Out and About

We had two missions today: get a SIM card for our phone and do a bit of shopping. 

Sudi made us a great breakfast with chickpeas, a wheat cake with coconut and some toast with jam. I need to start taking pictures of the food, it's beautiful! Lee has been eating some rice and trying different things. He had some dal and some carrot coconut salad. Things have a lot of spices but aren't necessarily spicy. The only thing he's spit out was pieces of chapati, maybe it was too chewy? 

He showed us on the map the best place for a sim and to take the ferry boat across the water to a certain store with good prices. We all lathered up with sunscreen and set out. The wall to the cell store was great, there is just so much stuff happening. Goats doing ridiculous things on one side of the street, lorries and motorcycles dodging cows on the road, bustling shops, people out everywhere. We made it to the cell store but forgot our passport. In order to get a sim here you need a passport and a photo. So we decided to go back and get it but ended up wandering the streets out to the old Chinese fishing nets and fish market until the sun was too intense. We found its best to play inside and relax from about noon to 3 to avoid the intense sun. Tom went back to the store alone but forgot his phone that time. We'll try again tomorrow and attempt not to forget anything. 

After some A/C time and a nap we set out for the ferry dock. We took a few side roads and ended up wandering through the Muslim neighborhood and by the mosque. We over wandered and ended up having to head back since it was getting dark. Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow. 

Dinner was amazing once again and we fell asleep fast. 

The view from our stairs.

Lee hanging out with Sudi.

They cut the canopy of streamers down in the night. 

I'm doing the best I can with these photos...I can't edit them at all or see them all that clearly on my phone so hopefully this turns out ok! 

Good Morning, India!

After 4 hours of sleep at the hotel we were off in a taxi out to Fort Cochin where our homestay is located. Driving in India is an art. The cars, tuktuks, lorries, motorcycles, scooters, cows and people all move like an intricate puzzle. It's amazing and scary. It is wild traffic with horns constantly blaring but the drivers aren't angry, there was no "road rage", it is just how things are. 

The landscape is lush, banana and coconut palms fill the skies. Flowering shrubs like jasmine, hibiscus and bulganvalia take over derelict buildings and lots. Small smoldering trash piles dot the broken sidewalks. It seems every block has a building project in the works or abandoned mid construction. The air is heavy with warm, humid smokey air. 

Our homestay is great! Our hosts Beena and Sudi are lovely people and great cooks! Our room is very nice with our own bathroom(with western style toilet and toilet paper!) and a balcony. The beds are small pads on wood, which is typical for India and a bit firm. 

We settled in a bit, relaxed in our a/c then ventured out to see the neighborhood. The main street to our homestay was decorated with streamers across the road for nearly a mile creating a beautiful canopy. Paper stars are hanging from the power lines and from trees and in front of people's homes. I think it is Christmas decoration but I'm not absolutely sure. The people are very friendly and light up and come over to us when they see Lee, he is a very popular guy! He seems to be doing fine in the heat, and isn't too grumpy and tired...yet. He loves when people come up to him and seems to be enjoying all the sights. There is a lot to look at!! 

We had an amazing dinner and passed out at about 9p. Perfect. 

Leaving our fancy hotel, looking tired! 

The landscape.

Our room.

Our neighborhood.

Excellent motto. 

The Flight Night

We've made it! 

The first flight, 14 hours to Dubai was relatively easy. Lee slept about 2/3 of it which was perfect! Emirates Airlines is pretty set up for babies. They put bassinets in the wall in the bulkhead seats. Lee wasn't into staying in the thing but it worked great to store things and give us more room. Here's a pic...

They also gave us a bag of baby things including; a bib, lotion, wipes and a little toy. The toy was perfect! A ring with three coins that made a clacking noise, he loved it and played with it in all his awake time. And watched sports.

We had a short layover in Dubai. Enough time to buy some water and get to our gate. The airport is massive and has the feel of a fancy Arab shopping mall. Makeup counters, jewelry stores, a food court, all very high end. Even a Starbucks. Our next flight, to Kochi, was 4 long hours. No sleeping and plenty of crying. We were all pretty done with the traveling.

We arrived and made it through immigration pretty quickly, we got our visas online which was a bit of a gamble but it worked out well. Baggage claim was chaos. It appears Indians travel with massive amounts of luggage. Everyone had at least 6 suitcases, it was unreal. We finally got our measly 3 things and set off to our hotel. I had booked a room at nearby airport hotel so we'd have place for a nap before going out to Fort Cochin. 

We arrived in Kochi at 3:30a. You could smell the smokey, humid, tropical air in the jetway envelop you like a thick wet blanket. It felt almost exactly like Mombasa. Burning trash, tuktuk exhaust, beeping, honking, people everywhere, even at 4am. We made it to our hotel, which was very fancy and western, and crashed. Goodnight, we will see you in the day light India.

Emirates stroller in Dubai.

Kids nappy change? It was a room with a long counter that had a sink on each end. Each sink was equipped with what I recognize as the spray thing at our kitchen sink. There was a chair facing a wall and no trash can. 

OFF TO INDIA!

Hello!
Time to dust off the old blog to take you all with us to India!
Let's start with the basics...
We leave Monday, January 5th.
We have planned our vacation to travel the Southwest coast of India in the state of Kerala(pronounced Carol-a).
In the map below, Kerala is shown in the red.

We are flying direct from Seattle to Dubai, a 14 hour flight. After a 2 hour layover we fly four hours into Kochi(about half way down the coast in the map below). We will be staying in Kochi for about a week then we will head down to Alappuzha where they are famous for their inland canals that you can tour on houseboat. Lastly we will travel down to Varkala to spend our last week. We will fly out of the states capitol of Thiruvananthapuram back to Dubai then home to Seattle.

Click Here for info on Kochi

Click Here for info on Alappuzha

Click Here for info on Varkala

The time difference is 10.5 hours which will make for some interesting jet lag. Our first long flight is overnight so I am hoping Lee will rest and the fight won't be terrible. We are flying AirEmirates and they provide seats with bassinets for babies which will be great. Overall I am optimistic, people fly with babies all the time and Lee is easy to entertain.  The weather there is currently with highs in the upper 80's and lows in the lower 70's, sunny clear skies. Oh, the humidity is 80%. But, there is a steady breeze so hopefully that will take the edge off. 

We have been reading up on the important etiquette in India. It is going to take some serious concentration not to make consistent gaffes. A few rules are that you only eat with your right hand(no utensils) as your left is reserved for cleaning oneself. They do not use toilet paper, its more of a manual wash with water. Public displays of affection are not OK, so no hand holding or kissing in public. Men aren't supposed to wear shorts. Ladies should be dressed modestly. You don't point the bottom of your feet at people or step on things of importance. Also you have to haggle for everything. We can't wait to try not to mess everything up!

I should be able to keep this updated and I will take lots of pictures!

Talk to you soon!

Jill, Tommy & Lee

WEDDING INFO

CLICK HERE