We began our trip in Kochi (Cochin), a city of about a million, right on the sea coast. The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama landed here in 1498 and claimed the harbor for Portugal. It later fell to the British, who brought tea and cricket. We stayed on an island in the middle of the bay and took a ferry to Fort Cochin, the old town. Here is a video of the ferry. Note the Bollywood music on the PA system.
One of the bigbest tourist attractions in Fort Cochin is the Chinese fishing nets, which are these crazy levering contraptions that are supposedly used to catch fish.
The fishermen explained to me that these days they make more money doing demonstrations for European tourists than from fishing. Apparently the Europeans tip well--he was disappointed with the stack of bills (around $6) that I gave him. Here is a video of the demo.
Later we cruised around the warehouse district looking for a wholesale market for spices. We found only tourist traps and small-time retailers. No one was willing to sell us a kilo of cardamom pods (yes, I am the Scarface of cardamom) for a price we were willing to pay. We later learned that the wholesale market is on the mainland, not in the old town. Anyway, here is a video of the autorickshaw ride. We are completely used to traveling by "auto" at this point, which means we only contemplate death once or twice per ride.
And we met our first female autorickshaw driver (or "rickshaw wala").
Kerala is one of three Indian states ruled by Communist governments (West Bengal and Tripura are the others). We arrived at the end of a weeklong election, and the campaign posters were everywhere. To an American born and raised during the Cold War, the sight of the hammer and sickle on every street corner was startling. Turns out the Communist politicians in Kerala look a little different from Stalin.
Note the Chinese fishing nets in the background of this poster.
Next we went down to Alleppey, a fishing village now home to over 1000 tourist houseboats. Everything we read told us not to book a boat in advance: better to see the vessel first, then negotiate the price. Turns out this was good advice, except on Good Friday. The houseboat terminal was packed with boats when we arrived, but the vast majority of them were out of commission so that the crews could--what? Go to Mass? Re-enact the passion? Kerala has a higher proportion of Christians than most Indian states, but still, Christians make up only 20% of the population. At any rate, it took us a few hours to find a tour operator willing to take our money.
Fortunately, it was worth the wait.
We concluded our trip with a night in Kumarakom, another backwaters village. Our hotel had a fishing pond, where Violet caught several gorgeous sunfish. My camera was out of juice so I couldn't take a photo, but she was beyond delighted. Freaked out is more like it. We used chapati (roti) dough for bait, which explains why the fish were so fat and happy.
Violet also did some pottery.
The best part about Kumarakom was the bird sanctuary next door to our hotel. If you've been wondering where to find the jungle of Mowgli, Baloo, Shere Khan, et al, this is it. Remember that all this is going to be even greener a month from now.
Next weekend we are going to the other end of the subcontinent: Dharamsala, in the Himalayas. This place is crazy, na?
