7:26 local time

Hi Everyone,

  Yesterday our friend Nasir picked us up from our dock and took us across Kochi Bay to the Bolghatty Marina to see about relocating there.  We will move Friday morning.  Afterwards, Randal and I first had to take the ferry from the Bolghatty Island to Ernakulam.  Then we walked forever until we came to the terminal for the ferry from Ernakulam to Fort Kochi, the area of Cochin next to Mattancherry and our boat yard.  There was a long line waiting at the ticket counter.  When it opened someone motioned to me and another women just next to me to go to the Ladies Counter which had a very short line and buy our two tickets there.  Women are allowed to buy 2 tickets so we each bought one for ourselves and our husbands.  I don’t know where that rule came from, but I do like it.  On the ferry we sat next to a young woman from California who taught dance at a community college.  With California’s tight budget she was "allowed to take unpaid leave."  She had just come from Israel and now was going to spend time in India.  It’s amazing to me how brave young women are.  We invited her to lunch with us but she wanted to go off and see the area.  Actually it was a good thing because we our favorite Sea Gull was closed for the February 1st holiday.  The first day of each month is a holiday and no alcohol may be served.  I don’t know if that’s the reason they closed or they were off celebrating.  We found a place to eat but it wasn’t very good….  So far the only wow meal has been the one cooked by Fumiyo.  We need to go off and eat with Anthony Bourdain! 

Ru

DoraMac

Cultural Arts Center Performance Fort Kochi, India: Kerela Kaleidoscope, a medley of various dances

Getting ready for the performance

From 5:30 to 6:30 you can watch these fellows being made up for their performance. They do some of it themselves and some of it is done by the make-up master. We saw two masters at work.

Makeup master # 1 apples the large white cheeks to this actor.

Makeup master # 2 applies the cheeks to another performer

It was quite amazing to see him work. Very confident. Periodically he would check his watch to see how much time he still had before the actor would be needed.

The actors also applied some of their own makeup.

We arrived at 5:30 but this man was already pretty well made up.

Father and son makeup masters.

The young boy is 10 years old! “He had been doing this since childhood,” I was told. My response that he was still a child caused an interesting reaction by the Cultural Center worker. He was sort of surprised that I would think that way. He said it was a family occupation and the boy had started when he was 5 or 6. The young boy never appeared nervous and it was obvious that he enjoyed what he was doing.

The Cultural Center had a museum, gift shop, restaurant, yoga studio, book shop and also overnight accommodations. www.greenix.in

The Cultural Museum

“The cultural museum is a presentation of Kerala’s rich dance and cultural history in visual form…A large area of the museum showcases the dying arts: handloom weaving, pottery making, coir spinning (making rope from coconut husks) and basket weaving. The centerpiece of the Museum displays a Churlan Vallan, a traditional long country boat used for boat races. ..” Cultural Center brochure

The boat looks a great deal like the one that took us to John and Fumiyo’s home which had the coir coconut rope as well. When I pointed to it Johns said that they were still making boats as they had for hundreds of years.

An irrigation waterwheel

A potter’s wheel

I was stupid enough to ask what made it spin and the museum worker took his hand and gave it a shove and it started spinning. Maybe a helper kept it spinning while the potter worked on the pottery.

Looms seem to be the same everywhere we travel.

When I worked in New Hampshire in the 70s my friend Judy Dern, a weaver, had a loom pretty similar to this. It appears that hand looms haven’t changed much. The spinning wheel used to make the coconut rope looked a lot like an American spinning wheel.

Not only costumes, but hand and facial movements are used in the performances.

Behind the green-faced model you can see paintings illustrating the different hand movements and their meanings. Behind the other model are paintings illustrating the different facial movements used in the performances. We saw a live demonstration later in the evening of both hand and face movements.

The performance begins

The eyes and lips of the performers are heavily made up and they wear rings on their fingers and bells on their toes…..

Silent but with expression.

The movements were quick, energetic, very, subtle and very repetitive all done to song that seemed to indicate what movement was called for. For some reason he started to remind me of Charlie Chaplin.

Kalaripayattu martial arts demonstration

Before each part of the performance we sat in the darkened room and a voice told us what we were about to see and explained it somewhat. But I really don’t remember much of what we heard though I do think this evolved as a way for non-violent monks to keep fit and in practice, or I could be all wrong.

