would fund his entire family's entire college tuition if he could get us to Fort Cochi ASAP...he sped off and we arrived in cute little Fort Cochi...of course you can guess by now that the first 2 places we tried were full, but luckily we were referred to a great little guest house with the cutest manager (Xavier) who kept asking us what we were goin to buy him for new years.
We had a wonderful two days here and met some of the sweetest Indians we have met on this whole trip. One driver offered to drive us around for the entire day and at the end of the day when I asked him what he wanted me to pay him, he smiled and said "Whatever you like sir, we are now friends." So I stiffed him and got away cheap...just kidding...we paid him nicely, don't worry. We saw elephants, a dance concert, and Indian symphony as a benefit for the Tsunami victims, a snake charmer...they also have this great area along the water where you can buy fresh fish from the fish market and bring it to a little hut on the beach where they cook it for you. We ate breakfast at a great art cafe where they also had french press coffee!!!! There are a ton of young artists in this town and they show there artwork in little coffee shops and galleries all over. For New Years there is a tradition of making scarecrow like versions of Santa Claus and then burning them at midnight on the beach. All day we saw the kids making their Santas. Most look pretty scary! Unfortunately, at the last minute the police stopped the celebration feeling that it was inappropriate due to the recent tragedy. Thus we went to a music performance instead and intended to head to bed early.
On our way back we passed a little cafe that was over packed with people and we couldn't understand why. Of course, once we sat down we understood. They were serving "special tea" which was beer in a tea kettle! Since booze is illegal to sell down here, they sneak it to you in the tea pots and pay off the police when they come by. Of course, this pit stop made our night a little longer and made it much harder to get up for our 7am backwater boat cruise which somehow we thought would be a good thing to do on new year's day. It actually was wonderfully relaxing and a perfect way to cap off our stay in Cochi.
Off to Varkala..if you can't go north, just keep going south...

-Kevin & Leslie