OUR STORIES for our stay in
Delhi - Wednesday (Blog) / Thursday (Blog)
/ Friday (Blog)
(LAST INDIA POST IS HERE (12/April/18 - Amritsar and wrap-up of India Trip)
Kochi
05 – 19 March
D'Homz Suites, YS Lane 2, Yuvajana Samajam Road, Kadavanthra P.O., Kochi, Kerala 682020, India
Hosted by Arun at +91 93 876 62 000 Highly recommended - http://dhomz.business.site/
Off again, this time
an uneventful train ride. Despite the beauty, we were happy to be on our way.
We are now residing in a beautiful little modern apartment. Fully
airconditioned, washing machine, the whole thing. And a real SOFT bed!!!!! It
is so nice. We’re here for 2 weeks, an Airbnb, time to get sorted, get clean,
get rested, Terrell to get his blood sugar back down. He’s even joined the
local gym. We just may never leave. So if we don’t turn up in April, this is
where you will find us.
The Airbnb stays are
the best. You really get a local home. In Pune, it was REALLY local; kinda scary
entrance, lots’ of black mould, but it turned out to be a cosy little flat,
Indian style. The Trivandrum flat was an apartment at the back of a family’s
house. The daughter took good care of us; checking that we were happy at least
once a day. We became a little known to some of the store holders nearby, which
is also nice. Kochi tops it though. We have everything here. TV works with
Netflix, aircon, a very soft bed, a nice little space in a block of flats with
a doorman. The thing that makes the Airbnbs different from hotels (and we have
stayed in many on this trip) is that they are in non-touristy areas. So, no
hustle, no sales pitch, everyone just going about their lives. And we can get
all the mod cons easily; western meals when we feel like it. Though today we
discovered Curd Waadah. Not sure about the spelling, and it was not on the
menu. Two balls of ricey stuff, in a bowl of raita, with some spicy crunchy
bits. We’ve already had it twice. It costs about 75c. Yum.
Yesterday I spent half
the day sitting in a dentist’s chair, having my front teeth fixed. Looks pretty
good even if I say so myself. The day before we saw “The Shape of Water” in
first class chairs. Very enjoyable. The mall, called Lulu, was very modern and
new, full of the same useless shops you see in these malls everywhere (Marks
and Spencer, The Body Shop, Apple, Tommy Hilfiger) but to its credit it had a
large supermarket in the basement and a half decent food court.
Kerala is a curious
mix of Christians and Communists. Currently the communists are in power; they
support the trade unions support free education, medical etc. They are freely
elected, displaying their red hammer and sickle flags everywhere. The
association we make with the Soviet Union is a bit unsettling for us, but in
Kerala, folks are happy. Then there are the Christians. There are so many beautiful
churches, obviously well supported financially. Our local church is Catholic,
St Joseph’s. Our dentist (more about him later) belongs to the Syrian Christian
Church which is the biggest I think. Apparently it was started 500 plus years
ago by Syrian missionaries, but has no links with modern Syria. I guess
communism, in its purist form, has a lot in common with Christianity. Anyway,
every morning there were church bells (the first at 5.30am!) getting folks
there for the first mass at 6.30. The church was packed. Several hundred folks
there every morning, sometimes more than once a day. I did enjoy hearing the
mass hymn singing in the cool (ish) morning air.
Last night we walked
in an area very nearby, with lots of new high-rise apartment, all the occupants
taking walks in the cool of the evening. The walkways were well marked, even
with a bike lake; almost felt like Holland, but way too hot. It was a
surprising little area, very liveable I think.
Kochi is the old city and the new Kochi is Ernakulam, about 7Km from Kochi. We took a ferry from there to Fort Kochi and to Vypeen see our groovy video at
and our talking to fishermen at Port Cochin with their Chinese nets ("shore operated lift nets"), The unofficial emblems of Kerala's backwaters see video at
We saw hand washing clothes in
dhobi khana, run by Tamils – see the description from Wikipedia below
Veli
Street in Fort Kochi - Dhobi Khana - The first sight that greets you
inside the gate is an array of men and women ironing clothes with these songs
providing a musical background. Most of them are old and grey haired.
