We made it!

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Flew Silk Air, a division of Singpore Airlines, to Cochin. Not quite the same luxury as our previous flight. Drop-down video screens, with no sound, regaled us with the worst version of Funniest Home Videos we've ever seen. Must be the discards. Mostly, the footage consisted of kids hurting themselves in various ways (falling off of bicycles was quite popular). After the meal was served, we decided that our time could be used more wisely by sleeping.

Arrived in Cochin at 10:15 pm. Customs was a breeze and our backpacks (which we hadn't seen since Vancouver) arrived quickly on the conveyor belt. Luckily, we realized that we had left all our warm clothes in the overhead bin on the plane. An airport attendant was kind enough to retrieve them for us. The big worry was.....Will our driver be waiting for us, as promised?

Yes! He was!! Yippee!!!!! Grabbed our stuff, walked through the parking lot, greeted by an Indian family obviously waiting for someone on our flight. The 4 women and about a dozen kids were all smiles and hello's as we got into our car. Mick said "Hello. How are you?" and they all answered in unison "I am fine." Very cute.

The ride to the hotel was an interesting half hour drive in the dark, the air wreeking of burning garbage, dodging auto rickshaws, pot holes, dogs, cats, bicycles, and careening trucks. Very intense. At one point our driver pulled into a gas station, rolled down the window, and had quite an animated converstation with the two gas attendants. As they all stared at the gauges on the dashboard, nothing seemed to be resolved. We finally asked if there was something wrong with the car. It seems that the low fuel light had come on and our driver wasn't sure if he had enough gas to make it to the hotel. Of course, he also claimed to not have any money on him. So, being the kind tourists that we are, we forked over 200 Rupees (about $5) for some gas. Scam or no scam, we just wanted to get to our hotel. Running out of gas on that dark road in the middle of nowhere, was just not something we wanted to face.

Arrived at the hotel in one piece. Fort House Hotel is a little oasis in the middle of the historic part of the city. At first, there didn't seem to be a room available for us, but eventually it got sorted out. Room with A/C, hot shower, nice big bed with mosquito net for about $25 per night. Very helpful, friendly staff. The night staff sat with us for about an hour, talking and showing us photos of all the sites and activities in the area. We also met a couple of travellers, Jo from Perth Australia, and Millie from England. Sat and chatted with them for a while. Jo had been to India before, and was able to give us some good advice. We finally crashed around 1am.


Tuesday:

Mick awoke to the sound of the call to prayer. The mosque is directly across the street from the hotel. The first call is before dawn, around 6 am. Luckily, they seem to have a decent sound system, so we actually have been enjoying listening to the Islamic singing and praying in the mornings. Between the call to prayer and the morning cacphony of bird calls, Mick was too excited to sleep, so he got up and spent the morning exploring the grounds of the hotel and filming the dawn off the pier, watching the fishermen heading out to sea. It all feels like a dream now.

Kirsten finally awoke at 9, just in time for Mick to head back to bed for a nap. Had breakfast (included with the room) - two eggs any style, toast and jam, pineapple slice and tea/coffee. Nice start to the day. The hotel is right on the water, so makes for a relaxing place to hang and watch the world go by. Tourist boats, ferries, fishing boats, and huge cargo tankers ply these waters. Saw some dolphins too!

Had to wake Mick up because we had booked an Ayervedic massage at 2pm. Interesting experience. You strip down, put on this little loin-cloth thing, lay on a vinyl table, and they dribble oil all over you. Oh, yeah! The massage itself is quite vigorous - more of an all-over body rub than anything else. The primary focus seemed to be increasing circulation. Turning over was a bit of a challenge. The oil on vinyl makes for quite a slippery bed!! Had to shower in the dark, with cold water, as the electricity was out. Fairly impossible to get all the oil off, so we left feeling quite greasy, in a good way. Fully basted, we set off for a walk in the sun......

Wandered around the streets and found our way to the beach. Saw the infamous Chinese fishing nets, but they weren't being used at the time. Wandered through the fish monger stalls where we were pestered to buy a fish, which you then take to the restaraunt stall to have it cooked. "You buy, we cook" is the motto. We weren't feeling daring enough to go for it yet.

Invited Millie to join us for dinner. She's here to take a course in Ayervedic medicine. Went to an outdoor restaurant to sample the local specialty: fish cooked in garlic and oil, then steamed in a banana leaf, with a tomato sauce. Was quite good. Not at all spicy. Next door, at the cultural centre, there was a live music show, which we got to hear for free whilst enjoying our dinner. As the restaurant is not licenced (most places aren't) we had beer served in a tea pot (just like in Chinatown in T.O.!!) which was fun, but warm.....


Wednesday:

Cochin is composed of the mainland, Ernakulem, and surrounding islands. We are staying in Fort Cochin, the historical centre, a separate island from the mainland. On our second day, we decided to go to Ernakulem to do some shopping. Kirsten needs hot weather clothes!!

Took the ferry (40 R for the two of us = 10 cents) across to the mainland. Went immediately to the Information Booth at the main jetty to connect with Thelma, Vanessa's friend from when she was here in 1991 (?). To our surprise and joy, Thelma was there, just as Vanessa said she would be!! When we told her that Vanessa had sent us, Thelma looked like she was going to cry. It was very sweet. We had a nice visit and got some great advice about our travel plans.

