Cochin is on the southeastern tip of India. After Vasco de Gama visited the city in 1502, the Portuguese established a settlement. The Dutch captured it in 1663 and the British in 1795. It has a very diverse history! It also has a long history in the spice trade. Although they produced some of their own spice, a huge amount of spice traffic passed thru the port en route to Europe. It is located where many rivers converge, so has very fertile soil. Their main crops are coconuts, rice, cashews and mango.
We were warned by a number of people to not view India with western standards, as though what we would see would be so atrocious that we just couldn't comprehend. We weren't sure what to expect after that! We did grill someone at our dinner table, Dorothy, who had been before and knew the ins and outs. She advised us to get a tuk tuk (huh?) just outside the port and ask to go to the synagogue. There are a number of shops behind it where you can buy many items including elephants on a string (another HUH?). But we felt more comfortable having a plan since we were going out on our own and not taking a tour.
The Indian government has put up extra security everywhere since the recent attacks on Mumbai. We had to carry special cards with us, to be stamped when we left, then stamped when we returned to the ship. They were not as organized as at most ports so we encountered a long line getting off the ship. The Captain later apologized for it and hoped that our next port in India, Mumbai, would be better. It was only a 15 to 20 minute delay, so not that big a deal. Once off the ship, we went thru their 2nd security check point and headed for the gate. A young man approached us and asked if we needed transportation for the day. We bargained him down from $20 to $15 with the promise that if he did a good job, we'd give him the $20. We boarded his tuk tuk and off we went. A tuk tuk is pretty much an enclosed scooter. It has 3 wheels, room for 3 in the back of the driver. Well, 3 small people.....or 2 people with a lot of packages which we later discovered. It has handle bars like a scooter, but they are behind a windshield. Very interesting. They drive those things with their horns! Whom ever honks first has the right of way. And here are a LOT of them on the streets. Locals use them as much as tourists. Our driver assured us that he's very experienced...after I'd almost screamed at one close call. That settled my nerves - yea right!
Our first stop was a beautiful cathedral built by the Portuguese in the 1500's. Since it was Sunday, it was packed with worshipers. I took a peek inside and saw all men on the right, women and children on the left. Shoes were left at the entrance...at a Catholic church. Guess we're in India! It was a beautiful structure. Vasco de Gamo was originally buried on the grounds but his remains were later returned to Portugal. Next we went to see the Chinese Fishing Nets. They believe that these structures were originally brought to India by Chinese merchants in the 14th century. They are still being used today! We watched them lower the huge nets into the bay then lift them again using rocks as counter balance. Very interesting. They were catching dozens of small fish, about 6" long. I was surprised to see them catching so many until I saw the location from the ship. They are located on both shores of the narrow entrance into the bay.
We left the nets then went to the laundry. During this time I repeatedly told our driver, Sayno, that we wanted to go to the Synagogue. The laundry was very interesting also! It was a long cement structure with individual stalls. Each stall had running water with men inside beating the clothing against a rock. There was another building with a woman ironing with an iron that looked about 100 years old. There were several blankets on the ground with neatly folded clothing put out in the sunshine. I looked at the collars, they weren't very white. On the other side of the building were rows and rows of lines with clothing drying. Some sari cloths were on the ground drying. Can't imagine they would be very clean drying like that. I guess we'll see this same type of laundry in Mumbai, but there will be 5000 men there!
We asked to go to the Synagogue next. Sayno said we should stop at a store first. It was a very nice store and had a lot of nice merchandise. I actually picked out several items I'd like to buy, but since it was our first stop decided to buy one thing, then come back for the rest if we didn't see something we liked better. The man who had followed us around from the time we entered (this happened at every store, we were assigned a sales person) refused to give me a price for that one item, wanted to give us a great price if we took it all. After asking for the price 3 times, I left with nothing. It's just not fun dealing with situations like that.
Back on the tuk tuk, Sayno said there was another nice store we should go to. I said we wanted to go to the Synagogue. After we had been taken to about 5 of these high end stores we refused to go in the next one. We wanted to go to the Synagogue NOW. We understood that Sayno was getting a commission from each store as well as money for gas if we just showed up. But we didn't have all day and wanted to shop at the tourist traps...I mean shops we'd been told about behind the synagogue! We finally arrived at the area we wanted to shop in. There were street vendors and merchandise out on the street in front of each shop. I bought a string of elephants for $2. It has bright colored fabric elephants on a string with beads in between. Not sure why I needed it but Dorothy was so enthusiastic about them, I needed one too. It is very cute and colorful. Probably should have bought more than one. We shopped there for about an hour, then headed back to the ship.
Sayno had apparently paid a bit extra to be inside the gates of the port in the morning. He couldn't go back in when we returned. I wanted to buy a fan made of peacock feathers anyway. Something else we were told to expect to find. As we were making a deal with that vendor, Sayno kept begging for more money (we'd given him the $20). He then asked if we would give him shampoo from the ship for his daughter. I did give him another $5 but told him I only had large bottles of shampoo that I'd brought from the US, no small ship bottles. It would have been a long walk to get them and take them back out anyway.
It was certainly an interesting day! We didn't feel like we'd seen anything that we hadn't seen in other countries though. Actually, Lombok, Indonesia was a LOT dirtier than Cochin had been. We did see cows walking around the streets and a lot of goats. There were a lot of people walking around with no shoes and quite dirty, but we never saw a beggar or children asking for things. It wasn't crowded which was partly because it was Sunday. There were women walking the streets in beautiful, colorful saris. We took some great pictures. It was a good day. We were back at the ship and showered in time for dinner.
Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less.
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