While waiting we said goodbye to the two guys (never got their names but the guy on the right in the below photo called himself the map man as he was the one who told guests the directions around town) who ran the accommodation at Kochi and who I had friendly banter with while watching the cricket final. The map man had a very engaging personality with a ready smile and was another person we met who knew what customer service was all about.
This time Jinas arrived on time despite having travelled home to Alleppey overnight (by bus both ways), which is an embarrassment to us, and we then went to Ernakulam, the central business district in Kochi, to another marketplace the intention being to fill in as much of the eight hours that we needed to before going to the airport.
It was a typical Indian market which we strolled around before finding a nice restaurant for our lunch, a very nice meal for the princely sum of $8.
After lunch Sherry spied a clothing store which attracted attention and so sometime was spent doing some more shopping before we called up Jinas to pick us up and move on to a mall.
The mall was as modern as you would see anywhere with both high end and mid range shopping however by this time we were finding it difficult to motivate ourselves to give it the attention it may have deserved.
After an hour or two we again messaged Jinas and had him take us to the airport. On the way he was as chatty as he had been at any time in the trip and we saw a different side of him.
While it was not our doing we did apologise to him once again for the inconvenience of not being provided overnight accommodation at Fort Kochi.
.
He told us that in fact it was a new government directive that accommodation, washroom and facility to wash vehicles needed to be provided by all hotels for tourist drivers.
We now sit at the airport waiting to book in for our overnight flight to Singapore.
And so our Indian odyssey comes to an end, a holiday we have very much enjoyed having seen the real India, marvelled at some stunning monuments and temples, coming up close and personal with a fabulous Bengal Tiger but more importantly being made welcome by some lovely friendly people (& our dear friend Ashok). If anything the people may have been the highlight - getting a wave from youngsters, high fiving or fist bumping many of them and answering the frequent question “where are you from” and having told them normally getting a reply suggesting NZ is such a great country.
As much as we enjoyed it I doubt that we will be back.
And for anyone thinking of coming to India, Delhi belly is a myth (unless we get struck down by our last meal in India in the airport lounge - an uninspiring cold buffet!)
No comments:
Post a Comment