Done, done and we’re on to
the next one!
We arrived in Kerala safe
and sound and reasonably well rested after our overnight train ride. As soon as we arrived in Cochin, I noticed a
huge difference from he other states we had been in. Kerala is India's
wealthiest and most progressive state, with 100 percent literacy rates (which I
take with a grain of salt after learning about how statistics are gathered).
The streets simply appeared cleaner, the shops brighter, the traffic more
civil-even the rickshaws were more luxurious, with big cushioned seats and
drivers who ASK if you want your change. The biggest difference I noticed was
the apparent absence of slums or anyone living on the street, and having people
asking us for money at intersections basically did not occur.
After a brief rickshaw ride through the mainland and across
to islands, we arrived at our absolutely lovely guesthouse in no time-this
place was by far the cutest and cleanest place we have stayed-it was very
modern, and I would consider it a nice place to stay by Canadian
standards. We decided to stay in Fort
Cochin, which is on the island nearby mainland Kochi, but has more of the
tourist sites, and is overall a bit nicer in terms of a calm, relaxing
atmosphere. We freshened up from our
overnight train ride and got ready for our whirlwind day tour of Fort Cochin,
with the first stop being lunch!
After, we made our way to see these Chinese fishing nets,
which is an old fashioned means of catching fish. The nets are attached to the shore, and are
made of huge wooden beams with a massive net attached. Several men hoist a rope attached to the net,
which raises and lowers it from the water. Once they lower the net, they leave
it in the water for several minutes, then hoist it up to see what goods they
got. We watched a man sort through one
of his catches-we got to see a massive prawn, several catfish, a flatfish
(something I had never seen before, and did not look at all appetizing despite
my new found appreciation of seafood), a small lobster, oysters and a few other
small fish.
The Chinese fishing nets in Fort Cochin
We took a stroll along the
seaside watching the men and the fishing nets, and being surprised to be
surrounded by so many other Westerners for a change. Having been in Hyderabad for so long, which
is by no means a tourist stop in India, it has been a bit of an adjustment
getting used to not being the only Westerners around, and which has affected
things like prices and prevalence of English being spoken at restaurants and
hotels.
Since we only had a short time (literally 2 hours to see all
Fort Cochin had to offer), we hired two rickshaws for a quick tour of the
highlights, which included a spice market cooperative, where we saw women
shifting through piles of ginger, and bagging it up. The market had all sorts
of spices, and we finally got to try what Canadians call chai tea (which to an
Indian would just mean tea tea, since tea=chai). This is called masala chai and
it is absolutely wonderful, but the store was a tad pricey so we refrained from
purchasing anything.
The women sorting through the ginger at the spice factory
We then visited Mattancherry Palace, which didn’t look
like much of a palace, as it was more of a big old wooden building that was
still beautiful, but not exactly regal.
I am pretty sure it is a remnant of the Dutch colonial era in Kerala,
which may account for why it didn’t possess the certain pizzazz that so many
Indian historical buildings have.
Admission to the palace was a steep 5 rupees, and we got to see all of
these really amazing etched wall murals of various Hindu religious scenes, as
well as some other interesting thing like the dress of the royalty of Kerala,
which we learned involved both men and women wearing a white sheet wrapped
around their waist like a towel-covering up one’s top half didn’t become vogue
until Europeans made their way to India.
After a few other touristy stops, we made our way straight
to a traditional Keralan cultural performance.
We didn’t realize that for the first hour, the audience watches the
actors apply their elaborate makeup to their faces, which was kind of
interesting to a point, but it literally took an hour and there’s only so much
face painting you can watch before your eyes start getting very heavy. The
performance eventually began with an introduction about the type of acting that
we were going to be seeing, what sort of training the actors and musicians have
to go through, what the various actions, facial expressions and types of music
means, etc etc. The performance itself
was interesting to say the least. The actors have elaborate makeup done, with
almost paper mache like add ons to make a beard or whisker type things. The
costumes are equally as elaborate, with massive head pieces and adorned gowns. Luckily,
we were handed a paper with a synopsis of what was going on in the play as we
entered the theatre, because the actors don’t use words-only facial expressions
and grunts-to convey the scene.
Basically, there was a soldier who took revenge on an evil man for
stealing his wife, by killing him in a dance-fight, and then drinking his blood,
eating his intestines, and washing his wife’s hair in the blood. We were
entertained, to say the least, but given the exhausting day we had had, we were
ok when the god Krishna granted the soldier forgiveness, and the play ended.
The elaborate makeup application at the Keralan cultural performance
A bit of the fight scene between the soldier and the evil man
Since we were in such a touristy area, we decided to treat
ourselves to Italian food that night, at a very cute but somewhat pricey (about
$4 for a calzone) rooftop restaurant after the play, that had only Westerners
at it (always a good indicator that you’ll be eating an expensive meal that
night). We dragged ourselves back to the
cute hotel for an early night, as we had to get up the next day at 4:30 am to
catch a 6 am bus to Munnar, a town in the mountains about 5 hours from Cochin. More
to follow on that experience in my next post!
Amanda, Me and Nicole in the cute Italian restaurant
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