cochin (kerala), saturday 19 january
our first three days in the south of the country have already been much different from our journey through the north. there's been much less sightseeing and a lot more chilling. the people here seem even friendlier, they bargain less---probably because they don't try to rip you off as much! and everything is a lot cheaper!
we stayed in a very nice guesthouse owned by thomas, a very devote christian (anglican) man. the house has 4 rooms and i really like all of the guests. there's a couple from melbourne that doesn't interact much with the rest and are usually on their own, but they are very nice. all i know is that they travel like crazy---how australian of them! then there's another australian couple from adelaide, neil and kath, who are super chill. they are jewelers and have lived in indonesia and papua new guinea, and their experiences there have been pretty crazy! they also love wine, have a kid and grandchildren in darwin, live in a super eco-friendly house in the country, and would love to go to mexico. the other guest is anna, a 22-year old german girl from a town near munich. the day we met her, she had just received her admission letter to med school in germany, and we went out to celebrate at seagull, a super yummy seafood place by the water, to which we returned once more today to say goodbye to cochin, and there we met neil and kath and said goodbye to the best waiter in india!
the days have gone by so fast. we've just been walking around town, eating kerala food (mainly seafood), drinking coconut juice (out of the coconut... then the flesh... mmmmmmmmmmh i wish i had tajin!)... and having lots of idly and sambar (a dough made with rice and lentils, dowsed in a spicy sauce) for breakfast. yesterday we took a boat through the kerala backwaters and it was gorgeous! we went to a super small village where the locals make ropes out of coconut shells, and had some delicious locally-made tapioca and banana chips. in the evening, we went to this dance performance and we saw many types of indian dances, including the classical kathakala. it's pretty cool. this performance involves moving every part of the body, including the hands and the eyes, and it's crazy how they move the eyes and the eyebrows to denote different feelings.
i found some videos on youtube that show some of these facial expressions. this one is great because it shows a little bit of the expressions with music, and the guy's face is painted... although the one i saw showed a guy with the face painted like this. but this other one is great because it shows the woman making the same expressions but without the face paint. finally, this one shows the whole act like i saw it.
today, we went to cherai beach, about 25km from fort kochi, where we thomas's house is. i had low expectations, but the beach was actually very nice, sandy, no algae or jellyfish or strange things floating in the water, and it wasn't overly crowded. at some point, pipi left me in the sea by myself and a couple of locals approached me and started firing questions at me: what's your good name, what's your native country, what is your work,... the typical. and, as it always happens (in the street, at stores, in restaurants... everywhere), after these guys started to talk to me, another one joined them... and then another... and then there were like 10-12 of these guys surrounding me (oh, and of course, there were no women swimming! all of them were outside, just staring at their male counterparts who were having fun at the beach... and they were fully dressed, all wrapped up in their saris and such... although i must say that right before sunset, a large group of these women got into the sea, all still fully dressed...!). they were super friendly and they all wanted to shake hands with me. they were all from "very famous college," sastra college or something like that, somewhere in tamil nadu, and they studied mechanical engineering. they asked me if i had been to all these places i've never heard of, and when i said no, they told me i should go back with them in their bus. after a little while, i felt a bit overwhelmed with all these questions (some of which i couldn't understand) and all these guys surrounding me, and i told them i'd go for a swim, so i swam away, and later pipi told me that all of them started following me but after a while most quit. apparently, it was pretty funny to watch from afar, according to pipi.
we stayed in a very nice guesthouse owned by thomas, a very devote christian (anglican) man. the house has 4 rooms and i really like all of the guests. there's a couple from melbourne that doesn't interact much with the rest and are usually on their own, but they are very nice. all i know is that they travel like crazy---how australian of them! then there's another australian couple from adelaide, neil and kath, who are super chill. they are jewelers and have lived in indonesia and papua new guinea, and their experiences there have been pretty crazy! they also love wine, have a kid and grandchildren in darwin, live in a super eco-friendly house in the country, and would love to go to mexico. the other guest is anna, a 22-year old german girl from a town near munich. the day we met her, she had just received her admission letter to med school in germany, and we went out to celebrate at seagull, a super yummy seafood place by the water, to which we returned once more today to say goodbye to cochin, and there we met neil and kath and said goodbye to the best waiter in india!
the days have gone by so fast. we've just been walking around town, eating kerala food (mainly seafood), drinking coconut juice (out of the coconut... then the flesh... mmmmmmmmmmh i wish i had tajin!)... and having lots of idly and sambar (a dough made with rice and lentils, dowsed in a spicy sauce) for breakfast. yesterday we took a boat through the kerala backwaters and it was gorgeous! we went to a super small village where the locals make ropes out of coconut shells, and had some delicious locally-made tapioca and banana chips. in the evening, we went to this dance performance and we saw many types of indian dances, including the classical kathakala. it's pretty cool. this performance involves moving every part of the body, including the hands and the eyes, and it's crazy how they move the eyes and the eyebrows to denote different feelings.
i found some videos on youtube that show some of these facial expressions. this one is great because it shows a little bit of the expressions with music, and the guy's face is painted... although the one i saw showed a guy with the face painted like this. but this other one is great because it shows the woman making the same expressions but without the face paint. finally, this one shows the whole act like i saw it.
today, we went to cherai beach, about 25km from fort kochi, where we thomas's house is. i had low expectations, but the beach was actually very nice, sandy, no algae or jellyfish or strange things floating in the water, and it wasn't overly crowded. at some point, pipi left me in the sea by myself and a couple of locals approached me and started firing questions at me: what's your good name, what's your native country, what is your work,... the typical. and, as it always happens (in the street, at stores, in restaurants... everywhere), after these guys started to talk to me, another one joined them... and then another... and then there were like 10-12 of these guys surrounding me (oh, and of course, there were no women swimming! all of them were outside, just staring at their male counterparts who were having fun at the beach... and they were fully dressed, all wrapped up in their saris and such... although i must say that right before sunset, a large group of these women got into the sea, all still fully dressed...!). they were super friendly and they all wanted to shake hands with me. they were all from "very famous college," sastra college or something like that, somewhere in tamil nadu, and they studied mechanical engineering. they asked me if i had been to all these places i've never heard of, and when i said no, they told me i should go back with them in their bus. after a little while, i felt a bit overwhelmed with all these questions (some of which i couldn't understand) and all these guys surrounding me, and i told them i'd go for a swim, so i swam away, and later pipi told me that all of them started following me but after a while most quit. apparently, it was pretty funny to watch from afar, according to pipi.
posted by adrián at 08:57
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