This character was a crowd pleaser.

His character is supposed to be a woman but men always play the part. He reminded me of Big Bird. And he reminded me of sarong-wrapped Randal doing the “bird dance” during our Long-house visit in Kumai, Indonesia. I had a hard time not laughing.

A very loud trio accompanied the dance, 2 drums and loud symbols.

He came up close and touched his forehead and then touched your forehead….of everyone

Then out came this character to demonstrate all of the facial expressions used different performances.

The man in back is the story teller and the man in front acted out the expressions.

The speed with which he moved his face, blinked his eyes, moved his eyebrows up and down was pretty amazing.

The plot…

The guy in the green face is the hero/prince. The guy in the purple hat is supposed to be the daughter of the demon who has sent her to earth to seduce some nymphs or something but she falls in love with the prince and flirts with him but he figures it out and kills her cutting off her ears, nose, and breasts is how I think the story goes…..

Musical accompaniment provided by the makeup masters!

His arms don’t look much bigger than his drum sticks. You could tell how much he enjoyed performing and never seemed tired, impatient, bored….a real performer. Dad looks like he’s ready to be done and actually started to cough a bit

Curtain call.

The MC asked if anyone had questions; but we were all a bit dazed from the performance and just quietly filed out the door. I did ask a staff member about the young boy and that’s when I learned his age. I might have asked more about the boy but Randal was already out the door flagging down a tuk tuk.

All in all it was interesting and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. Some of the dances went on a bit too long and seemed very repetitive if you didn’t know the meanings of the hand or eye movements. Also, a hand-out with the information we were told before each dance would have been helpful so you would really understand what you were seeing. It would be interesting to know why all the facial movements developed though I think I remember reading in the museum that it had something to do with the religious aspects related to the gods. Don’t know. You’ll have to learn more at your local library.

9:35 Local time

Hi All,

  Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to visit the marina on Bolgatty Island and we will move there tomorrow, Thursday morning at high tide.  Randal really misses the interaction with other cruisers.  I miss our friends who cruise but I also like living in the "city" rather than off and away in a marina.  There is a ferry to the mainland just a 5 minute walk from the marina so it’s not really so "away." 

  Last night we went to see a cultural dance performance.  It was educational and LOUD! 

  This email is about our Sunday lunch with John Crabtree, his wife Fumiyo and their friends Nick and Louisa.

Ru

Doramac

Sunday Lunch on the Island

Last Sunday we went to lunch at the home of John and Fumiyo who own the small boat yard where we are berthed. They also own a larger yard on Michael’s Land Resort. We were told to be ready at 1 pm and someone would come for us. We weren’t sure if that was by land or sea since we were going to an island. At 1 pm there was a knock on the boat. It was one of the two gentlemen named Nasir. There are two Nasirs and both work at times for John and both work with visiting cruisers. This Nasir told us that he had called a tuk tuk who would take us to a spot where John would meet us with a boat. When the tuk tuk arrived,  Nasir told him where to take us and we got in and off we went. The drive seemed long, but tuk tuks don’t go very much faster than bicycles especially through crowded streets and later I read that it really is only a distance of 12 kilometers, not much more than 6 miles, from Fort Cochin to the Michael’s Land Resort meeting spot. However, remember the scene in Harry Potter when he’s on that tall skinny double-decker bus speeding through London and another bus comes directly at the bus that Harry is on? That’s what it’s like here, only we’ll be in a tiny tuk tuk and a huge bus will be coming towards us in our lane. At lunch I made a comment about the driving and seeing signs for several driving schools and was told that if you pay your money you get a license. If you are a terrible driver that just means you pay more money. Everyone honks his horn for everyone else to move out of the way or to say, “Coming by.” But it all works out and so far no traffic jam of big trucks on narrow roads lasts very long.

John arriving to collect his lunch guests.

