We were now headed to the southern part of India with our
next stop at Kochi (also known as Cochin), a city in southwest India's coastal
Kerala state.
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| A first for Kochi |
But to get there, we had to fly to Bombay (Mumbai), change planes
and fly on to Kochi. In other words, it was going to be another really long
day.
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| Chinese fishing nets |
Arriving at the Kochi International Airport, the world’s first totally
solar powered airport, we immediately know that we are in the south (latitude
~10° N), as we are greeted by warm, humid air and palm trees in the parking
lot.
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| The end of a busy day! |
We love it, but the more northerly members of our group are starting to
complain about being uncomfortable! Working up a clammy sweat crossing parking
lots to get to our bus, board, and leave the airport.
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| Kathak dancers |
As we are
leaving the airport, we see the airport’s massive array of solar panels that
provide the airport’s power. Our flight was late, so instead of going straight
to our hotel, we are routed to a marina for a scheduled sunset cruise.
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| Christian cemetery a little tight |
Everyone
was very OK with this agenda change, since the cruise included free drinks.
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| Those crazy linemen! |
We boarded our pontoon boats and started cruising an estuary
that emptied into the Arabian Sea. Kochi has been a port since 1341, when a
flood carved out its harbor and opened it to Jews, Arab, Chinese and European
merchants. Called the Queen of the
Arabian Sea, Kochi was an important spice trading center from the 14th
century onward, and maintained a trade network with Arab merchants from the
pre-Islamic era.
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| A happy (hippie?)bus! |
Occupied by the Portuguese in 1503, Kochi was the first of the
European colonies in colonial India. As we lazily cruise the waters, our tour
director explains the working of the omnipresent cantilevered Chinese fishing
nets, typical of Kochi, that have been in use for centuries.
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| Mattencherry Palace |
As the sun
approaches the horizon, we prepare our cameras for some great shots. The air
quality is very good in this area, so our photos are not hazy like in other
places we have visited.
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| Pepper & spice association headquarters |
After the sun disappears, we have another round of
drinks as we head to our hotel, when the captain starts playing some lively
music. Uninhibited by the alcohol, some members of our group start dancing, but
they really should have remained seated.
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| Welcome! |
It gets really comical when our tour
director joins the melee. We finally reach the dock of our Taj Malabar hotel,
not an Oberoi property, but pretty damned nice, disembark, get our room
assignments, and get ready for a Kathakali dance performance. Kathak is the
Hindi name for one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. The word
Kathaka means "the one who tells a story," or "to do with
stories.”
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| Opposite the synagogue! |
The dancers are all male and can spend hours applying their make-up
and costumes. The costumes vary among Kathak performers, and are either Hindu
or Muslim, and the most common instruments that go with Kathak are a pair of
hand drums that syncs with the dancer's feet rhythms, hand cymbals, and other
instruments to add effect, depth and structure to an expressive Kathak
performance.
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| Thatta way to the cemetery! |
Our dancers told a story about a god cutting off a woman’s left
breast for reasons we could not fathom, but most certainly for something
upsetting! So with those thoughts in our minds, we headed for dinner.
After breakfast the next morning, our first stop was the
Mattancherry Palace, a Portuguese palace popularly known as the Dutch Palace,
in the Mattancherry district, Kochi.
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| Should be the main drag |
The palace features Kerala murals
depicting portraits and exhibits of the Rajas of Kochi which we viewed.
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| Inside St. Francis Church |
The
palace was not as impressive and opulent as those we toured in northern India. We
left the palace and rode to the St. Francis Church. Built in 1503, it is the
oldest European church in India. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama died in
Kochi in 1524 when he was on his third visit to India.
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| More happy trucks! |
His body was originally
buried in this church, but after fourteen years his remains were removed to
Lisbon. We then walked through Fort Kochi, a region in the city of Kochi that
is part of a handful of water-bound regions collectively known as Old Kochi or
West Kochi. Within Fort Kochi is an old Jewish community known as Jew Town, a
renowned shopping district for Indian spices, teas, and clothing.
