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But. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll keep updating this one or start another one since I start school in a few weeks and that’s a whole other can of worms that kind of deserves its own space far away from carefree travel and a noticable lack of deadlines. So we shall see.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

The ride over is about an hour and fifteen minutes, but it takes a bit longer because both trips the ferry acts like a taxi service and drops people off at or picks people up from the boats they work on. It’s really funny because it’s like a line of baby chicks hopping off of one boat and onto the other. Once we got going the ride was fairly uneventful, only one girl got seasick and fortunately she made it to the side of the boat before being thoroughly sick. It’s a pretty ride over, or maybe I just love being on the water. Either way, it wasn’t a hardship and I had fun.

We made it to the island and immediately an independent tour guide latched onto us. And wouldn’t leave. He followed us almost all the way down the dock pitching himself (and it’s a long dock) before Kate finally said, “Yes. I’m sure you’re a great guide. But we don’t need you.” I will say this for the guides we’ve encountered so far: they are remarkably persistent. And I mean, it’s a good thing because after he left us he pitched his services to another guy who took him. Speaking of persistence, after you pay the tourist tax (before paying for the caves themselves) you walk up these cobblestone steps which are more like an upward sloping path. All along this path are people selling things. You can have two men carry you to the top in a chair if you’re too lazy to walk it yourself, you can buy potato burgers, and you can do a little souvenir shopping. I kid you not. It’s an uphill market. Anyways, we made it up the path and there were the caves.

The complex of caves were started in the 10th century but not completed until the 13th century. The caves are a shrine and a temple for Shiva. They’re absolutely beautiful and were excavated by hand over a period of centuries, which makes their intricacy even more impressive. Unfortunately, they’re not in great condition because the Portuguese had a blast defacing them. There are 5 caves, but only the first one is complete so when you have a tour, they generally will just walk you around the first one and give you a really detailed explanation of the different wall carvings and the religion. Our guide was this adorable woman who can’t have been taller than my boobs and she was very good about making sure that we saw and understood everything there was to see and understand about the different carvings. After we wandered down to find the fifth cave (which looks as though it has partially collapsed) we were melting in the heat. Literally. It was really gross. So we decided it was time to head back to the mainland.

We got back to shore and immediately went shopping. Yes, that was more important than going to a museum because I was leaving the next morning to go home. So shopping. I want to bore you with details, but I won’t. I’ll just say that the Cottage Emporium near the Taj hotel is a must for crafts from around the country. And the FabIndia down the street has a café upstairs which serves fabulous coffee and delicious sandwiches.  Oh. And the Oxford Books across from the park where the kids play cricket has really cheap books. It’s kind of amazing.

And what would a day out be without a little drama? It turns out that Kate’s phone couldn’t receive calls or texts all day for some odd reason. And Pinky had tried to reach us because she’d found out that we were just wandering around all day and she didn’t know where we were. So she freaked out and called her husband, who tried to call us and it obviously didn’t work. So she starts freaking out more and calls over to the Elephanta Island tourism office and the security there to check and see if we were in a hospital or in jail or something. And the entire time her husband is like, “They’re fine. They’ve been wandering all over Asia for over two months. Stop worrying.” Because we stop worrying when someone tells us to? Anyway. Long story short, we finally met up with the husband outside of his office and he tells us, while laughing, the saga of what went down that day. I died. Yes, I know, it’s not nice to laugh when other people are concerned for your safety, but that’s not what I laughed about. It was just the husband’s whole attitude about the whole thing. He was so blasé about it and half asleep, it was kind of amazing.

We got home and had a lovely dinner, family style again, and a nice chat. I absolutely adore Pinky and her husband. They are quite possibly the nicest people ever. And it was so sweet of them to worry about us. I mean, we have no real connection to them and they took us in and treated us like family. I am still overwhelmed by their kindness.

