The India Blog Ends Here with Visits to Kerala and Mumbai

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Christian cemetery a little tight

Everyone was very OK with this agenda change, since the cruise included free drinks.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Should be the main drag

The palace features Kerala murals depicting portraits and exhibits of the Rajas of Kochi which we viewed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Commies everywhere!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Typical houseboat

They were interesting ways of passing travel time.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mumbai slum

This form of martial arts is unique to the Kerala region and uses armed and unarmed combat techniques developed over the centuries.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

Sankar gitts 'er done!