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| Nimmy Paul doing her thing |
We visited
the Jewish synagogue which now has a single member congregation. Services are
held when visiting Jews provide an adequate number to hold a service. We were
able to see that single member sewing in her home.
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| Curry! It's what's for dinner |
With an hour’s “free time,” Jane
and Linda hit the shops. Spices and teas for gifts seemed to hit the mark.
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| Commies everywhere! |
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| ACC- the right cement! |
For our evening dinner, we experienced a unique culinary
demonstration in the private, heritage home of an acclaimed Kerala chef Nimmy
Paul. Nimmy, a graduate of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), talked to
us about the spices and seafood that have made Kerala food famous. She conducts cookery classes, teaches guests
the nuances of traditional Kerala recipes, and serves as a food consultant to
writers, chefs and magazines. Nimmy demonstrated the preparation of the dishes
she would be serving us tonight, and the freshly prepared dishes were fairly
traditional Indian with a southern flare.
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| But some prefer Chettinad |
Capt. Larry enjoyed the evening’s
offerings, but Jane played with her food and invaded her stash of Ritz cheese
crackers, sharing them with Linda under the table, and only made it look like
she was eating her food.
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| Coromandel is good! |
The next morning we drove through the small villages of
coastal Kerala, arriving Lake Vembanad. Two things made this two-hour drive
memorable: counting Communist flags, and viewing all of the different
advertisements for various brands of concrete. Since 2016, the Left Democratic
Front (LDF), which is led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has been
the ruling coalition. After India gained its independence, it developed close
relations and a strategic partnership with the Soviet Union.
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| Another wild tuk-tuk ride! |
Today the CPI (M) has over 1 million members
and heads the state government in Kerala. However, restrictions against
capitalism and direct foreign investment have been eased, leading to economic
expansion and an increase in employment.
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| Our houseboats |
The concrete advertisements were at
first puzzling, then downright entertaining, as the advertisements seemed to be
aimed more at the general population and less at builders and contractors.
Capt. Larry started taking pictures of the advertisements as we sped along the
highway and stopped counting the different brands when he reached 12!
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| Typical houseboat |
They were
interesting ways of passing travel time.
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| Cruising the lake |
Our bus stopped in the village of Kumarakom on Vembanad Lake.
Leaving the bus, we boarded tuk-tuks for a wild ride to the lake over roads too
narrow for a bus to pass. Abie divided
our group and we boarded two unique houseboats for a leisurely cruise through a
maze of canals that lace the backwaters of the “Venice of the East.”
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| Mohiniattam dancer |
As we
crossed Lake Vembanad, we were served a Kerala-style buffet, and even Capt.
Larry was starting to think how good a juicy steak or thick hamburger would
taste. Arriving at our digs for the next two nights, the Kumarakom Lake Resort
(where Prince Philip stays when he’s in town!), we had the rest of the
afternoon to do whatever we wanted. Jane sampled the resort’s rejuvenating spa
services with an acclaimed Ayurveda facial massage, and Capt. Larry worked on
the blog which he was waaaay behind on. Prior to the evening’s dinner, we were
treated to an authentic Mohiniattam dance performance.
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| Off to school |
The dance gets its name
from the word Mohini—a mythical enchantress avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who
helps good prevail over evil by deploying her feminine powers (we’re NOT
making this stuff up!), and is another of the eight forms of classical Indian
dance.
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| Those crazy tourists! |
After the expressive performance we enjoyed a seafood dinner with Linda
and Dave before turning in for the evening.
The next morning we boarded another boat for what we thought
was going to be another cruise on the lake. Instead, we cruised a canal lined
with homes and farms that gave us a glimpse of rural life in these parts. For
an up-close look, our boat stopped at a home where we disembarked and met the
family that lived there just as the children were heading off to school.
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| How we make coconut husk rope |
After
introductions and pleasantries were exchanged, the couple demonstrated the
traditional dress of southern India. The wife showed us the mixing of herbs and
spices used for medicines and cooking, and the husband demonstrated how to husk
and open a coconut.
