Southern India

On January 28th we jumped on a jetty and headed over to Fort Kochi in search of Rafi and a game of soccer. We had called Rafi, the guy we'd met on the beach about 10 days earlier, that morning, but his dad had said he was out, so we headed over to the "parade ground" (sports field) in the hope of finding him and, if not him, at least a game of soccer. We arrived to not only find the depressing sight of a bloody cricket game once again taking up a perfectly good soccer field (what'd we expect, really?), but also the awful spectacle of a couple of foreigners (who turned out to be Aussies of course) joining in and encouraging the young local guys in their sad and depressing waste of life. Just as I was about to turn and leave - cursing cricket all the way - I noticed a couple of guys off to the side kicking a soccer ball around. I went straight over and joined them and over the next half hour or so many others started showing up as well. It turns out they play there every evening from around 5:30. Not on the soccer field, which is of course reserved for cricket, but over on the side of the field.

Ok, so after a 2-week break it's now time to return to the telling of our story of love: our love for Kerala, that is. Yes, our story of Rum, Rock 'n' Ram ('n' Soccer), Jew and Muslim Streets, Sewage River/Canal, Fort Kochi, loads of great music, Bill, The Thursday Night Party Club, A Bunch Of Guys Named Joe and more - all in the beauutiful, lush green, tropical Southern Indian state of Kerala. My first four Kerala letters only covered our first week in Kochi, so there's still a lot - a whole lot - more to tell.

On our fourth day in town Bill introduced us to Ram and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Or was that Bill introduced us to Ram and our time in Kochi really started to rock... 'n' Rum? Either way, it was Tuesday January 13th and we decided to go see "Kill Bill Vol. 1" at a nearby cinema, just up the road from our hotel, not far from Jew Street.

So there we were, on our second day in town, walking down Jew Street (yes, Jew Street!) when we came to Muslim Street. Obviously I had to turn, but Son just didn't get it and asked "Why? There's nothing down there." But, like I said to her, how many people in this world get a chance to walk down Jew Street and then hang a right and head on up Muslim Street?

Leaving Secunderabad back in early-January on the train to Kochi (Cochin), we really had no idea what we were heading into. I mean, we had absolutely no reason to suspect we were about to experience the best 3.5 months of our entire time in India. We only planned to stay in Kochi, a city in Kerala State in the very south-west of the country, for a few days and our plan was to stay in Kerala for a month, at the most. But things, luckily and as always, didn't quite work out as planned.