After dinner Kate went out for karaoke while I settled in to pack and take a quick nap since I needed to leave at 1am to catch a flight. Oh. And since I was already sick at that point (just a cold, no worries), it made the flight very sad. As in I couldn’t hear I was so congested sad. But I can say that my sadness was eased when I learned that the Bombay airport has a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the terminal. It was beautiful. Well, maybe that’s going a bit far. And the Doha airport was not my favorite place to rest for three hours, but whatever it was clean. Anyway, I obviously made it back safe and sound and then I slept for three days.

I might do an overall impressions post or something. Otherwise there’s nothing else until I go somewhere. Maybe the Creationism Museum? Oh. And I still need something to do this summer, suggestions are welcome. I’ll even unblock the comments feature for you!

Anyway. We were staying with Kate’s mom’s friend’s sister (complicated enough?) and her family is full of the nicest people you will ever meet. We arrived late in the evening before Pinkey (the sister) got home and so her husband and son sat with us for a while, chatting and making sure that we were settled in all right. Almost immediately after we got our tea, her husband started peppering us with questions about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go during our stay in Bombay. Then he said, “What do you want to do tonight?” To which we had no real reply since we’d just gotten to their house a good twenty minutes ago. So he says, “You could go shopping. Or you could see a movie. Yeah, why don’t you go see a movie?” He turns to his son, “Get the paper to see what movies are out. Then take them to a movie.” We tried to protest that the son really didn’t have to go with us because we were big girls and could totally do it on our own and he just shook his head, “No. He’ll take you to a movie.” Then he made his son go wake one of the cousins up. So she comes up and he says, “Meet [insert name]. She’ll take you shopping if you want. And she’ll go to the movie with you tonight.” I’m usually not overwhelmed, but I’ve never seen so many avenues of escape cut off like that. So we went to a movie and ran into several other members of the family. A side note so that this exchange makes more sense. In India, if the families can afford it, they’ll buy a whole building and the entire family—husbands, wives, cousins, grandparents—will live there. So when we went to the movies with the cousin, we went downstairs to collect her.

The movie we saw was Little Zizou. It’s the cutest movie ever. It’s set in Bombay and is told from the point of view of Xerxes, Little Zizou, a soccer-crazy Parsi boy. The movie follows the feud between Zizou’s family, headed by his religious fanatical father, and their rival family who owns a newspaper that prints dissenting opinions. If it comes out in the US near you, you should definitely check it out. I usually don’t have the attention span for movies told by children, but it moves really quickly and isn’t childish. It’s a really entertaining film and is an interesting look at the Parsis in India. Especially since it manages to look at religious extremism in a funny way.

When we got back, Pinkey was there and she sent us upstairs to chat with her husband and his friend. The husband and friend have a tradition where they meet on the terrace for a beer and snacks every Sunday. We were invited up to their domain and sat outside enjoying the company and the stars. The beer wasn’t bad either, Kingfisher is a good brand. We had a really interesting conversation about the status of women in India and the whole public sphere vs. private sphere thing that we’d been noticing. The two men said that in India, in general women are respected and that as a woman traveling alone (even a foreigner) people will take better care of you because they’ll worry. What stood out for me the most about this conversation was the fact that the implication was that women were respected as long as they acted a certain way, i.e., modest. What gets me about the word ‘modest’ is how it’s full of moral judgments and that there is no one definition. For me, most Indian clothing is actually immodest. People wear see-through kurtas and the sari blouses are like bustier tops. But for India, jeans and a t-shirt are immodest because you see a clear outline of the body. It was a good time and good company.

The next day was our first full day in Bombay and we were thwarted from the start. We had planned to go to the Elephanta Caves and the Prince Albert Museum, but it turns out that both of them were closed on Monday. So instead, Pinkey’s husband took us on a driving tour of Bombay. It’s actually a very small city, about 16 miles I think he said. We traveled back uptown to go to Pinkey’s office and see what she does. We hung out for a bit, ate lunch, and then headed out to FabIndia to do some quality shopping. I love FabIndia. Seriously. It’s the most amazing store ever. You can get kurtas for like 5 USD. It’s incredible. I can get silk there for about 20 USD. I love it. I was in heaven. Although I didn’t buy nearly as much as I wanted. After that it was off on an odyssey to find Cottons. The odyssey failed. Miserably. But we got to wander around Northern Bombay and check out the stores so it was fun. The nice think about Bombay is that there are so many people that you don’t get hassled to buy things nearly as much.

