LAST DAY IN KERALA

It has been another hot humid day so we gave in and caught a tuktuk over to the east of our promontory to Mattancherry village and Jewtown.  It is a buzzing tourist village and we wandered through a couple of the usual bazaars and then visited the Dutch Palace, which was a lovely solid building lovingly restored with lots of sections of my heavy wooden coffee table screwed on to their roof - I was told mine was a section of ancient Indian hardwood front door and they had some similar doors in antique shops here for £1000 - so that pleased me.

Then we walked down Jewtown to the synagogue which had a lovely willow pattern tiled floor and some nice glass chandeliers - we learned that even King Solomon traded with India - then called Ondhu - and that the jews played a big part in the spice and silk trade between the Far East and India and Europe.  The Dutch and the East India Company played powerful roles here and it is fascinating to walk along the old streets still containing the ancient warehouses for the spices - we looked at buying some spices but they are quite expensive here in the tourist outlets- cheaper in North Harrow Moira says!

We had a mango lassi and a snackette of ginger tiger prawns in the Ginger House that is now a rather nice seafront eatery - we will have to stop living like lords - we are getting to like it - we also visited a teahouse but drank fresh lime soda and mango lassi there too.  Then we went back to our haunt at Bristows hotel and watched the beach gradually fill up with Indian families walking up and down on the sand and generally having a lovely evening together - it was crowded - such a lovely family atmosphere - this place does have a very welcoming vibe and we are sorry to be moving on tomorrow - especially since we just ate a lovely fish and curries at a really cheap restaurant - but time to move on..

We leave here at 7.45 am by autorickshaw for the station in Ernakulum over the water and catch our first train to Coimbatore for the night in order to be there to catch the train to Mettupalayam and from there the steam train up into the hills to 'snooty Ooty' as it is known - we are looking forward to slightly crisper temperatures in the evenings up there and hope to try some tea.  There for one night of luxury at Lymond house and then on the bus to Mysore for 3 days - did anyone say silk shopping? it wasn't John who is thinking about Arthur Wellesley and his battle at Sriringa Patnam, which he hopes to visit while Moira and I are silk shopping - not that we have any space to buy - but we can dream!....

Thinking of Caroline and how she survived the assault course charity run - hope you are not too sore!