Pass through into the next portion of the three-acre compound of the Khana, and
you see 40 wash pens lined up in a row. Although a huge washing machine stands
in the first wash pen, no one seems to use it. This is what might possibly be
the only Dhobi Khana (community laundry space) in Kerala, existing in
the city successfully for many decades, thanks to a fair number of Kochi
citizens who prefer their clothes washed by hand. The origins of
the dhobi khana lie in the colonial period, when British officers
brought many Tamil villagers to Kochi to work as washermen. This Tamil
community was first organised together in the 1920s, and came to be known as
the Vannar community and has retained its cohesive identity over the years. At present,
there are about 40 families in the community who use this Khana. Each cubicle
with wash pens and water tanks is allotted to one family. 75-year-old
Murugappan, who started doing this job when he was 15 years old, says that they
still rely on traditional, elaborate procedures for washing clothes.
“First
we soak the clothes in water mixed with detergent for some time. Harder clothes
are washed by beating them on the stones. To remove stains easily, a pinch of
chlorine is also used. After that the clothes are rinsed twice in fresh water,”
he says.
“For
starching cotton clothes,” he adds, “we still use the traditional method of
dipping them in rice water. No modern day starches can give so much crispiness
as rice water does.”
“Then,
women from the family hang these washed and starched clothes in the sun. We dry
the clothes for almost 5 hours,” he says. Interestingly, no one here ever uses
clips to keep clothes from falling off the line; instead they all use a
technique of tucking clothes between the ropes in such a way that they are
never disturbed by the wind.
We
use charcoal irons for ironing the clothes. Some of these irons were brought
from Sri Lanka decades ago,” Murugappan explains.
Murugappan
says that this process has remained unchanged for at least the last 40 years.
“Then,
women from the family hang these washed and starched clothes in the sun. We dry
the clothes for almost 5 hours,” he says. Interestingly, no one here ever uses
clips to keep clothes from falling off the line; instead they all use a
technique of tucking clothes between the ropes in such a way that they are
never disturbed by the wind.
We
use charcoal irons for ironing the clothes. Some of these irons were brought
from Sri Lanka decades ago,” Murugappan explains.
Murugappan
says that this process has remained unchanged for at least the last 40 years. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kochis-historic-dhobi-khana-run-tamils-may-soon-be-hung-out-dry-44636
Our area is Panampilly Nagar, an upmarket residential area
just 1 km east of M.G road, the epicentre of Kochi city. Many
areas in India end with the word Nagar which means town, city, or suburb. We
have found several good eating places such as Gusto Foods Donut Factory, across
the road from us is ‘The Best Bakery’, around the corner is ‘Choice Bakery’ and
anyone who has eaten Indian sweets would know how good they are. Even a
diabetic needs to have a ‘sample’ now and then.
We found our closest shop ‘The Food Mart’ with the basics we
need, St. Joseph Road. Past the church that wakes us each morning at 5:30 with
bells ringing then soon after singing. Across from the Food Mart was my daily
spiritual centre, the local gym. Not fancy, but with all the necessary
equipment to make me look fit if I would spend more than half an hour and do so
every day for the year. This cycle is for two-weeks. I missed two days, one
because when I was mixing boiling soup in the blender the top flew off and gave
me large burns on my arm and stomach – quite painful for a few days, and the
other when we went to the countryside with Narda’s dentist for the day. Fitness
centres are an important part of my life because they represent continuity in
my life. I started them in Baltimore (Towson actually) in the mid-1970s and my
travels are a record of gyms I have been to. My favourite was last year’s in Ringkøbing,
Denmark. Every morning Narda and I would ride our bikes to the fitness centre
overlooking the fjord. I have had membership or went to gyms in China (at
Dalian International School – almost every day for three years), lots of years
in NYC, upstate New York, Adelaide, Hawaii, and so many places in between. Forty-years
of doing the same thing – machines have not changed that much, just fancier. I
still listen to Mississippi Blues, Dylan, Janis Joplin. It is like I started in
the 1970s and never left. Everywhere around me is an extension of then – after all
I am seventy and should embrace the 70s and of course the sixties. The world
around us changes and we have those scattered experiences called life, but we
pretty much stay the same. The gym gives me a place to momentarily stay the
same as I was long ago. It is a nice place. Narda and I go twice a week to one
in Adelaide, but it is this thing for old people – we stretch then do machines
and weights then more stretches – really geared toward old people but I like
it. Daily I do my weights in my shed, so my escape is listening to music and weights.
