Kovalum

So we headed out to Kovalum today with a plan to stay the night in hotel "Ocean Sparkle", check out the sunset and have a few "welcome to India" beers.

The mini advenutre of getting to the place, cue:

A) Mental roads
B) Mental drivers
C) A complete lack of any rules
D) Zero concept of the term "right of way"
E) Me sitting in the back of the car so I dont have to look out the front.

Got to the hotel and it only has two rooms but its really nice. Me and neil decide to just kip in the same room and let suzie have her own room. Again, one of the nicest blokes on planet earth is running the place. Everything is 'no problem sir' and he seems completly genuine in his kindness. We go for a stroll down the beach and take a few photos, kindly refusing the copious amounts of fruit and "tat" that is offered us along the way. Quick fact - I saw an indian guy selling paintings and wearing an arsenal shirt.

We ended up on a bar that overlooks the beach called fusion. Very clever. They have an eastern menu, a western menu and, you've guessed it, a fusion menu which combines the two. Anyway, a bit curried out from the plane food, I plump for a simple cheese and tomato grilled sarnie, and suzie goes for the same. Neil goes for deep fried cheese balls with chilli sauce and, and I quote "the best fish fingers in the world". Oh, and of course we order three massive bottles of kingfisher. Food comes, is lovely - they really are the best fish fingers in the world. Fresh, spicy, and actually taste of fish! Anyway, I digress.

We continue to drink in here throughout the night, even end up watching the footy on tv. Kicking out time round these parts seems to be about half nine, but when half nine comes it feels much later. Also by half nine, we had also eaten a couple of really nice pizzas there too. Just realised I sound like a right townie. Go half way round the world to an amazing place and still end up watching football, drinking beer and eating pizza. Disgraceful. But it was a great laugh, and after settling the bill which was a whopping four quid each, we moved back to the hotel where we had a bottle of vodka and bacardi waiting.

Cue:

- Sitting out in the garden facing the sea - Drinking - Card games - Drinking - Card tricks - Drinking - Spotting fireflies - Drinking - Drinking - Drinking.

The little man who ran the hotel kept on coming out and checking if things were ok, we could tell he wanted to go to bed but he insisted we were no problem and he was happy to "do his duties and look after us". Anyway everytime he came out we gave him a drink then suzie payed him off with a Marloboro Light so he wasnt doing to bad.

We were now drunk and it was midnight. So - We each scaled the hotel wall into the neighbouring hotel and went swimming in the pool for two hours. Absolutely hilarious, I have never swam drunk before but it soon sobers you up. Our hotel guy came out after a while and we were convinced this would now put him in a bad mood. Of course it didnt, he laughed, went back in the hotel then came straight back out with towels to offer us. What a nice bloke....

After getting out the pool and miracliously not getting spotted by the security guards at the other hotel, we headed back to our rooms at about 2 am. Hotel guy was now so tired yet all he could talk about was getting us breakfast in the morning. We then all piled up to suzies room because she had a TV and we all felt a bit guilty about keeping hotel guy up all night even though he said he didnt mind. Anyway he was in bed now so we felt a bit better about the late night. Well he was in bed until I decided to turn a light on in the room. The funny thing was, the switch wouldnt stick properly and kept popping back into position after pressing it. Well folks, mystery solved, it turns out it was a bell directly linked up to hotel guys room so he came running up the stairs quick as a flash asking us how he could help. The guilt.

Soon after that we all crashed, fell asleep on the bed, waking up at 11 the next morning.

The next day (today) we spent on this beach, sunbathing and belly boarding. It was great, the sea is warm and clear yet has amazing waves so its perfect for boarding. Me and neil decided that we were gonna go belly boarding 3 or 4 times a week because aside from the fact that its great fun and great exercise, we wont be starting work till the night time so will have all our days free. Result!

I guess thats enough info for now, better go to bed, first day at work in the indian office tommorrow and there are bound to be countless names to forget, hands to shake and confusion to be dished out - night night.