Trip to India and Surrounding Areas - Day at Sea, April 8; Cochin, India - April 9, 2017

Another day at sea.  Went to Mickey Live to hear a little more about what to expect in India--a little disappointed, just a lot of stories that were about former India people.  Not exactly what we wanted to hear about India today, but afterwards we went and played cards again.  Went to lunch, back to the room to get internet;  I was able to finish both my grandsons' blogs that I keep--eldercartercopeland.blogspot.com and elderparkerwilde.blogspot.com.  We then got ready for the formal night. 

After dinner, we went to the show which was a young man from Wales who played the saxophone and other wind instruments.  He was amazing!  He started playing the sax because his mother was trying to help curb his asthma problems--which it did.  Afterwards, we went back to our room to pack for the next day because we would be exiting the ship for a couple of days.  

The next morning (April 9th), we got up about 6:00 a.m.  George and I went out on Deck 11 to see the surroundings shortly after we docked in Cochin.  It was a much bigger city than we thought. 

After eating, our group met on Floor 3 to leave for the bus to Cochin, India.  

 Our cruise director, Pam, is always energetic and ready for a new day and new experiences!  She and her husband, Dan, are so great to travel with!

 After getting on the bus, we again had a guide who was really hard to understand, but he was definitely an improvement over the guide we had in Sri Lanka.  Sights as we drove through Cochin.

The ancient Dutch Cemetery in Fort Kochi (Cochin), the oldest European cemetery in India, is a tell-tale reminder of Dutch lives lost in their quest for trade and expansion.  Every tombstone has a story of a historic past, of pride, of power.

 The Dutch, through the Dutch East India Company, stepped on the shores of this port city in the early 1660s.  In 1663 they managed to capture the fort and port from the Portuguese who had been there from 1505 onwards.  In 1795, the English captured the fort from the Dutch.  So this port city of Cochin has traded hands and countries many different times. 

The Portuguese had their hospital and cemetery which was basically Catholic.  A Catholic cemetery was taboo to the Dutch and they decided to establish a separate one for themselves.  The 104 tombs, records say, are constructed in typical Dutch architectural style with inscriptions in ancient Dutch script.

 

"Street" vendors selling all types of foods.

These woven fish on the beach were very interesting!

We really laughed at this-- an all spiffed-up tuk-tuk with the title:  Indian Ferrari

Unique to Cochin, the Chinese fishing nets serve as a testimony to the good relations between the ancient Chinese Emperors and Cochin Kings.

Outside of China, these fishing nets are only found in Cochin.  Historians believe that the fishing nets were gifted by Chinese Emperor Kubalagi to the then Cochin King in the 14th Century.  (Some of the women in our group wanted to try helping.)

What makes the so unique?  Well, the fact that these nets are fixed land installations (unlike the other nets that are not fixed to the land) and use shore operated lift nets for fishing. 

These almost 33 feet high nets require up to six men (or women if they wanted to try in this operation) to operate one fully installed net.

The local fishing boats vary in size but are almost all very colorful.

The fresh fish are then available for purchase on the street-side stands--you'll need to clean them yourselves and hopefully purchase them quickly since they aren't put on ice.  Yikes!

 

Since a service was going on, we weren't able to go inside, but merely observed on the outside  of the St. Francis Church of Fort Cochin.  This is considered to be the oldest church built by the Europeans in India.  On his third visit to India, the great Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama fell ill and died and St. Francis church was his burial place.  His remains were later transferred from here to Lisbon.

Many locals come to sell their wares on blankets or small stands along the beach. 
Everywhere we went, there were so many vendors selling their wares, plus so many following us around to sell what they carried with them--we could hardly move!  It was a very interesting cultural shock and climate shock as well--we were literally melting it was so hot!

This, believe it or not, is a laundry place.  It was absolutely fascinating to watch the process!

Washermen stand in water and slap the laundry items on the cement or rocks, and beat linens, bedding, or shirts against stones or concrete.

 I can't imagine standing in water all day like that and having the strength it takes to beat those clothes on the cement like they do!

The clean laundry is then hung outdoors in the sun to dry, even in monsoon season.  They dry them on twisted ropes so they don't need to use clothespins

Once dry, the clean linens are brought under a sheltering roof, where they are hung again until they are ironed.  Ironing is done by hand, using old cast iron irons filled with hot coals, which somehow never seem to escape and send embers onto the clean fabric. 

Despite the heat, the ironers work nonstop, their only relief when they team up to fold the product of their labors.  I lifted one of those irons--it was soooo heavy!  I don't see how they can do this all day long--up to 14 hours a day!
 

Even though there are lots of vendors following you around, we never saw anyone in India just asking for money or a handout.  If anything is given, you are the instigator.

George spied this little girl at the laundromat and wanted to give her a little money.  She was very shy . . .

her dad had a big smile and I think George made a new friend!

This is an example of one of the rooms where the people who worked in the laundry lived--basically it is just a closet size.  However, we had no idea that in some of the cities we would visit later, this would be considered a mansion!

This little bare-foot Indian woman must have lived here and her job was to fill the irons with the hot coals or briquettes.

Wires seemed to be hanging everywhere.  It seems so dangerous to us that they just leave them dangling so close to where people are.

 

We next visited Jewish Town where there were all kinds of beautiful items for sale.

We, also, got to go into the oldest Jewish Synagogue in Jewish Town, but no pictures were allowed there.

Back on the bus, heading for the over an hour ride to the airport--I had to take this picture showing how narrow the streets were at times and how close we would come to other buses.  We are literally inches from the other bus!  Later on, our bus driver hit a guy on a scooter.  It mangled the scooter, but after the bus driver got out and moved the scooter from under his wheel and saw the guy was apparently okay, we went on our way again.  It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport.  There was so much traffic and no direct route.

A gypsy camp along the side of the road and beach.

The city of Cochin has grown from an ancient port city to a well developed trading center.  According to estimated figures, current population of Kochi city was 655,697 in 2016.

In Hinduism, the cow is thought to be sacred, or deeply respected.  Hindus do not worship cows, although they are held in high esteem. The reason has to do with the cow's agricultural uses and gentle nature.

Slaughter of the cow is banned in most of India.  The consumption of their meat is also largely prohibited.

At the airport, men and women were divided going through security.  Each person had to go through a curtained area where the curtains were closed on each person and a wand was used all over you.  The airport had really fancy, comfortable chairs but no internet for those outside of their country.

The thing that I didn't visualize was how enormous India is!  After the 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport, we now had to take a 3-hour flight from Cochin to Delhi.  On board, they gave us a dinner but it was so spicy hot that we didn't eat much.  

 Our arrival in the beautiful Delhi Airport.

We were met there by our Indian guide who was, also, a Mormon!  He was so friendly and it was such a pleasure to finally have a guide whose English we could understand!

We traveled to the Holiday Inn in Delhi, which was very clean and had internet--no tub, but a great shower, and after such a long, hot day, it was a pleasure to have that shower.  We got to sleep after midnight, and then suddenly at 3:00 a.m. the alarm by the bed went off!  It was so annoying because we were finally sleeping soundly!  Again, we just got back to sleep and had three wake-up calls, plus my phone alarm at 4:45 a.m. telling us it was time to get up.  Today would be a day I would finally get to check off another important place on my bucket list--TAJ MAHAL!