Is voyeurism OK in India? The tales of Kochi and Cherai

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Kochi

We arrived in Kochi with around a week to chill before the wedding, and fully intended to stay there. Little did we know that there's actually ball all to do in Kochi, except drink and eat, not so bad for a holiday but not enough for an adventure.



Having checked the guide book for things to do, the most touristy thing was Mattancherry Palace. Quite how this is a Palace I’m not too sure. Built by by the Portuguese in the 1500s as a gift to the Raja of Cochin, but more reminiscent of a community centre built in the 70s. I don't know what the Raja did or said to the Portuguese, but he must've upset them. (Mum, you have no idea how much I had to resist the temptation to swear then!).

The interior wasn't so bad, doing more to live up to the name of “Palace” than the exterior. The walls were littered with grand paintings of various scenes from the past, pictures of the Raja and the bloke who gave him the Palace. Great chariot type things (not sure what their actual name is and the internet wasn't any help. Basically those things that people of note used to be carried around in), and there was plenty of stamps! So many stamps!. The coolest thing by far was an array of weapons, swords and spears. Some pretty nice swords too, which would've been nicer had they been kept in good condition.



We'd paid for a Tuk-Tuk (auto-rickshaw) to drive us around for an hour for 50rs and take us to all the tourist attractions, so next up was....a f**king ginger factory! Which was a shop that sold ginger. They'd gone overkill with the ginger too, it's as if someone thought “we've got a lot of ginger here, let's put it inside anything we can think of”. I tasted some ginger sweets, the first of which Dave didn't have the stones to try, I have to admit the only reason I had one was so the woman stopped offering them to us.

Indian sales people don't take no for an answer, they'll literally follow you around all day. I once told a bloke selling flutes and things that I wasn't interested (about 50 times), got a tuk-tuk across the city and the same man was there again offering the same stuff! Anyway I digress.

I don't think I’ve ever tasted a sweet so bad in my life, it wasn't a hint of ginger either, full blown ginger taste! Grim. Next we went to an unimpressive temple that was closed and then visited a few shops so the driver could get some petrol stamps...whatever that means. The highlight of the day was easily the Masala Dosa breakfast, incredible, although Dosa's never let you down. It's a kinda like a big pancake that's got a potatoey mixture in the middle....you'll have to google it for a more accurate description.



So having done all the touristy things in Kochi in the space of around two hours, we decided to head 25km north to Cherai beach and stay there for a few days until the wedding.



Cherai Beach

If you're looking for a beach away from tourists, or just an escape from Kochi, this is the place to go. 3Km of white beach, and unless it' the weekend or a national holiday (which they have like every other day here!) the beach is pretty much empty. What tourists there were, were mostly older travellers and holiday makers (speaking of which we bumped into 4 people from Wigan! That's a total of 5 Wiganers in less than a week!). For the life of me I can't understand why there's so many people in Kochi when this place is just up the road! It's surely only a matter of time before the tourist moves in and takes over, which is both good and bad.

The beach, and most of the places to stay, are nestled between the sea (obviously) and the backwaters. It's a very beautiful place, palm trees lining the beach and backwaters. The traditional Kerelan fishing nets are in an abundance.

It's quite an expensive place to stay generally, the first night we got a home stay with a balcony that backed onto the backwaters with a brilliant view. Although that did cost us 1500rs per night, taking a big chunk out of our 1000rs a day budget.

The second day we got up early and went on a quest to find somewhere cheaper. We found “ocean view”, another home stay. Really nice family that ran it, couldn't do enough for us. That might have been more to do with the fact we were their first customers for two weeks! Which is testament to how little tourists go to Cherai.



The sea food was amazing, literally the best fish I’ve ever tasted and one of the best curry’s to go with it. We found this little wooden shack just off the beach, raised up on a platform. Really cheap food and literally the best food we've eaten this trip. 50Rs for a fish curry! Can't go wrong. The first time the chef asked if we wanted it spicy, so we said yes (naturally, we're in India!). The little grin on his face as he walked away should've been a warning, blew our mouths off at first, just what we wanted! I can't remember the name, but if you go to Cherai, you'll find it. The best piece of advice I can give you is to go there.



The one thing that let the place down for me, it's a side of India I hadn't experienced before, and one that really got to me.

Now I know Indians stare at white people, they're mostly not used to seeing us, and they stare at girls even more so. Especially when they see a white girl in a bikini, in complete contrast to their own culture. Where the woman go into the sea more or less fully clothed.

But having to tell grown men to put a camera away and stop filming is too much! Someone had even tried to grab one of the girls we were with when they were in Goa.

I now completely understand why there's so few female tourists in India, I knew it could be dangerous, but I hadn't realised it was so bad. Whether that's through my own ignorance, or just having never properly been hanging around with girls at the beach here.

I have the utmost respect for any girl or woman willing to come here and put up with that. I've seen some pretty disturbing things over the years in India, but nothing has affected me like this. It's a shining example of just how far India has to go.



Anyway, on a less gloomy note, we're heading to more familiar temperatures. Munnar, a hill station. Some light trekking and wondering around tea plantations. Hill stations are where the colonialists used to holiday. They seem to have a Blackpoolesque feel to them, if you rolled the clock back a couple of hundred years.





Stay tuned, and remember kids. Don't do drugs.

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