Day 38 - Wednesday - Fort Cochin

We packed our bags in preparation to head south to Alleppey. I was originally going to wait for the boys on Fort Kochin although decided at the last moment to stay with the group. We had beakfast on the roof terrace. Eoghan looked like he hadn't had enough sleep. He pulled out his Barry Tea Bags and asked for a pot of boiling water. You can't leave home without them. The lads told us Peter's face had swollen baldy during the night. Peter was in no state to go anywhere. He wanted to check with the dentist what was going on. He was not in pain although he did have a rather ape like face on him. Didn't take photos. You'll have to let your imagination do the work. We checked out and left our bags in the hotel. Peter and Eoghan headed to the dentist, Ian and Aidan went to get cakes and I went off in search of the Post Office to get some stamps.

By the time I got back to the internet cafe Peter was there. The dentist was not due in until after 4pm. I remembered seeing a rather smart looking dental clinic the day myself and Ian went for a cycle so I suggested this to Peter. We jumped into a rickshaw and were there in less a moment. We sat waiting for over an hour. While we were sitting there we met a guy from Belfast. He had comes over to India specifically to get dental work done. This particular dentist had being recommended by someone in Ireland. Suddenly, it made so much sense. If you can find someone that is good and it costs at least a tenth of the price if not more. Any cosmetic work is going to save you a fortune. All you got is the cost of the flight plus the time needed to do the work. Peter finally got to see the dentist and when he walked out he seemed a little thrown. He told me that it was a different tooth to his wisdom tooth and some work was going to need to be done. He didn't want to explain it until everyone was around.

We met back with the group and went to Coffee Day. He told us that he was probably going to need to stay a minimum of ten days. This included a root canal and recovery time as there was going to be a lot of pain and swelling. We decided he was going to book into a good hotel with internet and room service. There was no point in us hanging around and we might be better off heading on to Alleppey and he would meet up with us in ten days. With that all decided it was just a matter of finding the right hotel. It came down to a choice of the Malabar House for €120 per night or the Brunton Boatyard for €90 per night. He went for the Malabar. We greeted him farewell and headed to Ernakulam. We jumped on the government bus and journey across in the direction of the railway station. The skies opened and the monsoon rains began to fall. The journey was the usual roaring engine and bone chattering jolts and bumps. Pot holes seem to make the majority of the roads in India. I realised as we were travelling that there was an enormous naval base also on Willingdon island. It took around an hour and the bus was jammed by the time we arrived in Ernakulam. Eoghan picked up to pairs of new flip-flops and we headed to railway station. The next train to Alleppey was not until 11.30pm, only 5 hours to wait. We left the bags in left luggage and headed to get food and see if we could find somewhere to buy PSPs for Ian and Aidan.

The city was packed and bustling at night. We found an Indian styled KFC type joint by the name of ChicKing. Fast food is not what it was. It looked like a fast food joint although they took your order and your food was finally delivered around 15 minute later. Meh. It was okay. Not enough chips and the drink was a mouth full that you got with the meal. We left still feeling hungry although the lads were determined to find the PSPs. We found a music shop called Planet M that had one for sale. They were so chuffed at the chance of making a sale they rang another shop 3km away and got the shop owner to come with another PSP and some games. This was at 9.20pm. The boys did a bit of haggling and got 6% discount after an hour. We head back and found a smoke filled bar. It was like something out of a movie or the type of bar we've all seeing at some christening you've being to down in a country hotel. We tried to order in the none a/c side and we nearly gave them a heart attack. They pretty much refused to serve us. We sat drinking our cold Kingfisher as locals and staff walked by staring as Eoghan and Aidan strummed the guitar.

We boarded the train just in time. It was packed and people lays asleep everywhere. This is not an exaggeration. They were actually lying asleep on the overhead baggage shelves. Some men lying asleep on the chairs woke and allowed us some room to sit down. We arrived and hour later in Alleppey station. The rain was pouring down. All of our spirits were high. We stood waiting, chatting to locals. Our rickshaw driver agreed to 40rps and all four of us and our bags piled in. We were dropped off at the Vrundavanam Guest. We were warmly greeted by two young guys that showed us to our rooms. The place had an amazing over grown garden courtyard surrounded by guest quarters. Each room had an ornate heavy doors at its entrance. We threw our bags in and sat for an hour or so chatting to a group of four Indian friends that all ran the place. They were amazingly welcoming and when they heard I was not doing the boat journey they insisted I do it with the rest of the gang for free. They insisted so I thanked them. I headed off to bed shortly afterwards and left Aidan and Eoghan chatting away to our new friends.