India Trip: Cochin pt 2

We started our first real day in Cochin with breakfast in the hotel. After hearing all the horror stories about food, we figured we should play it safe for the first few days with our diet. Then we ventured out to find a ride to the Fort Cochin area. We only had to walk a few feet before we spotted an autorickshaw to take us. I had an absolute blast in the autorickshaw. It putters along at what can be no more than 10 MPH, and you are totally out in the open air. You sit right about at eye level with pedestrians walking around, so you really can see, hear, and SMELL everything around. These things are old and very rickety, and often the driver would have to slow down to negotiate large speed bumps, potholes, and other road hazards you would normally ignore in a car.

About 20 minutes later, we were dropped off at the main dock area of Fort Cochin. We walked around a bit and saw the chinese fishing nets, which are large wooden things with nets attached to one end, and large rocks to the other. Occasionally about 5-10 men would pull down on the side with the rocks, like a seesaw, and lift the net out of the water to pull in some fish. It seemed very laborious, and I only saw a few fish pulled in each time. Right behind the nets were fishmongers, and after them little stand set up to cook the fresh fish. It reminded me of other fish markets I've been to, but with what seemed like ancient technology. The walk around the coast was very pretty, except for the fact that there was trash all over. The waters around were filled with green plants and boats drifting along.

We headed off for lunch at one of the hotels nearby, and were there kinda early so we had to wait around a bit for the kitchen to open. There was an old piano near the bar, and the wait staff asked if I could play. I didn't accept their offer at first, but then decided I'd try the few songs I know. It was alot of fun playing, and trying to teach some of them "Heart and Soul". Then we had a nice lunch, and walked over to St. Francis Cathedral, the oldest christian church in India. It was a nice, simple church, and a peaceful retreat from the craziness outside.

From St. Francis, we grabbed another autorickshaw to take us to the Jewish district. On the way there he offered to give us a "tour" for 50 rupees. It was a very interesting tour, hitting some weird sights along with the major ones. A few notable ones were a "salt temple" right by the road, which had a small shrine full of salt, and a "crazy elephant", which apparently killed someone and was now locked in somebody's front yard. The downside was that he also kept dropping us off at stores he had cut deals with. When we told him we didn't want to go into the stores anymore, he gave us a long explanation about how he gets free petrol and a T-shirt for taking us. Neither of us really felt like arguing so we went along. Later we had him drop us off at the hotel. There he told us it was 50 rupees per hour of touring, so he was now charging us 100 rupees. We argued at first, but its really hard to argue over what is $1 to us, so we paid him. Then we had dinner and went to bed. You can find more pics by click on the title or here.