It’s a motorized outrigger canoe made in the traditional way with coconut husk material and wood. Marco Polo had this to say: “Their ships are very bad and many of them are wrecked because they are not fastened with iron nails but stitched together with thread made from coconut husks. … This makes it a risky undertaking to sail in these ships. And you can take my word that many of them sink, because the Indian Ocean is very stormy.” p. 47 Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Hall. Of course Marco Polo was speaking of the larger ships that crossed the Indian Ocean not the ones small ones you see in the photo.  But he was certainly right about the ‘stormy."

www.michaelslandresort.com

John explained the “almost island” was once named Angeli Terra for the angeli wood tree which grows there. He and Fumiyo live there with an assortment of dogs and cats. I say “almost” island because I read after our visit that there is a small path of land that connects the “island” to the mainland. The Crabtree home is next door to this building.

Rooftop dining.

John in blue, Louisa in orange, Nick next and then Randal across the table. Fumiyo is down in the kitchen whipping up a most wonderful lunch. Nick and Louisa are British x-pats living here in Cochin. Unfortunately Louisa had to fly back to London Sunday evening for her work and won’t be back in time for us to see her again.

Randal, John, Fumiyo, and Nick: both Louisa and I are taking photos.

Lunch menu:

Starters…..

Fresh vegetable platter and dip

Hot salted potato fries

Mixed platter of tempura treats

Light, wonderful vegetable croquettes

Freshly made guava juice

Main course….

Quiche with what tasted to me like linguica, sliced tomato and cucumber and potato salad served in a pumpkin shell

Giant prawns

Dessert

Rum jell-o topped with homemade ice cream

Coffee

Cold beer and cold water to wash it all down

A wonderful meal!!!!

Dessert is served.

Grace in her lovely blue sari had come to help Fumiyo with lunch. Fumio in her lovely red and white dress that she had made.

Fumiyo enforcing the “no dogs under the table or on the roof” rule.

Grace posing at the front door.

Front door view

Unfortunately we had to leave…..

Louisa, Fumiyo and the boat driver

Nick sitting next to me also taking photos of Louisa and Fumiyo.

Nick’s company has something to do with computerized investing but that’s as far as I can begin to explain and I hope I’m correct even about that.

One last photo.

When we got to shore we all got into N and L’s car and she drove us back to town to where we could catch a tuk tuk. They don’t live near Jew Town and Louisa needed to get back to prepare for her evening flight. We waved down a tuk tuk and we were home about 6 pm after a lovely, lovely day.

Not only was the food wonderful, but the company was wonderful and we discussed all sorts of things that make you friends instantly. None of that social chit chat for us. We jumped right in and talked about religion, what happens when you die, Indian society, how I feel about Israel, all with just gentle curiosity and no one getting mad, upset, insulted.

It was a truly lovely afternoon.

I never did get an exact answer as to why a medical doctor changes careers to become a boat builder in India. But if you Google John Crabtree and Rosa, the yacht he built: the first India registered yacht, you’ll learn more about our interesting new friends and Michael’s Land Resort.

Now to totally change the subject….

The following is an email we received from our friend Roy Moulton. He seems to have captured the essence of the area: here is what he wrote….

Hi Randal & Ruth,

It sounds like being there is better than getting there in this leg of your travels.
Looked for your location on GE (Google Earth) today, found Mattancherry, M. Palace, Bazaar Rd,  long area labeled Jew Town, Malabar Hotel, and much more but could not find Kondo Syoki Marine. (It’s across from the Muslim Orphanage)
Lots of street scenes also, colorful, crowded, a little tattered, a different world indeed.
Am watching a TV show called ‘No Reservations’, host/star Anthony Bourdain travels and eats, now in Cochin, Kerala, India, how about that ! Gives good marks for street food, fish head curry and all spicy foods, tea, not so good for a fermented palm oil? drink. Some places low on ambiance IMO. (Randal and I haven’t yet eaten at any of the small local places as we have everywhere perhaps because John Crabtree recommended the Sea Gull just down the road and Randal really likes it. I’m ready for one of those low ambiance places though stomach issues can happen pretty easily here and most of our friends who have visited India have had to deal with that.) And according to Anthony, Cochin is in the most literate part of India. It looks like a lot of exploring in your location could be by water.  An Indian company (Tata?) now owns Jaguar Motorcars, like losing the (British) Crown Jewels to the colonies.
With a BILLION people, a dozen different languages, movie industries and so much variety of everything, India would never be boring.  India and China do seem to be on the way up in the world.
   Happy Sails,

Roy