Narda’s escape is travel and books – I escape with her too. Maybe on my
tombstone I will put ‘escaped’.
The largest shopping centre we have found here is LuLu Mall
where we have seen films twice. Yesterday we saw ‘The Black Panther’. Both
times we got the first-class seats in which we stretched out and we stood for
the National Anthem at the start of the films. Food is ordered and delivered at
intermission, which is often abruptly in the middle of a scene – then lights go
on and food ordered and delivered all for fifteen-minutes or so. There is a
good food cart at the LuLu Mall as well as the Hypermarket. In the photo below
the top images are for one theatre -where we paid the extra buck for a
reclining seat, the other is where all the seats are luxury and we are standing
for the national anthem at the start of the flick. Come on Australia, lift your
game, we want luxury seats for five bucks, and of course, meals for three to
four dollars for the two of us, and add the Uber for 100 rupees ($1.50 USD or
about $1.75 Aussie dollar) for a half hour ride. OK airport runs are more here.
We had to cough up almost ten-bucks USD for the hour ride to the Kochi Airport
but in their defence that was double the price as Uber seems not to be allowed
at the airport to collect people and we paid for their return. From JFK to our
home in NYC it used to be about $75 then they want a tip on top and that was a
shorter ride.
Everywhere in India, every shopping centre, airport,
train-station, hotels… they have airport-type of security and I must show my
defibrillator/pacemaker implant each time and get searched individually –
always a nonsense. Aside of that we have enjoyed the air-conditioning and
cleanness of large shopping centres and while seeing how out of place they seem
to be with so much poverty around them. It is so in your face here –
homelessness is bad anywhere but here there is so much of it, and such
difficult living conditions compared to the west. Following futurists such as
Ray Kurzweil and Harari and the folks at Google/Apple/Microsoft/Facebook and
there mates is wonderful but they have not lived in India, some have not
visited here – that the world will be oh so much more modern in twenty-years; I
don’t think so… getting people basics would be good without all the
technological marvels constantly predicted.
Yesterday we were sitting on the steps of a light-rail
station trying to determine where to go or what to do on a hot muggy day, a man
walked up to me, handed me a drawing of me, then walked away. Narda says it
looks like me, I am not so sure – too old looking.
Narda wanted to go for a walk this morning. I usually go to
the gym but thought, ‘OK a short walk then the gym’. We left before eight am
and got back after twelve. Typical of us. No one would want to travel with us,
we are too indecisive and changeable. I thoughtfully brought our camera
thinking I would get a snapshot of a train track nearby that I wanted for a
poem I had written recently. We walked along a canal,
wandered down a street that was a dead-end but had a good
conversation with a couple of locals who lived there. We said we were looking
to go for a walk along the river, sea, lake, lagoon, whatever there was that
appeared as a body of water on our phone-map of the area. As usual they asked
where we were from and after a bit of chatter sent us back the way we came from
and suggested we go left. We saw a sign for the local yacht-club, asked if we
could have a coffee but as we were not members we went without but found a
bridge up the river that looked interesting and headed off in its direction. We
found a narrow footpath along it
and after crossing had conversation with some more locals
who said further ahead we could find a backwater boat tour place. We walked for
another hour or so, had a tea, walked some more and came across the Kundannoor
Bridge in Nettoor, on Panangad Island which is a part of the Maradu Municipality. The Varapuzha bridge on NH
17 is a cantilever bridge
spanning the Periyar river between Varapuzha and Cheranallur. It was the
longest bridge in kerala Kochin
backwaters… oops looked it up in Wikipedia and just
kept going.
