INDIA – Kerala, Fort Kochi – 6th-15th January 2020

We had read that Fort Kochi is known for its Dutch, Portuguese, and British colonial architecture, and elaborate Chinese bamboo fishing nets at Fort Kochi Beach. What they should have said is that the people are the reason you should visit here.

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We arrived at our Homestay in the early hours of the morning after a six hour flight and a 45 minute taxi ride. It was very hot and humid and the mosquitoes were out in force! However, we were welcomed by the owner, Johnson, and settled down for the night. The next day we walked around to explore. The Tuk Tuk drivers pounced on their new prey but were left disappointed as we told each one that stopped that we were ‘walking, walking’ and even the tempting sales pitch of “Ferrari, air conditioned” could not tempt us. 😉 As always we wanted to take our time and not just speed past our new environment, visiting the “Spicy area” and religious buildings on a frantic three hour trip! I’m sure they laughed to themselves knowing we would be sweating hot after the first ten minutes!!

The street art was impressive here. They have something called ‘Kochi-Muziris Biennale’ which is an international exhibition of contemporary art. It is the largest art exhibition in India and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia. We assume the street art we saw here was left over from these festivals. I’m sure if we took the tuk tuk tour we would have these things confirmed!

We spoke to an artist one day and a young guy sat with him In the studio, who told us that he was just learning. The older man was painting a family group from a photo, he had several commissions on the go on various easels. I wish we had asked to take a photo of them now, along with their artwork. The art here has been excellent, whether in art studios or street art painted on walls and houses around town.

Some of the street art and graffiti had clearly been created years ago, but I think the graffiti below was a little more current.

This was the roof of the bank! You’ve got to love India!

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These ‘Rain trees’ were everywhere in Fort Kochi, apparently they are known as the ‘5 o’clock tree’ as their leaves sleep in the evening. They absorb large amounts of Co2 and purify the air…. well they had their work cut out here because people light fires in their gardens and along the streets at night! There was a big fire filling the street with smoke right next to the main Laundry’s washing line area the day we visited!

There was a National Union Strike in India one day and so the local men played cricket.

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Something that is very different here compared to the north of India is the animals. There were Cows roaming everywhere in the north, but here it’s mainly Goats.

I wanted to call this blog post “The Father, Son and Holy Goats!” With so many goats and religious buildings in such a small area, but I didn’t want to sound disrespectful! …….Well Glen vetoed it in truth! lol!

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Glen managed to get himself in the photo too!

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This man was given a stick for each sack he took through the door. Glen said it is probably to keep a count of how many were being delivered. The man on the back of the truck was happy for Glen to take a photo of them even though we were in a back street without tourists, and it was obviously not a tourist area. He picked up a dried chilli from the floor, to show what was in the sacks and offered it to Glen. This whole street backing on to the port was full of merchants taking delivery of sacks of chillis and rice etc. We could see exactly what was in the sacks because we had watched the birds sat picking at the sacks and eating the rice inside! NOTE TO SELF: Always wash rice at least 20 times before cooking!

The huge delivery trucks were squeezing down the narrow streets

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The owner of this vegetable shop could speak five languages and our conversation went far beyond that of showing us new vegetables that we have never seen before. He proudly pointed out “Elephant foot yams” and “Tapioca” (tapioca is actually the starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant, although we just think of it as the dessert with tiny white balls in creamy milk we had as kids) He also showed us the tiny ‘Chinese potatoes’ …..eventually his wife joined us and we apologised for stopping him from working! Lol!

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He also told me how to cook Bitter Gourd (above) in a way which would make me like it…. I doubted that. lol! Not once did he try to get us to buy something. His conversation was genuine.

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Everyone we’ve passed in the street or stopped to speak to have been friendly, open and welcoming. I said hello to everyone we passed and got a great reaction. We spoke to shop keepers, fruit sellers, people in shops, people making popadoms on the pavement, anyone we saw basically. We had in-depth conversations with many of those who spoke English. Glen spoke to this man (selling flowers for the temple) about politics etc. for so long I can’t even remember how it started. Again, the minute you take their photo they stop smiling, even though we always ask if they mind us taking it.

Another afternoon I had been talking to a couple on a stall selling the same tiny white fragrant flowers, and gold and orange marigolds on a ‘string’ to take to the temples. I’ve since learnt that different Gods like different flowers, so it’s not just as simple as taking any old flower to a place of worship! I’m saying nothing! 🙊

Anyway, Glen in the meantime had walked on ahead of me. There weren’t any tourists around (they had presumably been inside of the tuk tuks that had been chugging and weaving down the street between the motorbikes every few minutes) so when I passed this man (below) a while later and he saw me looking down the lane (to see if I could see the temple the flower sellers had told me about) he gave me a big smile and pointed to Glen in the distance. He obviously realised we were together and must have thought I was looking for him, such a lovely man.  His teeth were something to behold! It’s a shame he stopped smiling when Glen took this photo (once I caught Glen up we walked back down together to see him) It’s understandable that he didn’t want to smile for the photo, his teeth were badly pitted, bless him. 

We have since been told by the owner of one of our Homestays that the Iron and fluoride in water here damages teeth, maybe that is why so many people here have such badly pitted brown teeth. 

