Cochin

On the road again.........

It's nice to be out and travelling. Cochin is cool. It's a strange mix of portugese, european and indian influence. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Hoi An in Vietnam, in that it has the feeling of a town that was placed in a setting it shouldn't be in. We are still in India, the people are dark skinned, there is noise, etc, but it looks like we're walking in colonial europe set amid the backdrop of palm trees and canals......yellow and teal colored buildings degrading into old age, hiding under the asian hat of orange brick roof tiles. It is a bit quieter here, which is a nice change. THere are parks with christmas lights hanging, and crazy looking fishing nets that jut out from the water like giant ship bows. Cool stuff.

Last night we went to see a local dance performance, there was cool
costume and make up, but after the first hour i was bored out of my mind. Aman and i ran into Agelos on the street, but he and Yanni are doing their own thing.....so it was a little weird just bumping into them and saying goodbye again.

We met this guy last night from Nepal, and he reminds me so much of TIm. He dressed like tim, smoked like tim, has squinty eyes and dimples like tim....it was funny. I asked him when his birthday was....he told me to guess, so i guessed september 11 (which is tim's bday). Not the 11, but his is september 7, which is kinda weird. Maybe they're kindred spirits. We ended up drinking with him at some shady bar out of teapots (not supposed to serve liquor or something) until about 2 in the morning. Consequently it was a lazy day today.

We rose around 1pm, and then headed to "Jew Town." There is a synagogue here, which is pretty much all that's left of what used to be a decently sized jewish community here in the 1500s. It's just kinda crazy to walk in India and then see shops selling yarmulkes, and then walk into a synagogue.....in fact i think it's actually the first synagogue i've ever been in. Kinda cool.

Aman is new to travelling. She wants to pack a ton of sightseeing into the days, whereas i'm more in the mood to just chill out and read. She gets bored easily. So, it's an experience. I'm trying to be patient, trying to teach her to relax and "go with the flow" which is sort
of ironic because that's usually not me at all.

Anyhow, i'm exhausted from walking around. We went from intense sunshine to rain that pelted us and made the whole town smell like rusty metal....we shopped and ate and looked at art. Now aman is getting a massage and i'm reading about karma. Big subject, this karma business.

Ok then. must be off for some keralan seafood curry. Toodaloo.


"Change means movement.
Movement means friction.
Friction means heat--and
heat is required for growth."
-Dan Zadra

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