Sunday 3rd March - Taking the Breej

 Today is the day of the Big Pack. Will things fit in our luggage? Always a bit nerve wracking but hopefully we should be OK as we have shed one or two items en route and not bought too much to take home. Breakfast is dishcloth dosas and potato curry. After we have eaten R has a Mehendi session booked while D starts to tackle the packing. The lady who does the hand painting is a real artist.

By the time we go out it is noon, the clouds have cleared and walking is not on the agenda. We take an auto down to Mattancherry and do some spice shopping in a cooperative store, run by extremely knowledgeable ladies. They are keen to show off the hand loom in a room at the back of the store but there is no pushy hard sell. At the cashier's desk we learn that they give a discount for cash, music to the ears of a Yorkshireman.

The very smart hotel on the waterfront is nearby and we drop in for ginger lime sodas, bagging the last shady table in the process. At the prices they charge we feel entitled to linger over our refreshment but decide to have Sunday lunch elsewhere. Our auto ride to the Seagull Bar features a number of impromptu diversions due to traffic jams and intransigent bus drivers. Our pilot knows his way around but wants to charge double the agreed fare. We arrive at a compromise, forced because D does not have the exact fare as first agreed.

The Seagull is doing a roaring trade but our timing is perfect, as a waterfront table becomes available just as we arrive. The linen is changed as we wait and then we are seated. A few minutes later a queue starts to build up. We have not normally eaten lunch over the past six weeks but we are both a bit peckish and enjoy onion pakodas and chips with cold Kingfishers while watching the Brahminy Kites soar over the harbour.

Later in the afternoon we walk down to Mahatma Gandhi Beach. Most of Kochi appears to be out here, taking the breej, and there are scores of vendors selling everything that you could imagine and quite a lot else besides. Chaat, sliced mango, cut pineapple, small packets of things that expand when soaked in water, speedboats powered by coconut oil. There is a stage with a free concert featuring sitar and tablas. This is a proper seaside.

We decide to try one of the restaurants where you can choose a fish and have it cooked for you while you wait. R quite fancies pomfret, a fish we enjoyed on earlier visits. At first we are told it is out of season then a choice of two appears on a platter. We go for the smaller one and order some coconut rice to go with it.  They ham it up a bit and invite us to take photos of our fish as it cooks on the griddle. When it arrives it is delicious and the coconut rice isn't bad, even if it doesn't come until we are finishing the fish. D makes a note to check that he has not started to grow gills.