Must be something about websites and being on holiday as I tried to submit our arrival cards for Singapore this morning, which must be done online, filled in all the details for both of us, hit submit and got an error message “System not available, try again later” – a grand way to start the day!
Spoke to family back home prior to being picked up at 10.30 by Jinas however 10.30 came and went and no Jinas so sent him a message and received the response “2 mint”.
He arrived around 10.45 and it transpires that there was no accommodation provided for him in Kochi so he had driven home to Alleppey (2 – 2.5 hr drive) yesterday when we said not required and he has driven back again this morning to take us out for a couple of hours. If we had known we would not have asked to be picked up today and used tuk tuks and he could have stayed at home for another day. Can only assume he sleeps in the car tonight as we need him tomorrow to get to the airport. Something is not right the way these drivers are treated!
He took us to the Jewish area, though apart from a synagogue and being cleaner than most there was nothing much to suggest it was other than a typical Indian area with market stalls to catch the unwary tourists (which they did) and a few streets of well patronised shops selling in the main clothes of all colours, styles and prices, antiques and Knick knacks.
It was a nice environment to be in and also to interact with the market sellers. When we arrived it was relatively quiet and we got haggling over an item but we didn’t make the purchase though to get away I promised we would be back. A couple of hours later after lunch we returned to that area and the crowds were significant but as we walked towards the stall the seller came from behind us and said welcome back – their ability to KYC or at least their potential customer is well honed. We did the business and a little more and found the driver who returned us to the hotel where the pool was the magnet.
Finally got the Singapore arrival card sorted during the afternoon as well as following the cricket which is not trending the way I would like.
Tomorrow is our last day in India as we fly out tomorrow night at 11.00pm to Singapore arriving there at 6.10 am on Tuesday morning. Tomorrow we will have to find something to fill in around 8 hours from the time we book out until heading to the airport but alas a dip in the pool won’t be one of those things.
Squirrel on the hotel roof
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