Cochin, Cliffs and Colds

Today I am writing from Fort Cochin, my last stop in the state of Kerala. A recap of Varkala won't be to long - there was literally just the one beach and lots of bars dotted along the brick red cliffs. It was really nice for a few days, but there is only so long you can do nothing, and so as of yesterday I moved onto Fort Cochin, a very old trading/fishing town that has been traded in or occupied by chinese, mongols, arabs, portugese, dutch, french and the British. As such, it is a very unusual town with architectural quirks from all over the world. I am staying tonight, then heading up to Delhi tomorrow, a journey which will take 48 hours (and has cost me 549 ruppees aka 8 pounds). As such, I have brought 2 new books, and have made sure that my iPod, guitar, pen and pad are all close by. From Delhi, I intend to explore the north of India, which will mean doing totally different things to the south. Southern India has been a very relaxing place, and most of my time has been spent lazing about somewhere with my book and guitar, or swimming in the sea. North India is bound to be more hectic - I want to cover a much wider area (meaning more long journeys) and will mainly be visiting historical sites. However, I am really looking forward to seing the Taj, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Amritsar etc etc. One downer is that my cold has returned with a vengeance, but luckily the place I stayed at in Varkala gave away rolls of toilet paper, so I have (almost) unlimited tissues!