Walked around Ernakulem for a while, looking for places to buy clothes. Well, you don't really walk around here. It's more a matter of dodging and dashing between people, autorickshaws (tuk tuks), cars and trucks. Crossing a street is a major challenge, but negotiating a four-way intersection is virtually impossible!! We tried a couple of clothing stores, but weren't finding what we wanted so we gave up. Grabbed an autorickshaw - the only way to truly get anywhere - and headed off for lunch. $4 bought us a great biryani feast and a couple of Cokes. Tried a few more clothing stores, but were too hot to really care any more, so we headed back to the ferry.

Crossed over to Willingdon Island to go to the Casino Hotel and use their swimming pool. Nice call!!!! A wonderful dip and a couple of drinks by the pool - great way to cool down and finally relax. Getting back to the hotel became a bit of a runaround, but we finally got an autorickshaw to take us back to Fort Cochin. More expensive than the ferry, but a lot less hassle. Great way to see the local area as well.

Dinner on the pier at the hotel was amazing!! Divine food. We had tuna pepper, which is tuna in a coconut sauce, with red rice and an eggplant dish. We splurged and had a fried banana and a Keralan pancake (crepe with coconut, sugar, raisins, and toasted cashews) for dessert. Yummy!

Walked it off by exploring around town a little bit. The area is a mixture of squalor and relative opulence. Garbage everywhere. Cats everywhere. Friendly people everywhere. It's great the way they've declared this area a heritage site. Many of the buildings date from the 1600's and are of Portuguese building design.


Thursday:

On Thursday, we decided to explore Jew Town - a unique section of town settled when the Jews were thrown out of Egypt and travelled to various parts of the world in search of a new place to live. We grabbed an autorickshaw recommended by one of the hotel employees for our ride there. Despite our protests, Mahil insisted on being our driver for the day. This "kidnapping" turned out to be a great experience! He was quite knowledgable and took us to all the main sights and more.

At the ginger warehouse, we observed ginger root being dried in the sun for shipment to all over the world. The ginger is covered in lime dust (turning it an interesting shade of blue) and dried in the sun for 5 days before being sorted by hand and boxed for shipping. Amazing that traditional methods are still being used, as the process seemed ripe for mechanization.

Visited a Jain temple and the synagogue, but the hi-light of the day was the Dutch Palace. The palace is a museum and famous for the murals painted on the walls. Detailed images depicting the story of the Ramayana are truly amazing. On the lower level, in the ladies chamber, are paintings of a much more erotic nature. Krishna is shown pleasuring 8 milkmaids with his 6 hands and 2 feet, whilst all around them the animals of the forest are "having fun" too. Krishna still manages to be playing his flute while all this is going on. Truly a god!!

Mick decided to ignore the "No photos" signs and took some pictures on the digital. As soon as he went back upstairs, one of the museum workers stopped him, telling him that he took 3 photos. How did they know??!! We thought that he was going to be told to erase the photos and that we might get kicked out, but no, this is India. After a brief sit-down with the tour guide, Mick was told that for 200 Rupees, "You keep". He tried to barter her down to 100 R, but this is not a bartering situation. So, for $5 we got illicit photos of illicit paintings and were allowed to continue on in the museum.

As we were leaving, we walked through the reception area and were shown the close circuit tv system. Aha!! The staff were all pointing and laughing. Mick even got a thumbs up from the woman who took his money as we left..... Classic!!

Mahil took us shopping as well, from the fixed-rate government store where we could have spent a fortune on furninture and carpets, to the department store, right down a tiny shop on a side alley. The tiny shop was more our style. Bought three shirts for less than $10. On our ride back to the hotel we got to see some of the real Cochin, where the locals live and shop. Very colourful. For five hours of touring around, we paid Mahil $12.50 - what a deal!!


Friday:

Friday was a day of shopping at the beach stalls and tourist shops in Fort Cochin. More clothes and some earrings for Kirsten. We stopped at the Kashi Art Cafe for some carrot soup and a wonderful iced coffee. Couldn't pass up the chocolate cake in chocolate sauce either! Took a different route back to the hotel and found ourselves in the midst of a bizillion school kids just finishing for the day. Had a laugh as they all wanted their picture taken. Very cute!

Seem to have a bit of heat stroke as we both passed out for a couple of hours nap when we returned to the hotel. Dinner on the pier and then crashed for the night.

So, now it's Saturday. This is our last day in Cochin (we extended our stay by two nights as it was). Tonight we've got reservations at the hotel restaurant as there is going to be a sitar and tabla concert. Dinner by the water with live music - Sweet!! Afraid that maybe we've been a little spoiled here in our oasis. Tomorrow we will face the real India. We're actually going to brave a bus ride to Alleppy to go on a backwater cruise........ for some more pampering. A couple of days there, then we hope to go to the wildlife reserve in Periyar. After that, who knows??

So far, India has been very good to us. We are healthy and well-fed! The people are great and there has been very little harassment from touts. We are finding it difficult to contemplate leaving our little comfort zone here, but we're also ready to move on.

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