Coastin in Cochin

Well, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. I guess that's because Cindy was doing all of the traveling in Europe and I was at home, working, keeping the household going. I had help from the girls who did pitch in a fair amount. After Cindy got back from her trip, she wasn't too keen on traveling soon again, but I convinced her we should go away. I had picked out a couple of locations, but they were not viable. She managed to find a nice spot in Cochin (also known as Kochi on the coast of Kerala), one of the biggest ports in India.

Cochin has a fairly old history. There are accounts of very early contact with the Chinese, from whom they learned to use these Chinese fishing nets which line the coast of Fort Cochin. There are also accounts of Arabic contact and early Muslim visitors to the port city. At that time the port wasn't so big. It was really created by a huge flood, and then later in the 1900s a british man organized the dredging of the port and creation of another island. That led to it becoming a large seaport.

During the expansion of the European empires, the Dutch, the Portugese, and the English all conquered the area. As expected there are vestiges of all three cultures left behind in Cochin.

We lodged at the Malabar House. When we arrived, we discovered they had upgraded us to suite and decorated the bed for our anniversary. It's a bit pricey, but I do recommend it for anyone willing to spend the money.

We stayed in the old Fort town section. It is where the Chinese fishing nets are, it is also where Vasco de Gama is said to have to come to live after his explorations. There are some beautiful "Rain Trees" which are all over the area, they seem like they would be native to India, but they were brought from Brazil along with several other trees and plants by Vasco de Gama. The first day, after arriving in the late afternoon, we walked out to the Chinese fishing nets and it was starting to get dark, but there was a cool sunset, and they were still catching fish at one of the nets. It was really busy with locals out for a stroll on Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning we went for a walking tour around the area. We started out by the fishing nets, and progressed up to several local monuments from the European empires. We saw the Vasco de Gama house. We also walked by the Dutch Cemetery, the Bishop's house, and several other establishments, including the Santa Cruz Cathedral. There are a number of churches, mostly catholic, but not all. There are Roman and Syrian Catholic churches, as well as some protestant. There is also a Jewish section of town (which we missed actually) as there was an old Jewish settlement there.

In the evening we went and saw a Kathakali dance performance. We arrived at 5pm, and had reserved seats in the front row. This wasn't really hard as there were only about a dozen of us for the performance. It's low season in Kerala now. The theater could seat at least 100. The actual dancing didn't start till 6ish, but we got to watch them put on the makeup, which they did sittting on stage. The makeup is all 'natural' ingredients-- either ground stone or local plants, with the exception of blue which is indigo. I'm not sure indigo is local to Kerala. All these were mixed with Coconut oil for application. Then the extra things, like the nose on Shiva (in his disguise), or the white additions to the face on the side (looks sort of like gills) which is paper cut to fit on the spot, and applied with Rice Paste.

There is no speech in the performance other than the singer who tells the story in the background. The dancers tell the story with hand movements (some of which we had demonstrated to us beforehand) and with eye movements and facial expressions. The makeup really accentuates the facial expressions. The eye movements are really fast sometimes too. Because of the small audience it felt like we were getting a personal presentation. We were allowed to take photos as long as a flash wasn't used. Of course this was not a whole story presented. When actually danced for real, the Dance Stories (Kathakali) can go on for 8 hours or more.

The next day we went for a 'tour' with Selim, a rickshaw driver who hangs out in front of the Malabar Hotel. He met us the first day and tried to get us to take a tour with him. We were only interested in walking that day, so we put him off, but I can highly recommend him. He really knows a lot about Cochin and will take you to interesting places. He took us to a spice market. He is a neighbor of the owner, so he is allowed to take tourists inside to the various store and processing rooms. The market has been there for hundreds of years, and is located in at specific location as it is on the port.











Here he Selim stirring lime they use to coat the ginger which they dry for Ayurvedic uses here.

They had all kinds of spices here: Cinnamon, Pepper, Star Anise, "Long pepper", Red Sandalwood, Ginger, Nutmeg, you name it I think they had it.

He took us to a museum in the Dutch Palace which is being renovated. Part of the un-renovated section has these beautiful murals, which are deteriorating. No pictures allowed, I sure hope they get them preserved soon. We also stopped in the local laundry, The irons they used must have weighed at least 20 pounds. They were very heavy to lift up, some were electric, and some were still Coal heated.

We also stopped by a small 'factory' where they make papad--a fried bread, you can buy stacks of the dried dough in the store. Here she is making the dough into little rounds, which can be dried in the sun--no sun this day though.

Next day we went home as it really started to rain.