Blogger’s holiday

Most of the folks we’ve met offering guidance to tourists have repeated the slogan of the Indian Tourist Authority more than once: ‘You are now in in-crrrred-ible In-dia.’

And so we are. Long eared cows placidly block traffic.
There are not one billion Indians but one thousand million. Multi-purpose homeopathy is advertised on television. Hungry cows stick their heads into houses looking for food. Sideways.
Buses and rickshaws are garlanded. Every single form must be completed in triplicate. It is not just possible but quite normal to eat pickles with curry for three meals a day. There are over a hundred different types of traditional sweets and I can name about four of them. An embarrassment of temples litter the landscape. There are over thirty thousand Hindu deities with whom to become acquainted. Krishna had over sixteen thousand wives. I’ve played cricket. Rickshaws communicate via an amazing variety of beeps and toots. It was freezing cold up there in the north and it’s hot and sticky down here in the south. Spelling errors abound in public places. The road home is beginning to loom. Or rather, my shadow is beginning to loom over the road. There has been no shortage of faaabulous material for this blog. And in just one month, I'll be back in Sydney and all I'll be able to post is poached eggs and breakfast martinis. And yet.

Eldest siblings usually blame younger siblings for things that go off track in their life. I haven’t been updating my blog because I’ve been traipsing around with two of my little sisters. I blame them. Oh, but the fun! Honestly, we should have made a documentary about all the larks. Trying to find pina coladas in coastal towns without cocktails. Wacky! Valiantly making small talk with taxi drivers. Opportunities lost…

We are staying in a bungalow on Cherai Beach near Kochi which just happens to be part of an Ayurvedic retreat. As all the street signs tell you, Kerala is God’s own country. Where we’re staying claims to be His Permanent Address. Down the road, another resort locates itself at the point where the backwaters play hide and seek with the sea. Slogans are big news here and I’m all for them. There will be more.