15 Jan 2005

THE NEW SPUTNIKS

Posted by Captain Scamp in General | 2:18am

I have a bad case of the sniffles - so any noise emanating - vaguely resembling electrocution (due to fluids dripping on keypad)- means I HAVE BEEN

ELECTROCUTED AND AM ON THE VERGE OF DYING!!!!

But getting back to my Vacation (it's a long story) - where was I?

yeah - In Cochi!

We landed on Christmas Day - which meant all the happy mallus (namely Baby Kutty, and Jose Kurikose Vallepuzha types) had downed shutters and the whole

city looked like it had a bad case of the haunts!!!! So we figured, we could go to Fort Kochi which is the beach and bum out.This is BTW the day before the Tsunami

- about 8 pm - I and Moppy standing knee high in the water - WONDERING - why the water was 'so high'!!! CAWLABUNGA!!! It must have been the hight tide or

some crap - but it was very scary none the same (post-it: I can't swim to save my droopy ass!)

Oh, early on, we had  supper at this place on the Jetty called Dolphin - realy pretty, with fish tanks as tables.U eat your Appams and slurp ur soup off the tables as you look at sperm size fish fin about.

Random babble: We later read in the paper, a week later, the Hotel was razed down by  a fire.Two employees died. I wonder what happened to the Fish

Fort Kochi:  For those interested in the touristy bits is a really bang-up nice place - quaint, pretty buildings, racist inn-keepers (who won't let you stay in their cheap but  nice hotel unless you're  a phirang and have a valid Visa number), rude autowallahs who want to fleece you, cheap and sweet Italian food, bring-your-fish-  we'll  cook it for you type restaurants, and loads of usual white-trash floating about. 

we didnt really see much then but the next day - took the Bus out to Munnar which is Mountain land!

The Holy Mountain:
For those of you, ever wanting a cheap trip across Kerala - here's the deal - the whole place has a great network of buses. As the state is as big as an ant's ass, chances are you'll find  a state bus heading out where-ever you wanna go!! (*U have to book in advance for Delhi though, hahahah, *attempt at humour) Getting around from Cochi to Munnar is a whiz. Take the interstate bus from the KSRTC stand.Tickets

are about a hundred bucks per head -  dont get wigged out by that!! The bus is clean, cheap and fast. Three hours or so and we inflicted Munnar!

For those of you, who like tea plantations, lakes, mountains and the assorted paraphernalia- Munnar's where the party is!!  The place we guys-uh-oh- Moppy with a machete- CORRECTION - 'I' had booked in advance (at this point,I humbly take a bow- as Moppy humbly plants a mammoth kick across my butt!!!) was in a really puh-retty place - 24 kms from the town square, hard to get to, overpriced and beat this - bang on top of a mountain!!! hahahah.BUT!!!like I said, it

was an incredible place- it was worth the intestine twisting long jeep ride from town!!!

random babble: there was a dead rat outside our window

Moving on:  The place is spitting distance from the Kundala (prounounced Kunda-lay) dam - so the next morning, we guys trekked up 5 minutes to get  a first hand

virgin view of the place!!! great clean lake, we had a breakfast meant for gorillas - omlettes, tea, bananas and Corn Cob! Onward ahoy after that!! Hitched a ride

 from two lorries to get to Top-Station (say this with me - TOPE STASHUN!) -the pride and joy of Munnar and kerala - You get  a bird's eye view of Tamil Nadu -

thats when annoying clouds dont block ur already hazy view!!!  TS is fantastic - you need to be really lucky to get there before the crowds, have lungs made of pig

iron and legs of steel! It's a little hard to get to - but worth the struggle, the panting, collapsing and all the wheezing!!! 
and thats where we met our future Sputniks ('travel companions', oh you disgusting Plebs!!!) and thats when I realized that I was going to be made the world's most

overworked translator!!! WHEW!!!

Gyaan Goli: Munnar to Kodaikanal is like a hop and skip away.A couple of hours, pencil in a daytrip if you have the time

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