Jan. 14 : Cochin, India

Saturday, January 14 :: Cochin, India :: 4km today / 2449km total

Its amazing the difference that a day off the bike makes. I'm healing very quickly, and feel a lot better. I guess without a 4000-6000 calorie expenditure burden the body can turn it's attention to more important things, like fixing itself up. I might even ride tomorrow - the burn on my leg is the slowest healer, so we'll see.

I took a morning bus and ferry down to Cochin today, and love this place! Cochin is an old European settlement on a small peninsula jutting into the Arabian Sea, and it truly feels unique in many ways, here in India. Its quite clean, quite laid back, there's no beach so it doesn't have the associated tackiness/over-the-top Goan party scene, and its as well-supplied with Western rarities as I've seen anywhere (Gatorade, juice, baguettes, etc). Also there's a seafood market, with product direct from the fishermen... you haggle with the fishermen, buy your seafood, then walk 10 metres (literally) to a cook who serves it up how you like it. For $3.50 I had a heaping plate of garlic sizzled prawn.

The other great thing about Cochin is that there's a small but healthy, interesting community of travellers here. Kerala (State) is certainly not on the main tourist route, you have to go a bit further off the beaten path to get here, so the travellers are kinda more my vibe than in Goa. Also, I met my first fellow cyclist today! Not on the road, but I happened to notice a bike parked in the hotel that wasn't local... he's an Aussie, we're cycling different directions, but still it was like brothers-in-arms as we compared notes, gave onwards route info, etc etc.

Today was Day 1 of the long-anticipated India vs. Pakistan cricket series. India is completely consumed with cricket, much more than Canada is with hockey. Leading into this event there was a major controversy involving the inclusion/exclusion of a particular player, and Parliament had to intervene. Aside from the fact that cricket is the national passion, Pakistan is easily the most important adversary, in more ways than one. The series goes on for a few weeks, and I'm guessing that the temperment of the average Indian I meet hereafter will be greatly influenced by the results of this event.