Kochi India 2015
The Kerala Region of Southern India
Checking into Kochi India
There is an almost unfathomable amount of bureaucracy in India and an overwhelming amount of paperwork required for a yacht to check in to the country. Heaps and heaps of forms, all to be filled out in triplicate with carbon paper. Forms need to be submitted here, then taken there, then paid for at yet another location, and again revisiting customs one last time, then waiting for hours… not sure why… until everything was finalized and signed and approved.
Kochi India!!!
We meandered our way to the Kochi International Marina up a very, very shallow channel. The marina could be great but it is in such serious disrepair… such a shame. We tied up to the outside pier and soon found that we were as much a part of the tourist attraction as we were tourists ourselves. A parade of boats, from the car ferry and tourist (especially sunset) cruises, to canoes and round basket-like fishing boats floated or motored by us daily.
So the first week of our stay in India was spent being sick and trying to recover from a nasty cold/virus and respiratory infection. By the end of the first week with no improvement, when I had been sick for about two weeks and Roger a little over one week, we decided to go to the Ayurvedic pharmacy. Roger wasn’t feeling well enough to brave a tuk-tuk ride in the congested Ernakulum (the city by Kochi), so I went on my own and would get double doses of whatever was recommended for our ills. The pharmacy said we should go to the doctors and so off we went to a private clinic. For about $10 USD I was seen promptly by a very, very nice doctor who spoke perfect English. He used his stethoscope on many places – chest front and back, plus sides – then tapped and thumped. He took my blood pressure, which read a shockingly low 84/56 (I think his machine was off by about 10 points) and looked down my throat. He then proclaimed that I had a lower respiratory infection and yes, I needed antibiotics. He was happy to authorize a double dose of the antibiotics, the antihistamine with bronchial dilators and the expectorant cough syrup. Another $10 USD got me all this medication for both of us. I hate having to sit here in the marina while we are in India… so many places to see and things to do. But it is imperative that we are well and in top form for our passage through the Red Sea, so we’ll stay put and rest up until we are well.
Sat 31 Jan
Nazar, our local tuk-tuk driver and general support person for the cruisers who visit Kochi, has invited us along with our neighbor boat, to his home for a meal. Roger wasn’t up to going, still feeling under the weather and his back hurting him. I took the ferry from Bhogatty Island where the marina is located with neighbors Jim and Helen, along with Jim’s brother and sister-in-law. We walked along the waterfront promenade to get to the main ferry terminal where we caught the ferry to Fort Kochi.
Once at Nazar’s home, I met the family — Mom, wife, children and grandchildren…
We had a wonderful time and the afternoon passed quickly. Nazar’s wife Sekema (sp?) made a wonderful lunch of biryani (fried rice) with chicken and chicken roasted in some wonderful sauce. We enjoyed tea and fruit afterwards. Nazar’s daughter applied henna to my palms and I learned how to put on a sari!
After leaving Nazar’s, we caught the ferry back in time for the Shiva Temple Festival and elephant pageant. We had the times wrong so we got to watch as they bathed and dressed the elephants for the festivities.
The crowds gathered and we waited for the procession to begin, and waited, and waited. Finally, I was so thirsty and it was getting late (I didn’t want to be out in these crowds on my own after dark), so I left before everything started. Reports from friends were that it took another hour before anything started and I didn’t miss much besides changing of the umbrellas and the elephants walking through the crowds.
Monday 2 Feb
We attended a demonstration and performance of Kathakali, Kerala’s (the state in India we are in) classical dance drama. We also were able to watch the performer apply his makeup, which took almost two hours… significantly longer than both the demonstration and the performance! The performer is accompanied by a drummer and cymbalist, and he uses facial expressions and body movements to tell a story. His eye movements and facial expressions are so precise and descriptive it’s no wonder that these performers have an 8-year learning program.
