Remembering Kochi

Lorraine:
Years ago I faintly remember travelling to Kochi (Cochin) with my family as a young girl. My memories were pleasant ones...mainly of sipping fresh pineapple juice by the beach and taking a cruise along the river at sunset. My anticipation was great. The Lonely Planet guide also painted a picture-perfect scene...winding alleys, spice markets, Chinese cantilevered fishing nets gracing the shoreline...

Shanks, Christian & Astrid talking to one of the fishermen who operates the Chinese fishing nets at Fort Cochin

And then we arrived, and the realisation struck hard and fast that all the other Western tourists in Southern India must have been thinking the exact same thing as us! The roads leading to our chosen hotel were literally overflowing with tourists - something that we neither anticipated nor were prepared for.

One of the joys for us as tourists (or 'travellers' as Shanks prefers to describe himself), is that as much as we enjoy looking at the locals, they also enjoy looking at us! We are as curious to them as they may be to us! So we have enjoyed being considered something of an oddment and being asked various questions - the most common one is "Which country you are coming from sir/madam?", to which we reply, and then the mandatory association is made to various members of the Australian cricket team! We have enjoyed chatting with the locals, eating at tiny little restaurants tucked away in side alleys where the entire restaurant grinds to a halt as they gaze upon this hapless bunch of foreigners trying to master the art of eating food only with the right hand and work out the correct ways of doing things (often to be met with a shake of the head or a smile). So in a way, there is a little bit of give-and-take - there is enjoyment and fun on both sides.

Not so in Kochi. Or to be more exact, Fort Cochi, a peninsula, away from mainland Ernakulam. Here, tourists are a commodity, not a curiosity. Here, Western tourists seem to outnumber the local population by 4:1. It is not altogether unexpected that where large groups of tourists gather, they tend to associate predominantly with one another and so slowly the restaurants and businesses start to cater for Western tastes and culture, and so slowly the real experience of India is obliterated. Going out for dinner the first night was the first time that when we placed our order the waiter politely enquired "No spice?" to which he was met with four equally aghast faces as we all tried to signal "NO! Lots of spice - Indian style not Western style"!

On the bright side, Kochi was our first experience of traditional classical Indian music and the Kathakali music/theatre/dance phenomenon. Although the shows attracted a wholly-tourist crowd, the evening was well worth it. We particularly enjoyed one evening concert featuring flute and two traditional Indian drums (which names we have now forgotten). The performances of the three musicians as they played together were nothing but superb and their mastery of their instruments was enough to send our senses soaring.

On our second day, Shanks and I headed away from Tourist-ville over to the mainland on a ferry. There we engaged in one of our favourite activities - visiting the maze of markets that every Indian town or village can lay claim to. The scenes in these markets are always so bright and colourful that I did away with my embarassment and whipped out my camera to take a few photos. This was what many stall-holders were waiting for as they eagerly asked for us to take pictures of them, and better still, pictures of them with the tall Westerner accompanying me! Shanks and Christian are big hits wherever they go...they even managed a game of cricket with some lads in one of the playing fields in Fort Cochin...I just hope they did Australia proud!

Some on field action from the Aussie contingent in Fort Cochin!

Fifteen days to go...

Shanks and I have been regretting ever starting our blog with a countdown....now we feel as if we must at all costs write something each day so that the countdown keeps counting down...

The unfortunate thing is that we usually only get around to creating our new entry at the very end of the day, just before going to bed, when we're already yawning!

Well, with that thought, I think I will make this a short one, no photos even, and go to bed with my copy of Lonely Planet in hand!

Twenty one days to go...

The unfortunate thing about having booked flights so as to allow maximum travel time in India, is that both Andrew and I will be working right up until the day before we fly out! This means that every weekend from now up until the day we leave is precious time indeed, with so many things left to do.

This weekend we will try to get our Hepatitis A shots done (though one of my colleagues who is also going overseas shortly just had a really bad reaction to this vaccination) and we will also start trying to cross off some things from our list of things to buy (e.g. mosquito net).

We will be taking off at 8:15am on Thursday December 7th and arriving in Chennai (Madras) at 10:00pm that same night. I have been diligently making my way through the Lonely Planet India guide to get an idea of where to go and what to see...Chennai itself doesn't sound that interesting, so we will probably just hole up there for a couple of days to orient ourselves and get used to the noise and smell before venturing any further.

A typical Chennai street scene

This will be mine and Andrew's first trip overseas together...I am really looking forward to sharing some of my heritage with him through our experiences in India. I may be a fake Indian really, but I can pretend when it counts!!!