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Again I woke up this morning with every intention of getting on the road in the afternoon and heading to Kochi. I have an offer of accommodation from a couch surfer in the jungle close to Ooti and I really want to go but he is away from the 11th to the 16th Feb and so I need to get a move on north if I am going to catch him before he goes away. However, after breakfast at the local restaurant and packing up all of my things I ended up having to sort out a load of things and then it was too late to get going and so I decided to stay another night!
First of all my phone stopped working as the sim card was barred. It turned out that the guy that I sent up the contract with did not send in all of the paper work and when I phoned up customer services they said that I needed to take in all of my proofs of address and identity into a specific shop in the center of town. I then needed to print out a label for a broken hard disk that I had to send back to the UK but there was a power cut in the middle. Everything was against me going and so I just decided to have an organising day where I got through all of my little jobs.
Fawaz as again amazingly helpful and took me around town to sort out all of the bits and bobs. We went to the post office to sort out things to send to the UK and then went to the Airtel office. It turned out that they would not give me a sim card with out a more permanent address and so Fawaz came to the rescue and went to get his id etc and so my phone is now registered with him.
I then bought a new hard-disk to replace the one that was corrupted (that I had sent back to the UK to replace) and tried to purchase a good map of India and failed (they do not exist apparently). Fawaz also took me to some supermarkets to get shampoo and soap etc. It was interesting to see Alleppey through the eyes of a local. I also managed to get some real coffee.
Fawaz then took me to a major exhibition in the middle of town. The exhibition was of all products made of Coir (the outside of coconuts). It was a huge event and there were big queues. Fawaz managed to get us to the front of the queue past all of his friends by saying to the security guards that I was a guest and he was a guide. His friends had been queuing for an hour and were still queuing when we left. The MP of the whole of Kerala was present with a film crew.
The products were really interesting to look at. There are loads of things you can make from the very tough material. The very strange thing about it though was that it was just a major event that everyone in Alleppey wanted to go and see. There was a band and dancing and food as well. Surreal!
After the exhibition we drove around for a bit trying to find somewhere that sold a meat burger. I thought that as Fawaz had never tried Western food that he should try - he has been teaching me all about Indian culture, food and customs and so I thought we should reverse the roles tonight. Unfortunately we could not find anywhere that served beef burgers (only chicken and veg) and so we went to a western restaurant on the beach. It was expensive verses the Indian restaurants but it was fantastic to order one plate of fish and chips and another of Spaghetti Bolognese and watch Fawaz use knives and forks for the first time ever and try western food. He seemed to really enjoy the experience. I was going to buy us wine but it was too expensive at double the amount for a glass as I was paying for a room for the night!
We sat on the beach and chatted for the last time before heading back really late. I have very much enjoyed spending time with Fawaz.
First of all my phone stopped working as the sim card was barred. It turned out that the guy that I sent up the contract with did not send in all of the paper work and when I phoned up customer services they said that I needed to take in all of my proofs of address and identity into a specific shop in the center of town. I then needed to print out a label for a broken hard disk that I had to send back to the UK but there was a power cut in the middle. Everything was against me going and so I just decided to have an organising day where I got through all of my little jobs.
Fawaz as again amazingly helpful and took me around town to sort out all of the bits and bobs. We went to the post office to sort out things to send to the UK and then went to the Airtel office. It turned out that they would not give me a sim card with out a more permanent address and so Fawaz came to the rescue and went to get his id etc and so my phone is now registered with him.I then bought a new hard-disk to replace the one that was corrupted (that I had sent back to the UK to replace) and tried to purchase a good map of India and failed (they do not exist apparently). Fawaz also took me to some supermarkets to get shampoo and soap etc. It was interesting to see Alleppey through the eyes of a local. I also managed to get some real coffee.
Fawaz then took me to a major exhibition in the middle of town. The exhibition was of all products made of Coir (the outside of coconuts). It was a huge event and there were big queues. Fawaz managed to get us to the front of the queue past all of his friends by saying to the security guards that I was a guest and he was a guide. His friends had been queuing for an hour and were still queuing when we left. The MP of the whole of Kerala was present with a film crew.
The products were really interesting to look at. There are loads of things you can make from the very tough material. The very strange thing about it though was that it was just a major event that everyone in Alleppey wanted to go and see. There was a band and dancing and food as well. Surreal!
After the exhibition we drove around for a bit trying to find somewhere that sold a meat burger. I thought that as Fawaz had never tried Western food that he should try - he has been teaching me all about Indian culture, food and customs and so I thought we should reverse the roles tonight. Unfortunately we could not find anywhere that served beef burgers (only chicken and veg) and so we went to a western restaurant on the beach. It was expensive verses the Indian restaurants but it was fantastic to order one plate of fish and chips and another of Spaghetti Bolognese and watch Fawaz use knives and forks for the first time ever and try western food. He seemed to really enjoy the experience. I was going to buy us wine but it was too expensive at double the amount for a glass as I was paying for a room for the night!
We sat on the beach and chatted for the last time before heading back really late. I have very much enjoyed spending time with Fawaz.
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