We found a boat operator. The owner said 3500 rupees ($54
USD) we said, ‘no way’ and after some haggling he came down to 2500, again we
said ‘no’. Then there was 2000, and finally the absolute final offer of 1500
rupees. We walked away, sat down, talked some more, I said I only had two
five-hundreds on me (we didn’t include Narda’s holdings) and after a bit of
time we all agreed on 1000 ($15.40 USD). Which was still high for us as we had
paid 400 rupees per hour in Alleppey a couple of weeks ago. I read some
reviews, and the main complaint was how expensive it was. One person said they
had managed to negotiate down to 1500 rupees – sucked in mate, we outdid
everyone.
The boat trip was
spent on Vembanad, the second largest lagoon in India. We love boat
trips, and this was up there with the finest of them. The driver spoke good
English, said he was a school teacher, geography. He liked his cricket and knew
Adelaide as a crew ground place. We went past a couple of famous cricket
player’s homes including one who is referred to as the ‘god of cricket’, Sachin
Tendulkar.
Cochin is believed to be one of the finest natural harbors
in the world. It is an exquisite combination of modern and traditional of
intense nostalgia and high revelry. It is one of the most visited backwater
destinations. It has been voted as the top ten beautiful places to visit in a
lifetime.
When we take random buses too far from home we help tuk tuk
drivers find our way – sometimes it takes a village to find our home.
Chinese Fishing Nets
We saw
Chinese Fishing Nets on Fort Kochi Island and another island and here there are
again. The Chinese fishing nets found at Kochi are unique to the area and make
for a very popular tourist attraction. This is the only location in the entire
world outside China where such fishing nets can be seen in use. 10 meters in
height, the entire structure is a fixed land installation which is used for unique
and unusual method of fishing. Set up on the bamboo teaks are held horizontally
with the help of huge mechanisms which are lowered into the sea. These nets are
made-up of teak wood and bamboo poles and each net is handled by four men.
Metro
There are several ways to explore Kochi: tuk tuks, Uber, buses, the metro - we did them all. The metro is being built, one route is complete (the others in years to come - there is construction - i.e. holes in the middle of streets and concrete towers everywhere) - we took it from Maharaja’s College, which for now is the end or beginning station, depending where one is, to Aluva, which is a city in its own right. we spent an afternoon wandering this busy area negotiating a sandwich in a restaurant - negotiating in the sense that we had to have several translators help us define what we wanted and still we got something completely different than we had expected. We sugared up our disappointment at a cake shop next door where I gave my body a break from its normal boring no-sugar routine. The complete trip taking about 45 minutes set us back 50 rupees (about 75 cents USD or a buck in Aussie currency). There are guards everywhere and signs not to take photos but we did manage this one above.
Jew Town
Another attraction of Kochi, Jew town is the center of city’s spice trade
and is also a busy port area. Located in the Mattancherry area, it is quite
popular for housing shops, selling (possibly) antiques. The streets are lined
with colonial-styled buildings giving it an old-world feel. Actually, the Jew
town is a street between the Jewish Synagogue and Mattancherry Palace. We drove
through the area and went to a large herb barn or whatever they call them.
Where we live at D'Homz Suites is really good: air-conditioning (in both the lounge and the bedroom), balcony, kitchen with everything we needed to make meals, good shower, large TV with HDMI input so we could watch our Netflix series, elevator, washing machine… the streets were difficult as most are in India. We are constantly in fear of our lives (really). However, a few blocks away there was a walking street that went for several blocks so that became part of our daily walk.
For a week our weather map said it would rain and storm
but not until our last night did it rain since being in India. A
monsoon-type of rain, worthy of sitting on the porch and watching. See our little clip https://youtu.be/_FXvE_B86MQ
Kochi was great. We are now on a train from Delhi to Shimla
in the Himalayans. Our next stories will be our time in the Himalayans.