Grape city
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2007
1
118
153
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Cochin,
India
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Wandering along the riverside makes for a pleasant diversion, where one can see the famous cantilevered fishing nets being operated by several fishermen, making unique use of the huge pulley like system to lift the huge mass below
Me and my drinking buddies
. The sheer number makes for an impressive site and the fisherman are happy to demonstrate and may ask you to pull one of the ropes yourself, though after which they will expect a tip from you.After a brief stroll, i returned to my island (Ernakulam) to see what this festival at the temple was all about. The religious significance of the festival was sadly unknown to me, but upon arriving at the Siva temple i was greeted by the sight of seven elephants, decked out in ceremonial gear with several temple priests atop and rows of priests playing various drums and other instruments in front of them. This went of for several hours, and i left after a couple, only to find that there was also a performance of typical Kerala dancing in the Darbar hall ground behind, which occupied the rest of my evening. Very interesting to watch, the movements and facial expressions being unlike anything i have seen before. The grace involved in this type of dance and the subtleties really impressed me, and to keep dancing for soo long must keep one in really good shape. After few hours of this i retired to my room, good first day in Cochin.
Persistent banging on my door wakes me up far too early. Thinking something is desperately wrong, i quickly get up (once awoken from my slumber) and answer the door, to see one of the hotel workers asking if i want chai. CHAI! CHAI! I was asleep, of course i don't want fucking chai
The gang
! 'No thank you, is the typically spineless British response he gets, before i close the door. Now awake, i went for breakky in the local place and found my new favourite, puti or steam-cake with curry. Its like a dry white cylindrical block of a rice like powder that you crumble into the curry you have with it, at which point it absorbs the moisture to become an upma like consistency and makes for a very healthy, satisfying breakky. Followed this with the now necessary gorging on cheap grapes before sitting on the Ernakulam waterfront to write my diary for a while.Here i met a nice English guy called Simon, travelling with an Indian guy who is an ex sexual partner of his. Went for a Sharja shake (fantastic) and a coffee with them before we went our separate ways. Was gonna spend the evening at the temple again, but then these 2 Indian guys approached me and asked if i wanted to go drinking. Why not, i thought to myself, so off to the bottle shop we went. The Indians here don't drink like we do, they don't like to sit and savor their drinks, they seem to try and neck them as fast as they can, which is very counterproductive as they also in general can't handle their alcohol. After mixing the whiskey with a tiny bit of Coke and pretty much downing it between us, it was off to a bar for more drinks. The guys (see photos) then wanted me to go to the cinema with them, but i felt i had taken enough of their hospitality so i said for them to go and i would stay, so we went our separate ways, me going for a meal before checking if there was any dancing on tonight
drunken duo
. There wasn't, so i staggered back towards the hotel.The no chai sign on my door worked a treat the next day, and i spent the day walking the streets of fort Cochin and Mattancherry, checking out the dutch palace,the Jewish synagogue and the surrounding area. The area around the synagogue makes for a nice walk, ligned with the usual emporiums and tourist based shops, but to be honest is nothing special. The synagogue i cannot comment about, as it was closed today. From Cochin to the Jewish area you pass through streets ligned with tea and rice merchants, potato and onion 'dealers' and these streets are more dirty and typically more Indian than the rest of Cochin.
Spent the evening at the Darbar hall area again, after a terrible fish curry that did little for me melt my taste buds due to it being far too spicy. The performance was of musical performers tonight and was far more interesting for me. The voices of some of these people was truly amazing, and they were working the crowd into a real frenzy. It was very interesting to see how close the male Indians would get to each other, taking the whole holding hands thing to a whole new level, i mean these guys were practically grinding up against each other. After a few hours, i again got too tired and crashed.
Nothing else really to report about Cochin except my meeting of a very friendly and very helpful friend called Jijo, who told me about a festival in Kerala i must see. We talked for ages before i had to go for lunch and my train to Bangalore then to Mysore.
