Cochin

Hi All! We are having a very relaxing time here in Cochin with David's family. Cochin is a pretty large city close to the ocean. A couple days ago, David and I took a ferry to an amazing festival at the Shiva Temple. There were seven elephants, each with huge gold masks. Three men were standing on each elephant, and a band of about fifty people playing horns and drums. When the music picked up, the people stood up on the elephants and twirled around fans. We also caught a puppet show. It began with a white screen, with the intricate puppets and scenery slowly illuminated as candles were lit behind the screen. There was also a fireworks display created by gunpowder, which exploded nearer and near to the crowd until it seemed that fire, smoke and noise was about to engulf us all, at which point it suddenly stopped. It was definitely a memorable night!

We didn't take any pictures, but the elephants looked something like this, although there were only seven. And it was night time!

 

This is a picture I found on the internet, the puppet show looked like this - it was beautiful!

Two days ago, we took a boat trip on the backwaters this area is famous for with David's family. We started out on a brackish lake traveling on a large rice boat that had been converted into a house boat. A major livelihood in the area  is dredging up sand from the bottom of the lake to use for cement. Many people we passed were standing/swimming in the water, scooping sand up into small canoes. After lunch, we switched boats into punted canoes each holding about six people, and traveled on the small backwater lanes, which people have been dredging up for thousands of years. The backwaters are really like roads. Our boat was moving on what could be considered a larger road, which was about 10 feet across. There were other, smaller water roads branching off, and people had boats 'parked' in front of houses like cars.

View of shoreline

We stopped to check out a garden where we saw about 20 varieties of spices. We managed to wander away for a bit with Marty to explore an abandoned factory.

Backwater canals.

View from the small boat.

We stopped to see a demonstration of coir (rope) making. The pile in back of me is the outer covering of coconut, which is spun together to form twine.

Another highlight has certainly been the food at the homestay. We are provided breakfast and dinner, and it is excellent, Each night, we're served about six different vegetable dishes, with either chicken or fish, and some type of starch, usually rice and/or chapatis. Fresh pineapple, papaya, and bananas are served at every meal. Southern Indian food is much different thantypical Indian food you would find at a restaurant. The homestay is owned by a couple, Suni and Beena, who are taking care of their granddaughter, Krishna, while her mother is earning her PhD. Suni cooks all the food, and he is an excellent chef.
The Fort Cochin neighborhood is very fun to walk around, with several museums, tons of crumbling old buildings, and lots of ice cream.

Pay attention, Mom!

On a walk around town with Saibal.

I tried to make this a long and juicy post because I don't know when we'll have a chance to write again, maybe not for a while. We are headed (via train and bus) to a bird sanctuary, a nature preserve, and then to the state directly to the east of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, where we will check out lots of temples and ruins. Then, we are flying from Madras to Calcutta, where our friend Saibal lives. We will stay there about a week before flying to Thailand.
Hope you all are doing very well!