When we landed in Kochi (or Cochin) the very first thing I noticed was the heat; it was around 90 degrees (32C) up from 75 in Delhi (24) so that was a bit of a surprise. While driving to our hotel to check in there were other clear differences. First of all, people drive way crazier there than they do up north...and that is saying something. Next, it seemed somehow more traditional but at the same time more modern than the north. More traditional in how people dress; almost all of the women wore saris and almost all of the men wore these long skirt-type outfits, which they could then make into shorter skirts (see photo at the bottom for an idea of what I'm talking about). How it was more modern is hard to explain, it was more of a feeling. The other big difference was in the language; their main language is Malayalam and it is nothing like Hindi, and the accent when they spoke English was different and difficult even for me to understand and I've been hearing Indian accents for quite a while now.
Well, after checking into our hotel we headed into "Old Cochin". Cochin itself is a pretty big town, but like most "old" towns around the world, the old part of it is small with super tiny streets. As it was Friday most of the "sights" were closed - the one museum and the synagogue - but we still enjoyed walking around the shopping area with brightly colored houses, and then checking out the Chinese fishing nets. These are huge fishing nets built right on the shore that use a pulley system for fishing. I had assumed that that hadn't been used in years and were just left up for show, but as it turns out they are very much in use, and the fish market right near the nets is quite active. It was fun watching the men on the nets do their work and then watching people come up and buy the fish from the markets a few feet away. There were places where you could pick out the fish you wanted and they would cook it for you.
The whole area was full of people, locals and foreigners alike, checking out the activities and buying fish. There were even a few cats, I saw one munching on a small fish, the cat looked as happy as could be.
Another interesting aspect of Kerala is that they have a very high Catholic population, the highest in India; St. Thomas (the Apostle, not Aquinas) is believed to have come to Kerala and to have spread the religion. There were lots of churches around, we stepped into one church for a few minutes; it was a very pretty church and filling up for mass.
After another look at the fishing nets while the sun was setting it was back to the hotel for a dinner of, what else, fish! I am fairly certain that I had fish at every dinner while we were in Kerala. I don't eat fish in Delhi because we are pretty far inland and I don't trust that the fish will be kept well refrigerated en route; but in Kerala it was fresh and yummy! The restaurant at the hotel actually didn't even open until 8 p.m., our thought was that they probably waited for the fresh catch to come in.
Today's photo is of some fishermen working the nets:
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