2018 "Song of India" Adventure - Day 12 - Cochin, India
Day 12
– Saturday, March 3rd – Cochin, India
(Allan writing) As we sailed into Cochin
harbor, the sun was rising through haze and mixed clouds. The air was steamy,
and I thrilled to see the few small boats near the shore, people gathered on
the beach, and the famous “Chinese fishing nets” lined up waiting to be lowered
into the water. India at last! Ever since I first saw the film, “A Passage to
India”, I’ve wanted to visit this place. The history, the people, the culture and
food – all of this had beckoned me at some point.
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| Sunrise over Cochin, India |
One of the most
useful things I have learned, from 15 years of travel to many far-flung places
around the world, is that we all have preconceptions that we acquire – through
media and hearsay about what any given place/people/culture is like, and none
of that matters. What matters is going yourself and finding out for yourself
how you feel when you’re there. I had
some trepidation as we came in to India, but I did my best to set that aside
and just go with the flow. (SW: That’s
really the attitude one has to take in India. It’s still burdened with
British-inspired bureaucracy moving at the speed of a glacier. But it is a country worth a visitor’s time.)
It was indeed
very hot in the morning, and quite humid – steamy, as I said before, when we
sailed in to the Port of Cochin. We had a tour booked through a local company, Muziris
Heritage Day Tours, and
were to meet them on the pier around 8:30 in the morning. Steve had e-mailed
our contact the night before to let them know we would not be getting off the
ship till 9:30 at the earliest, and they said not to worry – they’d wait for us
as long as it took. We had collected our passports along with our accompanying
documents – Indian E-visas and landing card, back from the ship on Friday,
March 1st and all of this would be checked by, and left with, Indian
Immigration and returned to us on our departure from India (at Mumbai). Our
assigned group number, to exit the ship and queue for passport control and
collection, was 16. We heard the first announcement declaring that group number
1 could depart at about 8:40AM. We headed down to the coffee bar on deck 5 as
they announced group 4’s turn. We left the ship at about 9:30AM and got in line
for Immigration. This only took a few minutes, and with stamped landing cards
and copies of our passports in hand, we entered India!
The guide from
our tour was waiting for us a very short distance from the tents that had been
set up for immigration, and we were the last of our group of eight to enter the
minivan. The minivan was cozy. I think there were 5 rows of double seats on the
right side and 5 single seats across the aisle on the left side. I took a
single seat and Steve took the double seat in that (fourth) row. The seats were
comfortable and as we got settled, our guide Frances Fonseca gave us a bit of
background on the city of Cochin and the state of Kerala, where we were touring
(Click the links for more information on these areas).
We pulled out of
the port area and headed south on National Highway 66 toward Alappuzha, about
48 kilometers to the south. As we moved through the various neighborhoods,
townships, and less populated stretches of road, I was struck by the myriad
heaps of bagged trash that were left by the roadside (SW: I saw very little bagged trash, but plenty of un-bagged refuse).
I also noticed that almost everywhere there was a wall by the highway that wall
was covered in advertising, unless there was a specific instruction to “Stick No
Bills” in that space. My eyes grew tired trying to take it all in – the people,
the buildings, the ads (some with very
handsome men in them – all looking very well fed). I had to pace myself,
otherwise I’d go into sensory overload as I did in the Grand Bazar in Istanbul six
years ago…
I am very much a
creature of the northwestern United States. I like moderate temperatures and
mixed periods of gray, rainy skies with verdant green all around, and clear
blue skies (or with great big puffy cumulus clouds for visual interest ;-))
with warmer (or colder) temps. The key word in all of that last was moderate. This trip has been a very new
type of experience for me. Moderate doesn’t really come into play. I knew this
going in. It’s all new for me, and
that was a great part of the appeal. It is
all new and it’s been very exciting to experience, but sometimes it can be a
challenge. Anyway, back to the adventure at hand…
We were on this
highway for about 90 minutes. During that time, Frances was explaining this and
that but would occasionally lurch backward as the driver swerved around another
tuk-tuk, scooter, motorcycle, or car. It seemed that there was a never-ending
game of “Chicken” being played out on the stretches of road where there were
only (really) two lanes, but the traffic decided there were four. The opposing
traffic would come over into our lane to pass and then dart frantically back in
to their own lane at the last possible second before smashing into an oncoming
vehicle, and vice versa. Steve said I should take a video of all this, but I
declined, satisfying myself with taking photos and videos of life along the
edge of the road instead. (SW: This whole
method of Indian driving was familiar to me, as I experienced it during even
longer car rides on my visit to this country in 1996. The best way to handle it
is just to not look out the front window, which was easier done in the minivan
than in a car.)
We arrived at
the Alleppey Boat dock around 11:30AM, and by the time Steve and I got onboard
there were no more seats available in the forward, open air section of the boat.
Frances directed us to take our shoes off and we could then go ahead of the
seated group and sit just behind the captain on a pair of large cushioned mats
at the prow. I was happy to do so as it meant we would have much better views
and be able to take better photos and video whilst on the tour. (SW: The other passengers were also from our
ship, but from other tour groups. Probably not more than 25 or 30 people.)
