8:00am local time
Hi All,
Cochin is one giant photo-op with something interesting to see every day. Saturday we walked to Vasco da Gama Square to see the fishing nets, walk along the coast a bit and just be out and about. Our neighborhood is the main tourist/souvenir shopping area of Cochin. Sunday we were invited to lunch at the home of John Crabtree and his wife Fumio. In the morning I went out for a walk while Randal relaxed on the boat. I walked to Jew Town to the embroidery shop of 89 year old Sarah Cohen and had a lovely visit with her www.sarahshandembroidery.blogspot.com is her website. I’ll write much more about her and about John and Fumio and their friends Nick and Louisa in following emails. This morning, Monday, some fellows are coming to help Randal clean the boat and I am returning, yet again, to our favorite Airtel shop because our 3G SIM card still doesn’t work. We are using our phone cards in the meantime but they get used up way too fast. To go there I’ll get a tuk tuk and show him the address we have written on a paper and he’ll take me and offer to wait and then I’ll come back. Hopefully the cell phone will be working.
Ru
DoraMac
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunrise and we’re up with it.
Another little brown dog!
She and her friend started to run away when I opened the door but when I called she came back. I fed her some crackers. Here she is asking if she can come on the boat. I would hate to leave her behind so don’t want to get too attached. And we don’t need fleas on the boat to go with the mosquitoes. But she is very sweet and has just had pups, you could tell. Hopefully she’ll come back again.
Our neighbor doing her laundry.
There obviously are several generations in the small house next door. This woman was doing some of the laundry early in the morning. It involved the basins at her feet and pounding the item on the stone and then kneading and wringing it. I took the photo from inside our boat because it really would seem quite rude to stand there where she could see me taking the photo as if she were doing something odd. I’m always torn about these kinds of photos. I’m certainly not making fun of her. I am actually quite impressed. And lots of cruisers hand wash their clothes since many have no washing machines.
Our front gate.
When we come back after an outing we look for the blue sailing trip sign or the orphanage sign across the road or we would walk right by as we did the first night returning from the restaurant. There is no latch or lock during the day. At night the watchman locks it after we come back and opens it about 8 am in the morning. Today when we walked out a herd of goats walked in and had to be chased out!
Our hip, Stones loving watchman.
We are off to lunch at the Sea Gull so leave our gate and turn right on Bazaar Road.
More goats.
The one on the right is a tiny baby but you don’t see them squashed on the side of the road so they must co-exist with the cars, trucks, tuk tuks, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians.
Lots of waterways, a man-made island and canals here in Cochin.
When you look at the Kochi-Ernakulam map you see pieces of land and islands and lots of waterways among it all. We are in the area of Cochin (Kochi) called Mattancherry. “Kochi, formerly called as Cochin, came into being in 1967, as a result of the merger of the then neighboring towns and villages of mainland Ernakulam, Old Cochin, including Mattancherry (location of our boat yard) , Fort Kochi, Palluruthy and Thomppumpady (location of our Airtel 3G phone fixit office) , Willingdon Island (where we went through the lengthy paperwork to check in) , the suburbs of Edappally and the exurbia of Kalamassery, Thrikkakara and Kakkanad to the northeast and Tripunithura to the southeast. “ from the India Map Service Tourist Guide
Here we are at the Seagull waiting for lunch.
Randal has his Kingfisher beer and I have my No. 1 McDowell’s club soda with fresh lime juice waiting in the glass.
I always carry a paperback with me. I had just started House of Sand and Fog but while we were walking later I bought a used copy of The God of Small Things, winner of the British Booker Prize in 1997, written by Indian author Arundhati Roy. The book is set in Kerala. Cochin is located in Kerala so it seems a really good time to read it. But I did find the other book interesting so will go back to it another time.
We walked to Vasco da Gama Square and saw the Chinese Fishing Nets
The nets are suspended until they are lowered into the water.
How it works.
The red arrow points to the tip of the poles where the nets are submerged. The red line indicates the rope with rocks that acts as a counterweight. The nets are pulled up and there are fish in them? We guess that’s how it works though we’re not sure how they get the fish out.
Decorative wood stamps for sale.
Life is good when you live at a fish stall
Young teacher from China
The young man to the left of the photo with his sunglasses on his head is from Guangzhou, China. He and I were walking along taking photos of the same things so started to chat. He asked where I was from and I said USA. He said he was from China so I asked “from where?” He said Guangzhou. I told him we know Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Jingan and Baijiao and he was quite surprised. He teaches biology in a middle school. I told him about our friend Singkey who is a student in university in Guangzhou. When we got to this group of school kids he stopped to spend time with them.
Lots of kids
Very friendly, polite, kids who wanted their photo taken.
It’s always the boys who want their photo taken! And not one gave me the finger as I took the photo. That would happen now and again in the Philippines with the older boys. You wouldn’t notice until you actually really looked at the photo.
The walkway had several ice cream wagons.
Ice cream treat.
Randal eats his 10 rupee “Dixie cup” of ice cream (about ½ cup worth) with half of one of those wood spoons that come with it. It was cut lengthwise to make two spoons of one. But it worked and made the ice cream last longer. And the spoons too.
Funny trash cans along the way.
Relic of Fort Emmanuel gunnary.
“The strategic fort was built in 1503 as a result of the alliance between the Maharajah of Cochin and the monarch of Portugal. It was reinforced in 1538 and later passed into the hands of Dutch and then the British. The fort was destroyed by the British and today relics of this magnificent structure can be seen along the beach.” India Map Service Guide
Lovely homes have been built along the walk where the fort must have been.
Conference of tuk tuk drivers..or how many men does it take to……
Our driver is the man just next to Randal. He was a very nice man who drove slowly and carefully. We needed to return to the Airtel shop to change our 3G service plan. We had the address written on a paper and they were discussing where it was and how to get there.
The Airtel (sounds like an airlines, not a phone service) office in Thoppumpady, a 100 rupee fare from the waterfront, but a 60 rupee fare from the boat yard. Both very reasonable.