Kochi

After an ashram and a week in quiet mountain villages, I was ready to face a city again. I took the bus to Kottayam with Luka, and then he headed south to Varkala Beach while I took a train north to Kochi.

Kochi is Kerela's main tourist destination, a cute and photogenic port town with a huge amount of Portuguese and Dutch influence. There are a few different districts, separated by water, and the ferry system is cheap and efficient. It also has one of the best stocks of colonial architecture in India, as well as many important early Christian churches (Kerela has many more Christians relative to other parts of India).



The historic part of town is called Fort Cochin, and you can while away a few days here wandering down narrow European-feeling streets going from coffee house to art galley. It's another one of those places that is a relaxing break from the hectic streets of other Indian cities. I met my friend Matthew, who I got to know in Varkala, for breakfast one morning in a lovely cafe/gallery run by an American expat. This is one of those towns foreigners fall in love with and move to.




I only stayed a couple of days as I was eager to start exploring the nearby state of Tamil Nadu. In that time I went and saw many of the churches and temples in the area. The Dutch Palace Museum was also very good, primarily because of a room full of fantastic fresco murals. But the primary attraction is the places of worship. In addition to some great Indianized Christian churches (including one where Vasco fr Gamma was originally buried), there are some important Hindu and Jain temples.




The Jain temple was my favorite, with its beautiful marblework and an obsession with pigeons from its patrons (Jains are famous for celebrating every living being and not wanting to kill a single one, the most devout even carrying brooms to sweep any organisms from in front of them when they walk).



Other than that, I took an excellent Kerelan cooking class from the jolly woman named Leelu at her guest house. Everything was delicious (fish and various veg curries, chappatti) and it turned into a romantic candlelight dinner as the power goes out everywhere in Kerela for a half hour every day at 8pm.



On the way out of town, in the hectic, modern district called Ernakulam, a short ferry ride across the harbor, I also caught a performance of Kathakali. Kathakali is Kerela's ritualized dance theater. The dancer is dressed up in an elaborate costume and has his face painted with bright coconut oils. The actual performance is a religious ceremony where the dancer goes into a kind of trance and acts out traditional Hindu stories.