There were many
other houseboats out on the water. These are very large, roughly 25 – 30 meters
long, with several sections or rooms in them, and some even had a second floor.
Some were outfitted as party boats, with large open floorplans where occupants could
drink and dance to their heart’s content. Others were set up with rows of
bench-style seating, or some even had large lounges in front where you could
stretch out and luxuriate in the views and the occasional breezes that would
sweep through the cabin. Steve and I both thought that last configuration would
be sublime to experience, especially on a very hot and humid day.
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| The arches on the side are bedroom windows. Kitchen is in the rear. |
In the channels
that led to the open water of the lake, there were homes and shops lining the
canal. People went about their daily routines and some waved to us as we
passed, especially the children. The homes and shops were not especially
crowded together as I would have thought they might be. Some were particularly
well kept up, with large grounds surrounding them and beautiful wrought iron
gates with gilt touches on them. Frances explained to us that many of these
nicer homes were bought by men who worked overseas. Kerala has one of the
highest literacy rates in India, or in the world even, at around 95%. Many of
the higher educated populace work overseas because they can earn much better
livings than they could in their home towns or districts.
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| View facing the bow. We were happy for the shade! |
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| Women washing along the lake. |
We journeyed out
into the open water of the lake and in a very short time we saw a flurry of
activity off the starboard side of the boat: a large flock of egrets in the
distance was stirred up from their resting place in the water and whirled about
for a minute or two before coming back to rest. Right after that we saw our own
instance of this right in front of our houseboat with both egrets and a group
of reddish eagles joining the fray, swirling in the air and swooping down to
find some tasty morsel they could snatch out of the lake.
Lunch was cooked
and served on the boat: boiled rice, chicken curry, fish patties, and several
vegetable dishes I never got the names of. We both had some of everything but
the fish, naturally. It was all very good but the chicken curry was my favorite
– delicious! After everyone was finished with their lunch they passed out small
cups of something Steve says was like warm rice pudding – but not. I passed on
that; I didn’t need it and didn’t really feel like dessert.
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| Lunch on the lake |
After lunch, we
motored around the lake for another hour or so before pulling back into the
dock and filing off the boat. As we pulled in there was a group of young Indian
men waiting to board our boat. They were all very quiet and many smiled at us
as we passed. I think it was about 2:30PM when we headed back to the minivan.
I don’t really
remember much about the drive back to town, except I really wanted to get a
picture of a particular billboard that I saw on the way south. I knew it was
maybe 25 – 30 minutes out from Cochin, so about an hour into our return I
started watching the signage closely and had my phone ready to open the camera
app and snap a quick shot. Luckily, I did
see the billboard and got a decent shot as we passed:
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| Half-naked men on billboards - woo-hoo! |
I just loved it
and am glad I had a good enough memory of the drive down that I knew just about
when to get the phone ready ;-).
We had two more
stops to make on the tour: the first one at the shore of the harbor where there
are a group of “Chinese fishing nets”, or more formally - shore-operated lift
nets.:
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| Chinese fishing net, Cochin, India |
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| The egret about to try again, Cochin, India |
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| Man ironing, Dobi Khana, Cochin, India |
The last stop
before heading back to the port was a visit to Jew Town: another neighborhood
in the Fort district with a 300 year-old synagogue, and a small Jewish community.
(SW: Ever since I encountered the name of
this area, I was a bit shocked. But during the time of the Portuguese, this is
where the Jewish community lived.) We could not enter the synagogue because
it was closed, even though today was Shabbat. (SW: Apparently, there are not enough male Jews in Cochin to form a minyan, the minimum number of worshippers needed).
Honestly, this seemed more a tourist trap to me than a truly historic place:
lots of little shops hawking jewelry, clothing, and knickknacks, but it was
interesting and fun.
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| Allan in Jew Town, Cochin, India |
We both bought
these very thin, wispy, white cotton pullover shirts and a pair of beautiful
lounging pants in black and white with patterns of elephants printed all over
them. The very handsome young Indian man who lured us into his shop with his
sad but sly eyes and quick smile, asked us if we needed something for our wives
or girlfriends… We did not disabuse him of his illusions ;-). (SW: Actually, it was a guy in the first shop that attracted Allan’s attention. It
was the second shop, just a few doors down, that had the younger man with the sad
but beautiful eyes. I was hooked. There is a saying in India that I learned on
my previous visit: “If you have no wife, you have no life”. I’ll just leave
that there.)
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| Steve modeling the Kerala-inspired ensemble |
After our
45-minute stop in Jew Town, we all piled back into the minivan and headed for
the ship. About a mile outside the port we pulled over to the side of the road,
where a representative for the tour company came inside and asked to collect
our payment for the tour. It felt a little strange, and he did have this big
bruiser of a man at his side (the muscle in the outfit, no doubt <wink>)
in case anyone balked at paying (which didn’t happen, of course). After this
was taken care of, we headed off and pulled in at the parking area at the pier.
Getting through Immigration again was a quick matter of flashing our landing
cards, twice, and then our SeaPass cards from the ship to return onboard.
We were both
exhausted but very satisfied with our first day in India – Land of Enchantment!
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