FLY SOUTH TO GET WARM...

Nothing could be more true! The morning after we arrived in Delhi, about two-thirds of the team that had arrived, packed their bags and bid us fond farewell from the hotel parking lot - they were heading to tour the "Golden Triangle" as well as a trip to the oldest living city - Varanasi. The other eleven of us boarded our motor coach to head to the airport, where we would catch a flight to Kochi (Cochin) in south India. Some of these folks had arrived in the wee hours of the morning from France, and I had barely enough time to meet and greet them before our coach departed for the airport.

We all worked through security and ticketing and loaded our bags on the conveyor belt (working with Ritu from Jet Airways) and proceeded to the next security (this was the REAL one) point. All of us made it through with no incident, with the exception of Didier Fosse, one of the "French Connection" who was stopped because he had two bottles of French wine in his carry-on bag - a definite no-no. Since I had a carry-on which could be checked through, I returned to my new friend, Ritu, who looked up and said, "Yes Mr. Thomas, is there a problem?" I explained the situation and she kindly checked my bag through to Kochi. I had to go back through security, and sailed through.

Flying was easy and we landed in Kochi about three-and-a-half hours later. There, we were met first by Jackson from South Tours, and then Manoj, who was to be our guide for the next several days. We boarded another coach and proceeded to Fort Cochin, where we were to check in at our hotel - the Cochin Casino.

On our way to the hotel, however, we came across a religious festival procession, which featured several Brahman priests and three highly decorated elephants. Astride the elephants were several more of the Brahman priests, who periodically stood on the backs of the elephants waving their arms and various implements - used in temples. Manoj explained to us this procession lasted most of one full day, stopping every 100 meters or so while the priests on the ground in front of the elephants played drums and blew bugles of a type. It was really a very colorful and festive exhibition. We re-boarded the coach and proceeded to our hotel. However, since we were going to miss the sunset cruise in the harbor, Manoj suggested we might enjoy seeing a performance of Kathakali dancing - being performed not too far from our hotel. Eager to absorb absolutely every morsel of this new culture, we agreed so our driver, Shiva, dropped us off at the small theatre. Here we watched as the actor-dancers applied their make-up, and then watched the performance.

There we were greeted at the entrance by a young woman who placed "tikkas" on each of our foreheads, as well as presenting each of us with a floral garland. The tiny white flowers were so fragrant - reminding me of orange blossoms or stephanotis.

After check-in we came down to the dining room and enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and then returned to our rooms - after all most of us had been traveling for the better part of one or even two days to get to India, and then to wake up after only a few hours of sleep to travel to the southern tip of the country, we were pretty knackered.