Saturday 30 January: Netravathi Express sleeper north to Eranakulam with pretty Fanny Anduret who is heading to Gokarna beach on the Karnataka coast for a month's course in Theatre studies.Short ferry-ride to Fort Cochin - no fort but lazy mix of Portuguese, Dutch and British Raj colonial styles. Huge cantilevered Chinese-style fishing nets line the shore while further inland whitewashed churches hide from the packs of cruise-liner tourists, groomed and tagged with coloured number badges like mixed-breed show dogs at a county fair.
At St Francis Church you can see the tombstone of Portuguese seafarer and explorer Dom Vasco da Gama who died of malaria here on Christmas Eve1524.
Pictures of Fort Cochin.
Monday 1 February: Semi-sleeper overnight bus (43rd mode of transport) to Madurai in Tamil Nadu state en-route to the tax-free former French colony of Pondicherry - hopefully to see the first round of the Six Nations rugby championship, especially Scotland v France on Sunday.
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