We left Pinkey’s again and went down to visit her mom at her apartment. There we met more of her family; a sister-in-law and a niece. They were really nice. The niece is sixteen and quite possibly the cutest girl you’ll ever meet. We bonded over Twilight and how cute Rob Pattinson is. Yes, I am occasionally a silly teenage girl, but Rob Pattinson is gorgeous and worth a small loss of dignity. And then we got fed again. Samosas and some kind of rice cake. It was good. And I know that complaining about being fed is bad, but it does get really tiring after a while.

Dinner was delicious. It was all different varieties of local seafood and curries. My favorite has to be this really spicy sauce that tasted almost like eating pure hot sauce. Made all the more potent by the fact that we were drinking beer with dinner and there was not a drop of water in sight. We followed dinner with a bottle of wine. Holy crap we had so much to drink that night. I had the biggest headache that night. But it was well worth it.

Next time: my last day in Mumbai!

I made it back home Wednesday night and have been sleeping like a fiend ever since. I mean in the last two days I’ve slept for over twenty hours. I also caught a wicked cold and can’t hear out of one ear anymore. Very sad.

I’ve started posting photos on Flickr (yes, yes, finally) and I’ll finish up the series of blog posts (soon, I promise!) to bring us up to date.

Varikatt is run by this really nice retired decorated Colonel named Roy. Roy turned his family’s home into a homestay after he retired as a way to meet people and have some fun. He’s really funny and plans to have a cookbook out sometime next year full of his recipes and anecdotes; I think the title is Cooking with the Colonel. He has some really entertaining riddles that will make it in there as well. I’ll link to it when it comes out. It’s a gorgeous house with five guestrooms and a large main house. Each guestroom is massive and has an amazing bathroom. Oh, and can I just say that Roy also cooks. Amazingly well. And because it’s the South, we didn’t have vegetarian food. Our first night there dinner was tandoori chicken and a sampling of other Keralan cuisines. At the Varikatt you eat family style and Roy also ate with us, which was really nice. He also shared the story behind the house with us. It’s kind of tragic. Girl meets boy on a boat, girl moves from England to follow boy to India. Girl builds her dream house, finds the guy, and marries him only to find out that while he’s away in the tea plantations he is less than faithful. Girl gives up her dream house to keep an eye on her errant husband. The whole story is online and once again, kind of tragic. I can’t believe she gave up her house because of her douche-y husband. Oh well. That’s love.

Because we only had one full day in Trivandrum we decided to do a “best of” tour. Be impressed. Neither of us had gotten very much sleep the night before and we were woken up by a barking dog around 5am. So the fact that we were productive at all was a spectacular feat. We started at the public parks and made our way through the Napier Museum and the zoo there. The Napier Museum was… interesting. It had a good collection of religious artifacts from all over Asia including leather shadow puppets from Bali (so cool!) and a collection of Chinese masks (wasn’t sure what the point of those was). The Hindu artifacts of the different gods were particularly cool and well preserved. The only bummer was that there were no notes up to explain what the different artifacts were or the reason for putting them all together (like why put Chinese vases in the exhibit). The zoo was awesome. It’s this large open-air zoo in the middle of the city and has over 75 different species of animals there. We saw hippos! And monkeys! And I was a bit too excited about them. What can I say? I like zoos.

Then we made it across town to the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The Swamy Temple is one of the holy temples of Lord Vishnu and the outside shows Vishnu reclining over a serpent. I wish I knew more about Hinduism so that I could give a bit more description about the story it depicts, but my knowledge about the temple runs out there. It’s a massive structure. It takes about 15-20 minutes walking to get from the North Gate to the East Gate. You’re actually not allowed inside the temple unless you’re a Hindu, but you can take photos outside and the monks are really nice. It’s a beautiful temple and the most famous one in Trivandrum. We ran into someone who was very friendly and the first thing he said was, “Well, you’re going to the Swamy Temple, right?”

