My Foolish Indian Surprise
I knew I’d be wrong the minute I started having doubts. That’s how it always works. I say to myself, “I won’t like this new place because…” either out loud or in my mind and then, after a few days of settling in, I find my place and start to think about how I don’t want to leave. Can I tell you how many places on this journey I’ve thought, “Noo… but I don’t want to go now!” after saying, “Meh… it’ll be OK” at the beginning or even fully flat out disliking a place from day one?! It’s a pattern that I’ve begun to recognize and now take note of, but it still held true for India, and I should have known better.
We’re in India, Kerala, Cochin, Fort Kochi. This region has been a prominent spice exporter since 3000 BCE; it is ancient. Kerala is the “spice garden of India” and was an important trading location on Silk Road. For years, I’ve had an interest in maps and the ancient spice trade, so I was very excited to learn I’d be coming to one of the historical landmarks and origination points. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find any “tours” so to speak that explained the spice trade’s history. At least I can taste the spices in person as I eat throughout the city!
Kerela, as a state in India, is one of the country’s most well educated, healthiest, religiously diverse places with some of the highest gender equality ratings to boot. There’s far less poverty here than in the rest of India, so the stereotypes that I’ve heard about begging has hardly rang true. Truth be told, it’s so similar to some parts of Southeast Asia it’s like we’ve just moved sideways, but definitely not into an entirely new dimension. Most people speak English and it’s often far better we’ve experienced in Southeast Asia. There are even two bookstores here where I’ve purchased inexpensive classical English literature short novels, The Land that Time Forgot and The Old Man and the Sea. Tis good to read real books again!
There’s not too much to do here in Kerala, but that’s OK by me. Earlier this week we did a Backwater non-mechanised boat tour, where we snaked through small canals and struggled against the winds on open waters with just bamboo sticks to move the boat downstream. Along the way we visited a traditional village where we had our lunches served on palm leaves. The food was some of the best I’ve had thus far! We also visited a small scale calcium carbonate processing “factory”, run by just a few men covered who were covered in white powder from their work, where they take spent oyster shells and naturally turn them into calcium oxide and hydroxide. In another location we witnessed how rope making is done through soaking coconut husks and then twisting the dried fiber together. The ropes are very strong and used throughout India. The best part of the day, however, was meeting fellow travelers. We had so many great conversations with interesting people and it really did refresh my spirit. One of the couples even invited Jason and I out for beers that night, which I obliged and enjoyed a beautiful sunset paired with even deeper conversation.
Yesterday, after Jason told me he wouldn’t be eating lunch, I ventured out to seek sustenance. I have to eat twice a day… it’s just the way I am. Or at least snack a few times! Regardless, I stumbled into this place called, “Upstairs Italian Restaurant”, even though I was eating at the ground floor cafe. I ordered a chai masala tea and a masala omelet and began reading my book. A man came in holding framed pictures and started asking me what I thought of them. At first dismissive, being a woman alone in India, I eventually started chatting with him after he asked the easy question of, “Where are you from?” Turns out, he’s been all over the world and lived in LA for a few years, working at a Sheraton Hotel as a chef. He’d also cooked in Rome for several years, which translated into his love of Italian foods and thus his speciality restaurant. He said every September and October he shuts down and travels. He’s interested in going to Mongolia next, or studying pastry making in England. After nearly three hours of conversation I realized I needed to head back to the homestay to get ready for the dance!
Traditional dance seems to exist all over the world and we’re lucky to have witnessed two dances thus far on the trip. First, we watched a Balinese dance that enchanted and in some ways spooked you with their rapid eye movements, intense makeup and costuming, and jutting arms. Here in Kochi, it’s much the same. Both dances come from a Hindu tradition, so they share many similarities. There are no words spoken during these performances, only music. During the Kochi performance one of the actors was permitted a tiny meep-like noise that made me nearly squeal with excitement every time he did it. It’s a performance art that I doubt I’ll see anywhere else.
On Friday, we head to Mumbia, formerly known as Bombay (India is taking the name back over as Bombay was a British term). It’s a city with 20.7 million people. It won’t be the most densely populated city we’ve visited as that honor squarely goes to Tokyo with 37.8 million people. Delhi is a solid second with 24.9 million, but we won’t be heading there. Mumbai is going to be starkly different than quite, quaint Kochi. I still have doubts that I’m going to enjoy it there, but it’ll only be for four days and then we head to Greece!
No one wants to get sick. Yet, it seems as if illness has been a common theme in my travels thus far. Between colds to travelers diarrhea to strep throat, I’ve had my fair share of sicknesses in the past six months. Most have been minor annoyances. I don’t like being sick, I complain about it. And, I’m a bit of a hypochondriac (I can hear Jason saying, “a bit, ha!”) so I tend to overblow my illnesses at times and become paranoid over things like having the feeling of a lump in my throat (the entire goddamn day long) or minor twinges of pain in my chest (chest pain = immediate emergency, except when it doesn’t).