Day 14
We awoke after a very comfortable sleep on the houseboat, a rooster was crowing nearby. It had gotten pretty warm during the night and we had been grateful for the aircon. The boat started its engines for the gentle ride back to Alleppey, and we were served fresh pineapple and papaya, sweet white bread, omlettes and tea for breakfast.
We said goodbye to our crew, and Sree looked particularly happy with his tip. We met Jeenu at 9:00 and he drove us through to Cochin (Kochi). It was a long drive, around 2 hours, and we were glad that Jeenu seemed to be taking it a bit easier, with less hooting and wild overtaking.
Our first stop in Cochin was Jew town, yes it is actually called that... We hopped out of the car and walked around the streets to find the Paradesi Synagogue. It seems we chose the wrong day to go to Cochin, as the synagogue was closed on Fridays, as was the Mattancherry palace. Next to the synagogue we found a really quaint cafe, and decided to stop for a drink, mostly as an excuse to use their toilets. We had honey lassi and lime soda - the lime soda is something we have discovered in south India which is really refreshing, they bring fresh lime juice, soda water, and sugar syrup to mix to your taste. We browsed around the wonderful clothing, spice and book shops inside the cafe, and decided to buy a book for the train ride to Goa.
We did a little more shopping in the quaint shops of Jew town, and laughed as guys promised "hassle free shopping" which was ironic considering they were sitting outside their shops hassling us :) we found the Pepper Exchange, where Cochins famous pepper is auctioned off, but unfortunately there was no action today. We then reached the Matancherry palace, or "Dutch palace" which was given by the Portugese, then renovated by the Dutch. It was closed and didn't really look like much from the outside... We were almost tempted into a boat trip around the various islands that make up Cochin, but didn't feel like coughing up the Rs1000 each, especially since we had already done so many boat trips.
So Jeenu then drove us to Fort Cochin, the main tourist area. I guess we could have walked it but it was nice to have an air conditioned car to return to occasionally! The weather was humid, but pleasant, and this was the hottest it had been since our arrival in India. In the fort area, we checked out the cathedral, which is quite impressive, and follows the usual Asian style of combining images of Jesus with neon lights...usually in the form of a neon halo. We also went to the St Francis church, the oldest in Cochin, and one of the oldest in India, constructed in the 1500s. It was a little run down, but still nice to see.
We then spent some time walking around the charming streets of Fort Cochin, which we loved as we always like to explore a place on foot. We had felt that most of the North Indian cities we had visited weren't really all that accessible by foot, with the only exception being Udaipur. Cochin was a really nice and interesting place to wak around, with Dutch and Portuguese style buildings everywhere. We headed for the coast, our first real view of the sea, the Arabian sea to be specific. Here we saw enormous Chinese fishing nets, constructed of wood, with levers which required a few men to operate, to dip the nets into the sea, and later pull them back up to retrieve small silver fish from them. There were many vendors selling fresh fish and seafood, and it seemed you could pick your fish and then take it to a restaurant who would cook it for you.
We were getting a bit peckish, and found the lovely chilled Kashi Art Cafe, on a back alley behind princess street. The place was both an art gallery and a cafe, and the charming tables were made of old sewing machines converted with marble tops. The menu was short and simple, and consisted mostly of soup and sandwiches. We ordered chicken salad sandwich, tuna salad sandwich and lime soda and cold coffee. This was the first time we had really ordered non Indian food! A pleasant fan was keeping us cool. I was starting to feel pretty rubbish, another bout of Delhi belly, and couldn't really stomach much, so we chilled out for a while.
Next we went in search of snacks for the train trip (we had learnt to always be prepared after our previous experiences!). We found a decent sized shop and stocked up. We then ambled around a little aimlessly, and I spotted a sign for Fab India, which is a shop my best Indian friend had mentioned was a great place to buy Indian style clothes. I had to check it out, and we followed sign after sign until we eventually found it. The place was awesome, nicely air conditioned, and for the first time in India, all prices were marked, and no one hassled us one bit! What a pleasure, and after a bit of searching I found a nice top.
We then found Jeenu, and we still had a little bit of time to kill before our Kathakali show, where the makeup would start at 5:30... So we went to the beach where hundreds of Indians were chilling, some swimming although it wasn't all that clean. We walked around and found a spot for a drink and some people watching. The funny thing about India is that sometimes although the locals are interesting, the goras (whites) that visit can be even more interesting to watch, and those that have been here a while are evident in the way they dress and act.
We headed for Kathakali at the Cochin cultural centre, which was included in our tour. It is an art form described as "dance drama" and originates from Kerala. The start of the show was simply the two guys applying their makeup, as this is a very important part of the show. The one guy had his face painted bright green, with thick black eyeliner and eyebrows and various other colourful markings. Another guy glued successive layers of what looked like white paper around the green guy's jaw. The older guy painted his face red, also with thick black markings. They took their time over this and allowed many photos.
When the show finally started, the first part was an explanation of the art form, which I appreciated as it otherwise would have been lost on us. Another older actor/dancer demonstrated the facial control these guys have, and they have specific ways of using their eyes, eyebrows, and facial muscles to represent certain emotions, like love, disgust, bravery, anger, etc. They also use hand gestures to tell the story, which to me seemed very elaborate and complicated. The show has no dialogue, only drumming, singing and these face and hand gestures...
The show started after the basic story was explained - the prince of heaven is chilling, enjoying the tranquility, when a lady approaches him, apparently very beautiful, professing her love for him. He fancies her, and professes his love... He asks where she is from and she says heaven of course... He wants to marry her, but she wants to sleep with him ASAP, and this makes it apparent to him that she couldn't possibly be from heaven. She reveals her true form - an ugly demon, and tries to take him by force, so he chops off her breast and nose... Quite strange, especially with all the hand gesturing and eyebrow twitching... But a different and interesting experience!
We needed to be at the train station by 22:25 so Jeenu took us towards the Ernakulum area, to the old dance song "Sing Hallelujah" on repeat. For like an hour! I'll never be able to hear that song without thinking if him... We stopped at the Holiday India office to collect our remaining hotel vouchers, and then we really were singing Hallelujah as we had been asking for those for so long! Jeenu picked a restaurant for us, pulling up at the impressive Grand hotel, where a doorman helped us out of the car. The place looked expensive, but was actually pretty reasonable and was filled with many families, both Indian and foreign. We had Begali style fried fish with saad and another exceptionally spicy fish curry - these Keralans dont mess around with their fish curry!
We finally reached the train station, and learning from previous experience, I sent Van in to check things out before we left our driver. Good thing we did because this particular station did not have an electronic notification board, so Jeenu helped Van find out the platform, the train was scheduled to be on time. This station was fairly impressive compared to the others we had been to. It had chairs and fans! And even an upper class waiting area with more chairs and fans! The train arrived shortly, and amazingly left at exactly 22:25, as scheduled, we were so impressed! This time around we were in three tier AC sleepers, not quite as good as before but not really an issue, there was a 3 generational Indian family with us and a few other travelers heading for Goa. We managed to get some pretty good sleep, thinking about the upcoming last day of 2011...
- Nix
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