We ended in the Puthe Maliga Palace, the palace of the old rajas of Trivandrum that’s been converted into a museum. You’re only allowed into the museum with a guide who knows the history of the Palace. It’s a beautiful structure that was built about 200 years ago and is full of gifts given to the rajas from various European powers. There’s even a crystal throne. I’m not kidding. A throne made entirely out of crystal. Decadent much? The Palace is huge, there are only twenty rooms open but another sixty rooms still haven’t been renovated, nor are there any plans to renovate them in the near future. It’s kind of a bummer because it could be so cool. The outer courtyard is even used for a classical concert during the winter months that’s free to the public.

Once we were done with the Palace, we were pretty much beat. The heat that day was intense and I think I got sunburned on my feet (again) since they started peeling two days later. I even drank an entire liter of water in about an hour and for those of you who know me, that’s an impressive feat. It was ridiculous. So we went home and vegged out for the rest of the evening before dinner.

One thing that we kept discussing was that we saw men everywhere. It just brought home how different India is in the separation of the public and private sphere with respect to gender. We saw women mainly when we left the main streets and were wandering the residential areas. Men were everywhere: in the restaurants, public transportation, stores, and the main streets. Which is not to say that there aren’t women out and about, women work and do all sorts of things. It’s just that the public sphere is very male dominated. It’s usually not too bad; for the most part as long as your clothes are loose you aren’t hassled. It only starts to feel a little threatening when you walk into an Internet café and you are the only woman in the room and the room is packed.

That’s it for now. Next time: Mumbai!

Last time I forgot to mention the conversation we had on the ferry to the driftwood museum with a girl who wanted to practice her English. There were three of them in a group who stared at us for a solid thirty minutes before finally coming over to introduce themselves and explain that they wanted to practice their English. The leader was a girl who was about fourteen or fifteen and she was very pleased because she loved Will Smith and she’d never met anyone who looked like him before. I died. It was the funniest thing I ever heard and so after that of course I had to talk to her. She was adorable and talked a mile a minute once we reassured her that we could understand her English. I wish I’d exchanged emails with her, she was really sweet.

The third day we were there we decided to do a ferry ride into Alleppey. The point of the ferry ride was simply to see the backwaters. The houseboats run a nice racket showing tourists these areas and having them spend the night on the boats for the “full backwaters experience” but they’re full of mosquitoes at night and cost an arm and a leg. The ferry costs about 7-10 rupees, you see a lot more of the coastline and you get to talk to local people. Needless to say, we liked the ferry. It was a little long, about an hour and a half, but we met an adorable baby boy whose mother kept turning him to the funny looking foreigners to keep him amused. One thing that surprised me was that people in Kerala play musical babysitters on public transportation. By that I mean that one by one everyone on the ferry/bus will take a turn playing with the baby. It’s adorable.

Alleppey was a disappointment. There was nothing to do. We wandered around in the heat looking for something but to no avail. The only real reason to go to Alleppey is to take the ferry. After a few hours we took the ferry back to Kottayam which took close to three hours. Sooo long. But it was gorgeous. And when we got back to our homestay we chilled out with good food and good beer.

Later that night we went into Kottayam to watch real Kathakali for the festival. It was beautiful but real Kathakali is 2-3 hours long. And loud. Very, very loud. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if the drums hadn’t been so high pitched. It started around 10:30 and by midnight we had only seen one dance and sat through an hour of just music and drums. I wish we’d been able to stay longer but everyone was tired so we went home.

Our last day in Kumarakom was spent just taking walks and hanging out in the hammocks overlooking the rice fields. I loved G.K’s. It was so peaceful and George was wonderful. Our last few meals were delicious and spicy. Very good. Seriously, Keralan food is awesome.

And that finishes Kumarakom. Next time: Trivandrum!

