Cochin, India Through Rafi's Eyes

On Tuesday 5 March 2013, their first day in Cochin, Pati and Beebee decided to "check in" with the tour company that is to take them on a 5-day excursion through the states of Kerara and Tamil Nadu beginning Saturday. The tour company is called Carnival Travel. Pati has been corresponding with Peter of Carnival Travel for several months to set up the visits and hotels. Peter has very good English and has been very helpful, even so far as to talk with the hotel owner in Cochin to make sure the room was confirmed, even though Peter and his company did not make the reservation and do not profit in any way (except in good will) from this service. Peter's father was at work and recomfirmed all the arrangements for the Carnival tour. He also was able to arrange for a guide/tuk-tuk driver to drive Pati and Beebee around Cochin for a few hours on Wednesday to see the local sights.
The guide's name was Rafi. (if it wasn't "Rafi" it was something that sounded like Rafi.) With about 3 hours of driving and viewing, they visited (in some forgotten order):

• The fishermen's village, where boats were drawn up on the sand
• An outdoor area where a large number of men were making a huge fishing net
• A spice market, where Pati and Beebee bought several kinds
• The laundry, where clothes are washed, dried, and ironed the old-fashoned way (beat against concrete blocks by a man up to his knees in water, hung on twisted hemp lines outside to dry, and ironed with a heavy (6 kg) metal iron heated by coconut shells burning inside it). This laundry is used by the hospitals and hotels. Beebee looked for their laundry but didn't see it.
• St Francis Chuch, where Vasco da Gama was buried for 14 years before his body was returned to Portugal
• A Jain temple
• A spice warehouse, where they observed piles of spices, one type per room (they saw the black pepper room and the ginger room)
• View Point, which was the top floor of a tourist store with a good view of the harbor
• The grand opening of an Ice cream shop. This happened by chance as they drove by and saw a video being made. Rafi stopped and everyone had a free chai masala and small handful of sugar crystals and raisins.
• A private museum being cared for by the widow of the owner
• An oriental-looking temple surrounded by a pond and a fence topped by barbed wire, open only once a year with much celebrating and elephants
• Various road side temples (with a stop just long enough for a photo out the side of the tuk/tuk), one of them for snakes (cobras)

After touring, they had lunch at Casa Linda, then napped in their air-conditioned room before attending a cultural performance that included kathakali. Here they were able to observe the actor applying makeup before the performance. Following this performance (the whole experience took 2.5 hours), they headed to Dal Roti for dinner. Pati and Beebee are vegetarians this week, which is hard in a town that prides itself on its seafood. After Beebee's food poisoning in Barcelona, they are trying to strictly follow the Fairfax County health nurse's admonition to avoid chicken and fish. Beef doesn't seem to be available here (where cows are sacred) and they will not eat lamb.
Written Wednesday 6 March 2013

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