Southern India: Serenity Now!

I flew from Jaipur to the southwestern city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, via a layover in Chennai. 

Happy Thanksgiving Widdershinning Reader! Although I’m publishing this on Thanksgiving Day (or night, by my clock), I’ll have more to say about the holiday in my next post on Singapore. For now, we’re still all India all the time.

Kochi is primarily Portuguese influenced , but also Chinese, Spanish, British, and Dutch. My drive from airport to Fort Kochi (the part of town I stayed in) was the most modern India I’d see on this trip. But before that, the first thing I noticed was getting smacked in the face by the humidity when I walked out of the airport. The air was thick, and with it came new smells. These a little sweeter than the north’s smell of ubiquitous shit and trash, almost like a dash of that plus rotting fruit. I saw far less trash in Kerala, which is known for being green and lush. Even so, it was more polluted than anything I had seen in the US. The people were also more honest and friendlier. I was still gently harassed by tuktuk drivers and some tourist shop proprietors, but walking down a street (or sidewalk, the presence of which was more consistent) was not an assault like Delhi or the worst areas of Agra and Jaipur. Don’t get me wrong, shop owners still tried to lure me in with the promise of the best women’s clothing or small wooden elephants or melted-ice-marinated-fish or brass candlesticks. And as I blew by them ignoring their pitches they’d still shout “hey, where you from?” as I made my way down the street. This was bound to happen because I was staying in the touristy area, and most people were friendly and minded their own business.

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While on my flight it was clear to me that I had become sick. I began to have stomach issues in Jaipur (Delhi Belly as its known by tourists), and picked up a head cold as well. Once I was in Kochi both the categories of symptoms got worse, so I didn’t do as much sightseeing as I has initially hoped. I arrived late in the evening and my first night I went for a short walk and grabbed a light bite.

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Fort Kochi, the touristy spot where I was staying, was on a coastal peninsula. It was the site of a large fort originally Portuguese in the early 16th century, a gift to the trading partner after Portugal helped the locals in a war. The fort was now home to a lot of shops and hotels and with a large fishing community. Lots and lots of churches here too, along with public shrines to Jesus and Mary – an interesting marriage of Hindi style street shrines with Christian idolatry. Despite this, I learned that the region is predominantly Muslim, with Christian and Hindi being about equal in population. I set out to see a lot of it my first morning, beginning with the beach (there were 2 in walking distance), not realizing that these weren’t beaches as we know them. In one I dipped my toes in the questionable water. My first time in the Indian Ocean.

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Once disappointed by the unsittable/unswimmable waterfront, I think I made a wise decision and headed back to the hostel where I spent most of the day in bed hoping to kick my maladies. I couldn’t let this be my entire afternoon and evening so I headed out to watch the sunset on the beach. Lots of crowds. Multiple people struck up conversations, including students who took notes as they were completing an assignment to practice English with a foreigner.

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The next morning my head was better but stomach was worse, so I headed to the pharmacy (or chemist, as the english sign announced). They gave me an antibiotic, probiotic, immodium, and rehydration salts (all this for about $8).

Feeling a little better and with the invincibility of immodium, I headed to the opposite side of the peninsula, no longer within the old fort and in an area called Mattancherry, to see some sights. First was the Dutch Palace – once a palace, now a museum. They had some incredible murals which I wasn’t allowed to photograph. The museum did well to tell lots of the history dating back to the earliest records long before European colonialism. I liked the murals and ceilings the best.

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Then onto the synagogue. Predominantly from the Dutch, but also Spanish and Portuguese, there had been a Jewish community which still exists to this day (though is dying out). I wasn’t allowed to photograph inside the synagogue. It was interesting, but not spectacular. This might be in part to the fact that the building was over 500 years old. It’s located on Synagogue Lane, or Jewtown Road as it’s known colloquially. As a result, I found myself singing alternative lyrics to Old Town Road all day (gonna take my tuktuk to Jewtown Road, gonna ride, til I poop my pants).

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From the east side of the peninsula I also took the ferry to a part of town called Ernakulam, with more local markets and contiguous to mainland India. It was neat to see a different part of town, but the somewhat primitive ferry ride was probably the highlight of visiting that part of Kochi.

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In Ernakulam I checked out the shopping district on Market Drive.

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And walked a bit up the road to a Bird Sanctuary.

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And past the state supreme courthouse heading back to the ferry.

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Back at hostel became friendlier with some roommates, 3 brits in Daisy, Joe, and Yexi, a frenchman Damien, and Lauren from Vancouver. I went to a tibetan restaurant with Yexi and Damien for dinner, and then to bed where I mostly tossed and turned. Here are some final random photos from Kochi:

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Next was Tuesday, my last day in India, where I had arranged to go kayaking in the town of Alleppey, about 50 miles south of Kochi. Known as the Venice of India, Alleppey (or Allapuzah) is a nice quiet coastal town where most jobs are as fisherman or rice farmers. It was much greener than Venice, and architecturally not of any significance. And far fewer canals. And not urban. But gorgeous. And not very touristy. Nice place. Nice very long quiet beach. I wished I had spent a night here rather than just day trip.

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My four hour kayaking reservation was for 10:30 but manager convinced me to switch to 2:30 sunset due to the midday heat. I trusted he was onto something. I worked backwards from when I needed to be at the Kochi airport (an hour+ north of Kochi) that night for my 1am flight. The timing would be tight but I obliged. I met the morning shift (they started at 6:30) as they finished and headed back to their hostel where nearly all the kayakers were from. I had a few hours to kill so I went to the beach and wound up getting lunch with Beth, a doctor from Halifax finishing her residency. After 2 hours of chatting and walking along the beach we said farewell. Amazing how fleeting many of the solo backpacker friendships are.

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Kayaking was great. It began very sweaty but as the sun descended and we entered tighter canals and canopies it got more bearable. I didn’t get too dehydrated and it was a good workout.

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The last grasp of sunset was a little cloudy, but the orange, white, navy, and sky blue reflections on the water were sublime.

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This experience helped to solidify a redemption for India in my experiences. While taking the good with the bad, I recognized that the south was good and a different place. My guide, Johnson (his given name) and I chatted about where else I had been, and he asked me if I liked everything. I said everything but Delhi, to which he laughed and more than understood, declaring Delhi crazy and dirty. To ensure I made my flight I took a cab from Alleppey to Kochi affording me time to shower and grab my things, and then onto the airport. Here were the last couple of India’s photos from that ride.

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In sum India was an interesting place with highs and lows, amazing and scummy people, moderately trash-littered and putridly filthy areas, wonderful history and haphazard modern junky buildings. I concurred with fellow backpackers, it wasn’t a place where people were likely to exclusively love it, but have some balance of struggle and enjoyment there. I also recognized that my experience began with a couple of negatives and my predetermined itinerary didn’t get me out of the cities much with my small sample size of the country. I’m glad I went, and I had some high highs. I also had the hope and confidence that the lows would be among the lowest of my trip.

When I chartered my course I acknowledged that not everything I see needs to be glorious. I am seeing the world, which includes things that make me uncomfortable (physically and emotionally) in addition to the beautiful things in life. When asked if I would return to India, my answer was “probably not.” I know i deprived myself of some meaningful experiences, especially some more religious and/or rural parts of the country. But there are enough places in this wide world that I still won’t have seen after this trip is done, and others that I would sooner prioritize returning to. Now as I move onto the next chapter via my redeye to Singapore, I’ll leave you with my song of the moment inspired by my Alleppey kayaking (how could I visit India and not put a Beatles sitar song in here somewhere?):