Cochin Vacation

This post is long because I’ve been putting it off. Enjoy!

Tuesday:

This was our first full day in Cochin. We slept until 9:45 and nearly missed breakfast (which ends at 10). Jithin came to meet us by noon or so, and he took us to the coffee shop next door to the hotel, where we met his friends Melvin and Anthony. After coffee and a Nutella crepe, we went outside where the boys smoked and we waited to go see our first sights. Jithin’s friend Vijay, who studied at Western just like the rest of us, came with us for a drive and then to see a palace “where the king would go to chill.” He was great at knowing the history of the places.

Next we drove to Fort Cochin and had lunch at a hotel there that was built by the Dutch in the 18^th(?) century. Lunch took forever. Afterwards, we walked around the fort a bit, and we went to the beach nearby. Helen and I were invited to help fishermen reel in their Chinese fishing net, which is built in a stationary location and has a net that can be lifted out of or lowered into the water. We caught about five little fish. Apparently it’s the off season.

[more pictures to come later in the week--the uploader is being horribly slow]

By the end of our walk on the beach, Helen and I were both pretty exhausted (Helen was still recovering from food poisoning and I was feeling iffy), so we went back to the hotel. We had room service dinner while sitting on cushy beds. It was grand.

Wednesday:

We had made all these plans for seeing palaces and temples and things on Wednesday, but instead we ended up going for a scenic drive with Jithin and his friend Shorn (like Sean) to a waterfall.

Apparently you can sometimes see tigers and elephants there, but we only saw monkeys and deer.

Still, it was cool seeing wildlife and the waterfall was spectacular. The drive was gorgeous: densely forested with palm trees and green beyond compare.

Thursday:

Houseboat! On Thursday we planned to get going by 8:30 to make it to the houseboat by 10 or so. So naturally we didn’t get going until almost noon, and we got to the boat at 2. The trip was shorter than we anticipated, but it didn’t feel too short. The boat was really cool: two bedrooms, a bathroom, a dining/living room, and a kitchen.

It had ceiling fans, and the whole boat was covered, so when it rained they just lowered some tarps over the open sides, and we were protected. The scenery was gorgeous, and being on a boat with great people (and booze) was really fun. We had a traditional Keralan duck dish for lunch on the boat, which was delicious. After we got back to Cochin, we went to Mezzo, the bar/restaurant where the guys always hang out. I was feeling fine, and then I wasn’t feeling fine and decided to go splash some water on my face in the bathroom, but as I was walking to the bathroom my vision blacked out and I wound up lying on the floor in front of the bathroom doors because I couldn’t see where they were or which was the women’s. After about 20 seconds my vision came back and I went into the bathroom and laid down on the floor again. Fortunately the floors were very clean because Mezzo is a fancy place. Anyways, I started feeling better and went back outside, and then decided that I really should be back in the hotel, so we went headed back.

Friday:

Today, we started out early with Achyu, another friend of Jithin’s. He took us back toward Fort Cochin to see Jew Town and the synagogue. Unfortunately, most things were closed because Friday is a holiday, but it was still nice to walk around. Helen and I got some gift shopping done. We also saw the Folklore Museum, which is a private collection of historical artifacts turned into a museum. I think if you have that many artifacts, you have no choice but to turn them into a museum, because you can’t possibly store it all otherwise. One cool thing about the museum is that the building itself is constructed from pieces of historical architecture and decorative woodcarvings salvaged from old buildings. The place is sort of a mishmash of all kinds of things, some very poorly labeled, but it’s a neat place. I’m glad we made it there.

Achyu took us for lunch at a dosa place near our hotel, which was possibly my favorite thing I’ve eaten in India so far. Dosa is like a thin, slightly crispy pancake made from fermented rice water. Ours were stuffed with a potato masala filling, which was tasty and complemented the pancake well.

After lunch we rested at the hotel for a few hours, got coffee at the coffee shop, met everyone at Mezzo, and then went to an Indian clothing store to try to do more gift shopping. We didn’t find much for gifts there—it’s a really great store for Indian women, but less so for souvenirs—but we’ll hopefully have time for more tomorrow.

Tomorrow the plan is to check out of this hotel and into one closer to the airport, see and hopefully ride elephants, and finish gift shopping. Our flight is early Sunday morning, and then we have about 24 hours of travel before we get back to Hazaribag. And then, I have only one week left before heading to the U.S.