The ride this time wasn’t bad and there were no roaches to be found. After a bit of difficulty with our bags, I swear they’re heavier than we are, we found ourselves sitting with a family headed back home to Trivandrum. It was really cute because the grandmother had lived in California for several years so of course we bonded over that and talked about the recession (and how much everyone likes Obama). It’s been really funny talking to people lately because everyone and their mother has been asking what we think about the administration and we’ve been gone for the last 2 months so we really have no idea what’s been going on besides what makes international headlines. Well, that and the ridiculous bonuses being paid for with taxpayer money but that’s a different issue.

We made it to Kottayam with no problems and were picked up and taken out to Kumarakom. Kumarakom is a series of man made islands with canals in the backwaters. Every house looks out onto the canals and because almost all of them have a boat the canals function as through roads. It’s an agricultural area and it’s harvest time before it gets too hot and the monsoons come. It’s a lovely area and unspoiled by pollution, etc. I think you could compare the peacefulness with the rural parts of Tennessee and that whole Appalachian area.

We stayed at a homestay called G.K’s. It looks out onto the rice fields and the guest house is actually separate from the main house. There are 4 rooms and they’ve all been full. George is our host and his wife cooks the best Keralan food ever. The food has been really healthy with an emphasis on fruit at breakfast and fresh vegetables for the other two meals. Yes, we eat with them three times a day because there’s no where else to go around here. But it’s totally okay because it’s so good. Be jealous. George also took extremely good care of us. He organized trips for us and drivers for the trips and when we went out on the ferry, he told us he was calling to check on it and make sure that nothing had happened. He’s a wonderful host and I’ll post his website later for anyone who has any interest in that part of Kerala.

Our first full day here we went for a canoe ride through the canals. It’s a beautiful ride and shows how impressive the canals are. As we drifted along we saw lots of people in the water doing laundry and getting ready for the day. Everyone stopped to wave and say hello as we passed. Of course part of the friendliness could be that there aren’t any other home stays in our area and so we’re the only foreigners around. Kind of like their own curiosity show. To be fair, I haven’t seen many (read any) black people either and so I’ve been getting a lot of love for my hair.

The second day we took the ferry out to go to the Driftwood Museum. It was… entertaining. Basically, the woman who runs the place started collecting driftwood as a hobby 25 years ago and she trims away the branches to expose the natural sculpture. So there’s everything from a crocodile to a rose. There’s even a handicapped family where the members have everything from a missing leg to missing fingers. It’s true! I couldn’t make something like that up. She even said, “This is the handicapped family. See how his hands are twisted backwards.” The museum itself is an interesting concept but the woman who runs it is just a little too enthusiastic and you can totally tell that she used to be a teacher. At every piece she bangs on it with a metal rod to show how fossilized it is and then makes sure that everyone can see her vision before moving on. My feeling is that it was worth it because it is different and the woman has a genuine passion for her art. And if you’re ever in that area I’d say that even if you have no interest in it, just go for the entertainment value ’cause she was hilarious.

Oh. And the children here are adorable. Every time we pass them on walks they stop us to practice their greetings in English. The exchange goes:
Child: Hi. How are you?
Us: Good. How are you?
Child: I am fine!
The exclamation point is important because it’s exactly how they say it. It’s so different from what happens in the States where we don’t really like to practice our foreign language skills with people for fear of being ridiculed.

So we’ve been having fun. I love Kerala. I really like it here and would most definitely come back. I’ll finish up with G.K’s and the rest of our stay there later, it’s bedtime now.

We arrived at the bus station in time to make the 11:00 bus, the only problem was which bus we were supposed to take since nothing was written in the Roman alphabet. I never missed the alphabet more than when I was staring in confusion at the little bus placards. We asked the information desk and the guy was like, “Oh. The bus will come around 10:30 and it’ll be in front.” Sounds clear, right? Except that it was a bus station and every bus stopped in front of the station. And there were at least 3 stopped when 10:30 rolled around. We finally just kept an eye on a man who had also said that he was going to Munnar and got on when he did.

