Day 96 (Wed 11 Oct) - Fort Cochin
As we'd had such a great breakfast the day before we headed back to the Kashi Art Gallery Cafe. We scoffed a healthy farmhouse omelet with fresh fruit.
Had a lazy day, Jo spent most of the time chilling in our room whilst Sarb alternated between the bar and the internet cafe.
Later we walked down by the Chinese nets, spotting a guy working really hard, and having selected a good cafe where our fish would be cooked; we got one of the chaps to help us choose some fish from the stalls.
Selected some tiger prawns for lunch and a red snapper for dinner which our man took away to be cooked and stored respectively.
Sat down in the open air 'cafe', chatting to the waiters and drinking beer. Soon our prawns arrived. Very, very nice indeed!
As we ate we got chatting to a chap called Mark from Handsworth in Birmingham sitting nearby. He was thinking of opening another restaurant in B'ham and was planning to hire some of the staff from the Cafe and get them over to the UK. Really nice bloke.
We all had loads of beers and watched the sun go down. Our red snapper arrived in an unusual but very tasty 'pakora' style.
During the evening we had been drinking loads of beers in mugs. This is of course illegal as we were in a public place. The next thing we knew was that the local plod (having nothing better to do) had descended on the cafe and arrested three people for serving alcohol. Suddenly there seemed to be policemen and cars everywhere. A stern looking officer came over to Mark and Sarb (Jo wasn't drinking) and told them off for drinking; he allowed them to finish their beers but hinted that if he came back and we had fresh drinks we might find ourselves sharing a bunk in the police station. During this tense exchange Mark lit up a fag. Not so bad you may think but smoking in public is also illegal. Luckily the policeman was feeling lenient and ignored it. From the waiters we learned that these busts were quite common and were always forgotten once an amount of money changed hands.
After this bust the mood in the cafe was decidedly sour so we decamped and went off to another nearby restaurant for more beer. By this time our merry group was augmented by a Canadian girl and the four of us were having a jolly old time.
Soon two smartly dressed Indian men sitting at a nearby table asked if they could join us. By this time of course we would have had a drink with anyone!
These two chaps turned out to be helicopter pilots. Whilst Sarb chatted drunken aero speak to one (Aside: Sarb is a closet plane spotter), the other pilot was still quite clearly looking for a place to land. The guy was so stoned it was unreal!
By now it was a pretty merry group. Jo left about 1 ish to our hotel literally opposite. Sarb stayed and discussed the relative merits of the Eurofighter against the French Rafale.
Eventually Sarb decided he'd had enough and wobbled back to the hotel, well and truly wasted.
Had a lazy day, Jo spent most of the time chilling in our room whilst Sarb alternated between the bar and the internet cafe.
Later we walked down by the Chinese nets, spotting a guy working really hard, and having selected a good cafe where our fish would be cooked; we got one of the chaps to help us choose some fish from the stalls.
Selected some tiger prawns for lunch and a red snapper for dinner which our man took away to be cooked and stored respectively.
Sat down in the open air 'cafe', chatting to the waiters and drinking beer. Soon our prawns arrived. Very, very nice indeed!
As we ate we got chatting to a chap called Mark from Handsworth in Birmingham sitting nearby. He was thinking of opening another restaurant in B'ham and was planning to hire some of the staff from the Cafe and get them over to the UK. Really nice bloke.
We all had loads of beers and watched the sun go down. Our red snapper arrived in an unusual but very tasty 'pakora' style.
During the evening we had been drinking loads of beers in mugs. This is of course illegal as we were in a public place. The next thing we knew was that the local plod (having nothing better to do) had descended on the cafe and arrested three people for serving alcohol. Suddenly there seemed to be policemen and cars everywhere. A stern looking officer came over to Mark and Sarb (Jo wasn't drinking) and told them off for drinking; he allowed them to finish their beers but hinted that if he came back and we had fresh drinks we might find ourselves sharing a bunk in the police station. During this tense exchange Mark lit up a fag. Not so bad you may think but smoking in public is also illegal. Luckily the policeman was feeling lenient and ignored it. From the waiters we learned that these busts were quite common and were always forgotten once an amount of money changed hands.
After this bust the mood in the cafe was decidedly sour so we decamped and went off to another nearby restaurant for more beer. By this time our merry group was augmented by a Canadian girl and the four of us were having a jolly old time.
Soon two smartly dressed Indian men sitting at a nearby table asked if they could join us. By this time of course we would have had a drink with anyone!
These two chaps turned out to be helicopter pilots. Whilst Sarb chatted drunken aero speak to one (Aside: Sarb is a closet plane spotter), the other pilot was still quite clearly looking for a place to land. The guy was so stoned it was unreal!
By now it was a pretty merry group. Jo left about 1 ish to our hotel literally opposite. Sarb stayed and discussed the relative merits of the Eurofighter against the French Rafale.
Eventually Sarb decided he'd had enough and wobbled back to the hotel, well and truly wasted.
posted by Jo and Sarb at
10/11/2006 08:37:00 am
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