Day 97 (Thurs 12 Oct) - Fort Cochin / Calicut

Sarb got up with a stinking hangover. Jo felt fine so she pottered off to the Kashi Art cafe for breakfast. Jo had delicious warm fruit cake and fresh fruit but Sarb could only just manage a glass of water.

We couldn't face the ferry back to Ernakulam so we persuaded an autorickhsaw to take us via the bridges. Over an hour later we arrived at Ernakulam bus station. After two packets of tangy tomato crisps, Sarb was feeling slightly better and we boarded the busy bus to Calicut.

Nearly five hours later we arrived in Calicut.

It was getting dark so we had to quickly find somewhere to stay. We wanted to stay near the bus station as we were only staying for the night and then heading off to Kalpetta the next morning. We checked into the Metro Tourist Home - they "said" they only had deluxe rooms left. By deluxe we think they mean "you are a tourist so you can pay double the normal rate". Dumped our bags and headed off to find some dinner.

Even though we were walking through the centre of Calicut it was pitch dark, we had to be careful we didn't fall down any open manholes or step on any rats we saw scurrying around. We had a lovely meal in the Dawn Restaurant, Hotel Malabar Palace and returned to our hotel. Since it was so dark we decided to get a rickshaw back but for the first time since we arrived in India we couldn't find one. We ended up walking back.

When we got back to our room Sarb thought he spotted a few mozzies. Armed with Morten, a locally made insect killer, he sprayed the room. As we got ready for bed we were amazed to see mozzies literally falling out of the air, dead. In one small 1m square patch of the room we counted about 30 of the little blighters getting ready for their final journey. We don't know what is in Morten, and to be honest we don't want to considering the fumes, but if you want to get rid of mozzies this stuff is top drawer.