After Bangalore, I took my last overnight bus in India to Kochi, Kerala, to meet up with Ram and Nicole. Kerala is a skinny little state on the southwest coast of India. It feels kind of like Florida. There are some Dutch and Portuguese influences due to trade and colonization.

Dead Dutch people

Kerala food has lots of coconuts, which is great. Kerala is a pretty well-developed state, the most literate in India, the most English-speaking, and about evenly split between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians.

Christmas-decorated traffic circle

We saw some big Chinese fishing nets that work using physics:

We spent Christmas Eve at midnight at the cathedral. Then, for Christmas, we went to a Jain temple. There was a square with some pigeons. You could feed them. That was fun.

Then on Boxing Day, to finish off our Christmas experience, we also went to a synagogue, one of about three in all of India. The synagogue is in Jew Town. Which street is it on? Jew Street.

Now we’re in Trivandrum, or Thiruvananthapuram if you prefer. We’ll be here for about 4 days total. It seems like quite the modern city. But more about Trivandrum later.

This is my last week in India. I can’t say I’m particularly glad or particularly upset. I can say that I’m having fun traveling this week, largely because Ram and Nicole are great fun to travel with.