Thursday 5 Feb
Tour of Fort Kochi and Mattenchery Island with Nissam (Nazar’s son)
Nissam picked us up in the morning and we set off for a day tour of Fort Cochin and surrounds. Our first stop was at a little-known bird sanctuary right in the middle of Ernakulum. We didn’t actually see any birds but we did see lots of fruit bats (flying fox) hanging in the trees. We drove through the city and took a bridge that was supposedly only 2 years old but looked more like 40 onto the island where customs and immigration are located, then crossed over onto the island where Fort Cochin and Mattanchery are located. We stopped at a very old tree called “mother tree Cochin” which is famous for being ueber decorated for the holidays. Here’s a photo (right) from the website:
Then on to the Naval Museum, which was packed with history and information. There were some old missiles and guns, but mostly plaques with the timeline and evolution of the Indian Navy. From there we saw St. Francis Church, built in 1503, it is the oldest European church in India and where Vasco de Gama was buried (he died in Kochi in 1524) for a while until his remains were transported back to Portugal. Later in the day we visited the Cochin Jewish Synagogue also known as the Paradesi Synagogue, which is the oldest active synagogue in the entire British Commonwealth.
We also visited an old Hindu temple in Fort Cochin, however non-Hindus are not allowed inside, so we just took a peak from the outer gate before having a typical Indian lunch. “Hotel” in India means basic restaurant as well as a place of accommodation.
We stopped by the Chinese fishing nets, which are manually raised and lowered by about six men. The cantilevered nets are counter-balanced with large rocks. Each net is raised and lowered about 250 – 300 times each day. Some days good, and some days like today were not so good with few fish.
In the afternoon, we headed to the Dutch Palace, which was amazing with its painted wall murals. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed so I couldn’t capture some of the beauty displayed. I pulled these few images from the web:
The last week in India – Time is getting short and our security folks are coming to visit us from Goa, so we really don’t have time to do much, if any, travel here. I’m so disappointed to have been sick for most of our 3+ weeks here. I will definitely fly back at some point to spend a month or so and travel around… see the Taj and areas in Rajasthan. For now, another trip to the doc to make sure we’re on the mend, provisioning and hopefully a day or two travel somewhere in the vicinity.
Max and Natalie arrived a day later than expected, on Thursday Feb 12th, and they finally met Margaret and Bob one of our convoy companion boats. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the resort Thursday, although something I ate didn’t agree with me and I was sick for the next 24 hours. Roger, Bob, and Margaret went over to the hotel Max and Natalie stayed at in Ernakulum for dinner on Friday evening, while I stayed behind and nibbled a few dry crackers.
Saturday, Feb 14th -15th – Munnar
We decided we really wanted to see at least a small bit of the surrounding India before leaving and would hire a car and driver and head up into the mountains to Munnar. The car was small, the traffic in Ernakulum was terrible and the trip was long with lots of horn honking, which is the Indian way of driving. We had lunch along the way and then wound our way up through the countryside. There were tons of lovely tea plantations along the way, which made for a scenic ride. Unfortunately, the roads were narrow, the honking got tiresome and Roger wasn’t feeling well – a touch of carsickness from sitting three across in the back seat, coughing, trouble breathing – still from our respiratory virus, so he wasn’t enjoying the trip all that much. We got to Munnar, which looks a bit like a chaotic frontier town, at about 5PM and since we hadn’t booked a hotel, we needed to do that. The first place we went was fully booked, so we went to what was probably the most expensive place in town. Roger usually doesn’t want to spend that much for a hotel and when I suggested that $100/night was too much, Margaret got frustrated and Bob said they’d pay for our room since Roger had done all the work in setting up our convoy. So in the end we stayed. The rooms were very nice and since Roger wasn’t feeling well, it was nice to have a comfy place to rest. For dinner, Roger was completely over Indian food and wanted something western, so we opted for a place that said “continental” in addition to Indian and Chinese on the sign. It was lackluster and I ordered the veggie biryani as it looked like the option that had the highest possibility of success. 🙂
The next morning, Roger wanted to rest in the room and Bob wanted to visit the tea museum, so Margaret and I set out for a little walk to tour the town. We enjoyed browsing along and found a wonderful little shop with beautiful embroidered pashmina shawls from Kashmir. I bought several they were so lovely. After that we headed back to rejoin our guys and the driver.
The driver was going to show us several points of interest, the first of which was a place to ride elephants. The traffic was horrid. We decided to skip the elephants and see the dam and a lovely viewing point, but again the traffic put us off and with Roger still feeling under the weather we decided to simply head back to Kochi, which would take us about 4-5 hours. We were glad to have taken this little trip and to have seen at least a tad of Kerala.
The following day we checked out and prepared to leave for the Maldives. We decided to stay one more day so we could travel with our convoy friends, so we set off on Wed. Feb 18th heading SW to Uligamu also known as Uligan.