The bus ride was terrifying. Munnar is out in the mountains and to get there you take winding mountain roads that are so narrow in parts that only one car can pass at a time. Imagine doing that in a big bus that’s really old going really fast. But I have to say that the ride really wasn’t all that bad. Apart from the noise of the poor engine and that moment where we almost got hit by another bus. There was no airconditioning, which I actually liked. The open windows meant that once we left the city we had fresh air and it was amazing. Also, the air gets progressively cooler as you go up and so we had wonderful breezes. It started raining and when it does you just let the little rubber blinds down and you’re immediately in a cocoon. It’s kind of fun. And we got to Munnar on time in spite of the rain so I was impressed.

We got off in Munnar and caught a cab to Karadipara since by then we were exhausted and just wanted to get to our homestay. We got to the Rose Garden homestay and were immediately welcomed by Rajee (our host Tomy’s wife) and her eldest son. They were amazing. They got us in out of the rain and settled into our rooms in no time. Rajee brought out tea and biscuits and we settled back to chat and enjoy the rain from the porch. As part of our homestay, we got homecooked Keralan food and Rajee’s food was kind of incredible. Spicy and good for you. We also had water in which cumin had been boiled. It was really good and, according to Tomy, it was good for the digestion.

Our homestay was an eco-friendly farm where they cultivate flowers, cardamon, herbs, pepper, coffee and a whole host of other things. We went on a tour of the garden and loved it. It was gorgeous and so peaceful and there was even a hammock out back. Also, Tomy and Rajee’s youngest son is about six years old and the cutest thing ever. So we had fun playing with him even though he liked to play the boy games where he hits you…

The next day we went on a one day trek through a tea plantation and the surrounding woods. To get there, we had to drive for an hour through winding roads and back rural roads. One of the roads was built over marshy lands and so there were potholes where the land had just sunk after the rains. We got to the tea plantation and started out on our hike. We crossed over a dam that helped supply electricity to part of the mountain and had children playing in the water. Then we went up through the hills. The tea plantations here are busy year round and it’s backbreaking work. The most interesting thing about this plantation is that it has housing on site for families. In that way they cut down on commuting and have both the men and the women working together. The women do the picking, the men do the snipping and pruning. It’s a vaguely feudal system, I will admit. But it seems to work.

We met two guys from England that showed up that night who were kind of amazing. Because we’d already been out that way and knew vaguely where we were going we took them out to the View Point which overlooks the mountains for a beautiful panorama of the region. The guys had just been to Rajasthan and were finishing up their holiday in Kerela. I’m kind of bummed that we left. They were really cute.

We left Sunday to go back to Fort Cochin because we really loved it there, and because we are cheap and didn’t learn our lesson the last time we took the bus again. This time it was more death-defying because our driver took the approach that he was the biggest thing on the road (which was kind of true since the trucks look like toys) and therefore could speed down the mountain roads with impunity. And speed he did as we careened down the roads. But we made it! And we made it back to Fort Cochin where we had Italian food for dinner and cake from Teapot for dessert. It was good cake!

We’re further south and in the backwaters now. It’s beautiful here. But this post has been long so more about Kumarakom later!

The next day dawned bright and clear but we were still exhausted so we stumbled out, bleary-eyed to greet the new day. After getting ripped off by a rickshaw driver (50 rupees for a 10 minute ride!) we made it to the ferry to Fort Cochin. Fort Cochin is on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. You can have a taxi take you across for 50-150 rupees, depending on the driver or you can just take the ferry for 5 rupees. We’re cheap so we took the ferry. It’s a really pretty ride across, the water is relatively clean and as you go across you can see people fishing.

When we arrived we decided to walk to our hotel. I still can’t decide if that was incredibly stupid or incredibly brilliant of us. Mainly because it’s really humid here and after about 10 or 15 minutes, you start to melt. But we walked and we melted and were instantly charmed by the place. Fort Cochin is a small place but very cute. You can see the Portuguese, Dutch, and British influence here in the winding streets and the colonial style houses. There’s also a bit of Chinese influence here. Along the water are Chinese fishing nets which are worked by a minimum of four people to maintain the balance. It’s really cool and just goes to show how much India has incorporated different influences into daily life.