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| Family kitchen |
A sister then took dried coconut husks and rubbed the fibers
between her hands to make a rope. Taking two small coconut husk ropes, she
combined them into a larger rope with a government issued machine that reduced
the time to make rope over manual production.
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| Black pepper vines |
We were shown all the various
plants and shrubs that would produce foods for family consumption. A coconut
tree climbing and harvesting demonstration and a tour of the family’s small,
but spotless, house completed our visit, which was the most interesting visit
of the tour so far.
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| Climbing a coconut tree |
We returned to the resort and spent the afternoon lounging
in the pool with Linda and Dave. The evening was spent watching martial arts
demonstration before dinner.
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| Mumbai slum |
This form of martial arts is unique to the Kerala
region and uses armed and unarmed combat techniques developed over the
centuries.
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| As haze over Mumbai's slums |
The next morning we returned to Kochi and flew to Mumbai formerly known and still widely used as Bombay. We met our local guide at the
airport who started to give us an orientation to this city. Referred to as the
“City of Gold,” we started to have our doubts as soon as we left the airport. At
12.4 million people (21.3 metro), it is India's largest city and was built on
seven islands that were reclaimed to make a united land mass during British
occupation.
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| "Big Ben of the East" |
Mumbai is the financial,
commercial, and entertainment capital of India. It is also one of the world's
top ten centers of commerce in terms of global financial flow. As our guide
started to extol the virtues and wonders of her city, we only had to glance out
the window to see the squalid living conditions in its slums that made last
year’s African shanty towns we saw seem like upscale housing.
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| St. Thomas Cathedral |
But our guide
would only speak hyperbolically about the firsts the city achieved even
stretching to claim that fire was first used here. As we approached the city’s
famed Victorian and Art Deco building sector, second only to Miami’s and (are
you holding your seat?!) a UNESCO World Heritage site, we excitedly thought we
were going to see something really great.
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| The train station |
Not a chance. The buildings were in
various stages of disrepair and our guide informed us that they were undergoing
restoration—something we would repeatedly hear. Arriving at our hotel (back to
Oberoi properties!) we checked in, had dinner, and watched the moon rise over
the Arabian Sea.
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| Train station interior |
The next morning was a part-bus-part-walking tour of iconic
places in Mumbai that we were told what they were, but could not possibly
remember in detail. One place we visited was the St. Thomas Cathedral, named in
honor of St. Thomas the Apostle, and the first Anglican church in Mumbai. We visited
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, a historic railway station and (wait for
it!) another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the headquarters of the Central
Railways that sees over 7 million passengers each day! One thing we thought was
rather unique that was featured in the movie The Lunchbox was where Mumbai housewives would prepare homemade lunches
for their working husbands and have them delivered by a dabbawalla to honey’s
office. Almost everyone working in Mumbai takes a train to work.
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| The dabbawallas |
Crowded conditions
on the train make it impractical to carry a lunch, so the dabbawalla picks up
the lunch and delivers it in a timely manner for about $10-13 a month ($15 for
premium service!). Over 200,000 lunches are delivered each workday by approximately
5,000 dabbawallas and the efficiency, low cost, and low-tech aspects of this
distribution system has been studied by corporations and academics worldwide.
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| Lunches ready for delivery |
Returning
to our hotel, we relaxed and got ready for the evening’s farewell cocktail reception.
But since we had a 0215 flight, we weren’t going to get to enjoy as many free
drinks as we would if we were leaving at a decent hour. On the upside, Linda
and Dave were leaving around the same time, so we could enjoy their company to
the airport and say our goodbyes there.
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| Train terminus |
We left the hotel around 2300 and
arrived at the airport about an hour later—Mumbai traffic never eases! What was
really a nice Tauck touch was being greeted by our local guide who shepherded
us through check-in and helped us with our luggage.
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| Gate of India |
Saying so long to our
friends, we made our way to our lounge and waited for our gate to be announced.
The flight home was uneventful and we were met by our friends, Tommy and Gail,
who gave us a ride to our house, but not before we all stopped for a seafood
dinner (that’s Cajun not curry!). It was a trip that will remain indelibly
etched in our memory!!
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| Sankar gitts 'er done! |
