Kochi, India

As disorientating experiences go, waking up in mid-afternoon with heavy jetlag in a chilly air conditioned room, and then walking outside into the thickly humid, oven-baking atmosphere of India, full of bustle, drama, colour... well, that sure takes some beating.

While Cochin is undoubtedly far more chilled than the chaos of Delhi and the onslaught of Rajasthan, it's still an electrode to the senses; the people, the noise and the ferocious heat. We love it!Tuk tuk drivers offer us rides, motorbikes with helmet-less drivers carrying women in saris riding side saddle weave past us and children play everywhere.

We walk past the Parade ground and St Francis Church towards Princess Street where in a store selling pretty much anything you can imagine, we pick up a couple of adaptors we had forgotten, for just 60 rupees each. Less than a tenth of what they cost back home.

Princess Street is reputedly the main shopping and tourist drag, with hotels and souvenir shops, but its tranquil and small and rather quaint. In the park at its end a carnival is taking place, another overwhelming blast of music and people, traffic and car horns. By the water's edge the famous Chinese fishing nets are gathering catches for the day while ferries disgorge passengers and take on new manifests, all jostling for position to be first on board.

We mooch along but soon the heat and noise is enough for our fragile bodies so we seek refuge in the tranquil gardens of the Old Harbour Hotel, while the strains of an unaccompanied female singer ring out from the Cochin festival in the park. She has a cavalier attitude to both tune and key and seems to be singing the entire history of Kerala, which I can only presume has been both painful and turbulent from her ceaseless renditions. Every now and again it seems she's about to break into the opening "We-eee-ll" bars of Lulu's 'Shout' before she veers elsewhere. The crowd seem to love it though, politely applauding when she stops for breath after 30 minutes.

The Old Harbour Hotel is beautiful and we sit in the gardens, relaxing in the sun by the pool. All around us are white, Western, mostly British tourists seeking similar respite from what we have all actually come to see. Bizarrely, considering how often we have eaten since we left England, we're hungry again so a light lunch of fried fish with tomato and ginger salsa for me and pumpkin and lentil curry for Coman does the trick.

Suitably refreshed we walk back along the sea front, vibrant with life and full of stalls selling everything from chilies to sugar cane, handbags to candy floss. The views of the crowds all massing by the waters edge are stunning but dusk is starting to creep into view and with it the dreaded mosquitos. There's no malaria here but Coman has always been a favoured delicacy for biting critters everywhere, and that combined with the potential joys of dengue fever or Japanese encephalitis means we head back to the hotel to spray ourselves in Deet.

Dinner that night is taken in the balmy courtyard of the hotel, the tropical heat making us sticky yet happy. The in-house East Indies restaurant is reported to have the best food in Kerala so we opt for the five course tasting menu - Coman choosing 'Meat' while I try 'Ocean'.

Beautiful dishes flavoured with coconut and fenugreek, chilli and papaya flow from the kitchen, with a sublime, waistline-busting dessert of oven roasted French toast, banana and white chocolate to finish. It's all very good without quite troubling Michelin status - yet unbelievably costs just £16 each. Combined with the fact that the hotel has no alcohol licence, it's the cheapest gourmet meal we've ever had. And the most sober too!

It's marred slightly by the fact that down on the beach the Cochin carnival has moved on from this afternoon's repertoire of traditional music to a full-on rave with pumping beats throbbing through the air. It rather overwhelms the somewhat sad-faced duo sat in the corner of the courtyard entertaining guests with gentle Indian songs. The banging choons and incessant car horns drown them out at regular intervals.

By the time we've finished dinner and headed out to explore the carnival has finished, a curfew of 10pm seemingly imposed. We have no complaints as our room looks out towards the beach so the new found silence will be welcome for sleep. We take an evening stroll nevertheless, finding the whole area to be shutting up shop - no late night drinking dens here.

That suits us fine as bed is calling once more, ahead of our guided tour in the morning. That's where the fun really begins!