We stayed at a place called Napier House which is a cute little homestay near the Dutch Cemetery. The people there were really friendly and gave us maps and directions and arranged tickets for a cultural show. One quick thing, so that you understand how ripped off we were on the mainland, here in Fort Cochin you can get a rickshaw driver for 3 hours for 50 rupees. Our hosts were really funny because we don’t speak Malayam and some of them don’t speak English so our conversations were with a lot of hand gestures. One woman in particular would come over to me in the mornings and chatter away in Malayam making lots of hand gestures while I chattered away in English doing the same. I think we looked like crazy people, but it was fun.

We went out exploring and found several churches. There’s the Saint Francis church that was erected by the Portuguese in the 1500s and later taken over by the Dutch and the British. Vasco da Gama was actually buried there before his remains were transferred to Lisbon to St. Jerome’s monastery (which I actually have a picture of on Flickr, I’ll find the link later). Then we continued walking past the Chinese fishing nets where we discovered this cool thing where the fishermen sell you a fish, then send you across the street to a place where they cook it for you how you want and voila! You have a fresh fish lunch! I will admit that I wasn’t brave enough to try it, but I heard that it’s actually really good.

We went to the Santa Cruz basilica which was built by the Portuguese and torn down by the Dutch then rebuilt in the 1800s. It’s a lovely church totally built in the gaudy Catholic style. There’s a very nice man who is the caretaker there who makes sure that everyone is being respectful and let’s you know that it’s okay to take pictures. He’s really funny. We were tiptoing around so as not to distract anyone from their prayers (and because a sign said SILENCE) when he comes up and says in a booming voice, “You can take pictures here! It’s OK! Here, come take a picture here!” Then he went apeshit on a group of French tourists and kicked them out because they actually went inside the confessional to “see how it worked”. It was amusing as well as slightly horrifying.

We made it to the museum at the Bishop’s house and it was more than slightly disappointing. It was a collection of religious relics which could have been interesting except that they were mostly from the 19th century and not very well preserved. They also had an explanation of religious life in Ernakulam and Kochi. It is kind of interesting to see the sheer number of churches here, but other than that the museum was pretty much a wash.

The next day we went out to Mattancherry and Jew Town. Yes, it’s called Jew Town. Mattancherry is also known as the Dutch Palace. It was a gift to the reigning raja during the Portuguese era in order to secure trading rights and the right to build a fort. It’s really big and again, slightly disappointing. Only a few rooms are open to visitors and of those much of the space is devoted to the history of the region, shown through plastic boards with writing on them. But it was interesting. Especially once they laid out the chronology of the rulers and you saw that most of them only lasted 3 years before “falling ill”.

We saw the synagogue in Jew Town which is said to be the oldest one in India. According to them, there are 70 Jewish people in Kochi and only 3000 in India. I’m not sure how much I buy their numbers, but it’s an interesting thought. Jew Town was very cute with more winding streets and lots of small town houses. But it was overrun with people trying to sell you stuff which kind of ruined the feel.

That night we went to a Kathakali show. Kathakali is a traditional performance and the show we went to was at the cultural center. What was nice about the way they did it was that they gave you an introduction to the art itself. When you arrived around 6 you got to see them putting on makeup. At 6:30 the show began with an explanation of the different facial expressions and hand movements. The makeup is exaggerated in an almost comical way so that the facial movements will be more apparent. And the facial movements are kind of intense. It takes years to be a master of them. I don’t remember the names from the story that night, but it involved three actors playing a prince, a demon who fell in love with the prince, and the demon disguised as a beautiful woman to make the prince fall in love with her. The performances were amazing. The actors don’t talk and instead rely on musicians and a singer to tell the story which makes it that much more interesting.

We discovered a little cafe called “Kashi art cafe” which has amazing drinks, lunches, and desserts. The chocolate cake is to die for. We went twice. We also found a cute place called Teapot which is a place for tea and lunch. Very cute and decorated with antique teapots. They also have cake. Good cake. Sugar high inducing cake.

And enough about cake. My thumbs are whimpering right now so our adventures in Karadipara and the epic bus ride will have to wait until next time.