Welcome to India

The advert on TV says incredible India, they are not kidding. We arrived at 10:30am in the port of Cochin and have to say that harbor entrance was fantastic. The site of this huge ship towering 12 floors above sea level must have been spectacular from the shore. From the vantage point of our breakfast table, It allowed us to look into houses and wave at locals as the ship entered through a very narrow channel. We decided not to participate with any of the ships organised tours, instead, a friend had organised a driver to meet Carol and I outside the main dock entrance. We were advised that they will have a placard bearing our name and an air conditioned car for sight seeing. We were ready for the street hawkers, what we did not expect was the sheer scale of people offering us everything from sight seeing on a motorised Tuc Tuc to wooden elephants and anything else we wanted. It was impossible to move two feet without 20 people trying to sell their services. The only way to describe the mass outside the gates, was that it looked as if a football game had just finished and they were all waiting on us. I have to say that Indians taxi drivers were always polite and never intimidating in any way, however, saying no thanks we have a taxi about 60 times a minute was very hard work. Eventually we were identified and told to get in a nice car, as it was not the registration number we expected and told the driver we are looking for someone else. This very pleasant chap told us that his friend could not make it and we were to go with him as he would be our guide. Thankfully we jumped in the back seat out of the crowds and asked the driver to get us out of the melee. We had only driven a few 100 meters when i realized that we were duped, this enterprising Indian had heard us tell hordes of others that we were waiting on a particular driver and registration number, he picked his time and came up to us saying Anthony sent him, as soon as we heard the name we thought great lets go, of course we did not have the right driver. As we could not be bothered with any further hassle, we agreed a deal and off we went. It was very tiring indeed, temperature 34 degrees and every where stopped were mobbed, after a few hours we decided enough was enough and retired to the secured compound of a luxury hotel owned by the TATA group (owners of Jaguar and Range Rover to name a few business) The place was surrounded by security guards with big sticks and airport scanners and mirrors to check cars and people entering the grounds. After the obligatory elephant photo stop, it was time for a beautiful Indian lunch sitting in the shade beside the river. Both of us agreed that the marketing slogan “Incredible India” is correct, the gulf between the rich and poor is just staggering.