We've Arrived! Kochi, Kerala, Southern India

We’ve done it! We finally are travelling! We are now in our second week and so far, so good on the belly front too!!

Friday 18th January we left Christchurch, arriving in Kochi (Cochin) in Kerala, South India on Saturday 19th January via a day’s stop-over (sleep and exploring) in Kuala Lumpur. All in all it took us 2 1/2 days, but - hey, we had nothing else on!!

We’d arranged a ‘soft landing’ with a pickup from the airport and 4 night's pre-booked accommodation. Kochi is a big city by NZ standards, although probably not in India, with 1m inhabitants. There’s a commercial hub, a dockyard and India’s biggest shopping mall (we didn’t go). We wandered around the areas of the Fort, Jew Town, the beach and the adjoining old colonial World Heritage area, created by the Dutch, British and Portuguese.

It’s got a nice laid-back feel in the old area that’s friendly and appealing to tourists with lots of tourists shops and cafes. So far we’ve felt really safe here. People are really friendly and the touting is pretty low-key…

We lucked out to find we were in Kochi during their Art Biennale - this is apparently India's and Asia’s largest contemporary art event. We fell across it, but only realised its importance when we heard that people in our hotel had travelled from Delhi to attend and there was a trio from Portugal who published an international art magazine and were there to cover it! Lots of the art was housed in interesting old buildings and was a great way to get a feel for social issues of the country with exhibitions on women’s rights, by women artists and students, on global conflicts, on being gay in India, the recent Keralan flooding, the India / Pakistan partition, sexual abuse and the perception of women. As well as this there were some great (and not so awesome) ‘modern art’. It was a real highlight for us.

Where’s the Beer?

Leaving NZ had all been a bit crazy and so Chris was dying to celebrate our actual arrival with a beer on the first night. Well, he started talking about it at breakfast, as our first real night was just crashing into bed when we arrived!! It transpires getting beer (or any alcohol) in Kerala is easier said than done. Kerala used to have a really bad suicide rate and so they banned alcohol altogether, except in certain tourist hotels.

This ban has only been overturned relatively recently and alcohol is still not widely available….we saw 2 big signs with “Beer and Wine” and otherwise nothing…so we went in one of these and Chris was a happy man again!! There are about 4 other states that have a total ban, so we’ll need to be aware before we travel!! Eeek - makes us sound alcoholics! Frankly by the next night I was convinced I didn’t want to drink beer anyway as it was bubbly and tasteless Kingfisher, however…I have got over myself since then!!

Apparently India has a burgeoning craft beer industry, but when I asked the waiter about one of the beers BroCode Brut I was told it was a “mix of beer and wine”…haven’t yet had a chance to taste it to see what that tastes like, but the website description didn't help either!

"That’s your cue to shake a leg, break a leg, set the mood, jet the mood, crack a play, back a play. Let the drink take on and unroll your wits.

Frisky buzz! Hooyah!!"

…mmm?!

Beach Life

Going to the beach in Kochi was about people watching. The fishing scene is awesome, with huge Chinese Fishing Nets which the fishermen lower into the water using a lever system where the counter-balance is huge rocks tied on with ropes. They then bring the net back to its upright position by pulling on the ropes like carefully choreographed bell-ringers with flicking hips swinging back and forth. I’m sure sometimes the nets are full of fish, but mostly I saw a lot of rubbish coming up with the catch and a few fish that the birds and fishermen fought over.

Other fishermen wade solo into the sea and swirl their nets skilfully like a beautiful ballerina twirling and some seem to be quite successful with their catch, while others come back with only 1 or 2 fish.

There’s also plenty of fishing boats going out for bigger catches.

There were hardly any Western tourists, but plenty of tourists from India….in family groups and groups of friends. All of them taking photos…lots of photos, mainly of themselves and a few of the views, but mainly of themselves! Many beautiful people in beautiful clothes who didn't seem to care about paddling into the sea with their finest clothes. Shame the beach was covered in rubbish… this seems a real problem all over the place. I saw one advert extolling people to make their city litter free, but it seemed sadly laughable against such a wave of rubbish.

The overwhelming sound of Kochi is of crows. Crows everywhere - not quite as threatening as Hitchcock’s The Birds, but cawing in the morning, cawing at the beach (these are the Keralan sea gulls) and the noise at night as they congregate in the trees!

One of our wanderings along the beach found us stumbling onto a volleyball promotion with the Keralan men's team and where Chris became a ’special guest’ to come up and see how long he and another man could keep a volley going!

How’s the Veganism?

We’ve been enjoying curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner…it took about 2 days before we noticed it was oozing out of our pores, so a nice kiss and cuddle is often greeted by a screwed up nose!!

I think I am broadly still vegan!! I’m being pragmatic about what I eat, but if I can communicate that I don’t eat eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt then I have been steered in the right direction. If language is difficult, then saying ‘pure veg’ seems to broadly work as a euphemism for vegetarian. You see….being veggie here is quite normal, but there is a difference between “veg” which is what I think is vegetarian and “pure veg” which is vegetarians who don’t eat eggs!! So we have also seen “non-veg” on the menu as an egg dish?! Veganism doesn’t exist except in the backpacker cafes.

I admit, being vegan has limited my choice, so no pancakes or lassi for me which have been a staple in previous travels, but I don’t feel I am suffering too much…although I am turning into a veg curry and roti!

Men Still Rule

Kerala is the most educated state in all of India, but still seems the traditional male deference is the norm….”Sir” is asked if he has finished his meal, wants any more, if things are OK for him - don’t think I have been asked at all! He gets the bill and even if I have paid, he gets the change given back to him!! Having said that, there are sometimes advantages....although not at this station as ladies have to queue with men!