We have read that people here are told to rinse their mouth out after eating and funnily enough we have seen Indian people here not only washing their hands after a meal (because they obviously eat their curries with their hand) but they also swill their mouth out or even ‘brush’ their teeth with their finger. (There is always a sink in cafes to wash your hands) We also discussed the water quality here and read about the effects of Fluoride in the water causing Fluorosis. As if the people didn’t have enough worries with the simple act of walking down the street without being hit by a vehicle! 

We haven’t seen a ‘drinking’ option here in India! Not for tourists anyway. This was in our Homestay’s kitchen.

Making popadoms on the pavement!

The Paradedi Synagogue was built back in the 1500s. It is in a community they call Jew Town dating back to 52 AD.  Apparently it is the oldest Synagogue in the Commonwealth.  There are only two people of Jewish faith left in Fort Kochi who use the synagogue we were told, but as many as 60 visiting Jews attend prayers each week. Ofri, our neighbour here in the Homestay is a Jew and taught us a bit about his religion whilst we shared the communal kitchen. 

The Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica was packed out for each service, with people also gathered around outside too. We were not allowed to go in when there was a service taking place and didn’t think it right to take photos there at that time either. As beautiful and sacred as it was it still put me in mind of a plastic Barbie church for some reason, if they made such a thing.

Historic Saint Francis CSI Church, originally built in 1503, is one of the oldest European churches in India.

I was interested in the old fashioned ‘air conditioning‘ rather than the fact that the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama was originally buried there! We had never seen long hand-pulled cloth fans before. These provided relief during the hot summer days back in the 1500’s and still today.

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As well as all of the wildlife we could hear amongst the tropical vegetation around our Homestay we could hear the ‘call to prayer’ near by, and it was loud! It was a surprise seeing as we had seen so many Catholic and Christian Churches nearby. The owner of the Homestay said there are 20 different religions in Fort Kochi, all living in harmony. How refreshing. 

In addition to the well publicised and impressive religious buildings here we’ve walked around the little streets and come across lots of different places of worship, some are so tiny they only hold about ten people.

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This newly painted white building below is St. Peter’s & St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

As we walked in we simply said hello to this lady, Honerine Morris, (bottom right) and she then chatted passionately about her church without encouragement. She was very proud to tell us how they had recently painted it and how the cross had once been struck by lightning. She said she goes there at 6.30am every morning and also on Sunday afternoons. She went on to tell us all about her children who are spread out around the world and her grandson who is studying in Manchester. I said “they have all flown the nest” and she said “yes they have and our house is actually called ‘The Nest’!” I asked if she still had her husband with her and she said she had, although he never wants to go anywhere! He only comes out of the house once a week to go to church on a Sunday, he just stays at home and looks after his two Rottweilers. She didn’t seem impressed lol!

We were speaking to an Indian man (a friend of the owner of our Homestay) about Honerine with the ‘empty nest’, and he was not impressed with her children. He told us that he was the youngest of three brothers and as such it was his duty to have their parents and his wife’s parents living with them. He was very passionate about their culture and also told us how his parents picked his wife for him….. all these conversations were much more interesting than seeing the Chinese fishing nets! 

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One of the things I’ve learnt whilst reading about the many and varied religions here is the origins of being a ‘Doubting Thomas’ I realise that you probably already know this but I didn’t! 

‘A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience (I knew that bit of course) a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.’

If I had 10 rupees for every time I’ve said to someone here “we’ll that’s something I’ve learnt today” I would be rich. However, I would rather be able to simply remember all this new found knowledge than become wealthy. (sigh)

We’ve seen so many birds here, and heard even more! We’ve sat having dinner on a balcony at dusk, watching Fruit bats flying around and then hanging in Indian Almond trees. 

Indian Almond tree in the day

Indian Almonds

Our favourite bird was in the grounds of our Homestay which is owned by Johnson, who we saw one day out on his motorbike with his family.

This gorgeous Golden Oriole sat by the kitchen window ‘chirping away’ each morning. We could hear it, above the sound of the other birds, as soon as we woke up!

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Here it is sat in the tree, taken through the same dirty kitchen window using a zoom lens.

These common ‘House Crows were everywhere! (Annoyingly) this trio were watching me hanging my washing out on the roof garden.

These Indian three striped palm squirrels were everywhere

The sun shining through the smoke from the street fires!

Having spent the last three months talking about toilets and pillows i’m now back to my usual fascination of everything laundry. 😋

I was very excited to find that the historic Dhoby Khana was a short walk away from our Homestay. We went in with big smiles on our faces and tried to talk to the people who were working hard hand washing clothes. Although English is widely spoken in Kerala not all of the people doing the Laundry could understand what we were saying which was frustrating. I wanted to tell them about my love of hand washing and hanging out washing and how I as the proud owner of two rotary washing lines at home! Lol!

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This lady soon understood what I was trying to say once I started helping her to hang the washing on the line. No words were necessary. She was surprised and amused I think! The rope lines were hard and rough! (Carla and Mark, I wish I had taken your travel line to show them how soft and easy it is to use, the rope they use was really difficult to prise apart. These women are strong). 

They were dipping the ‘white’ sheets in some sort of purple liquid. Someone there told us that they do that as “it keeps the whites white”, I think it makes the grey sheets lilac is what it actually did. lol!

We’ve since seen this little lady’s photo in an Indian newspaper from last August. Her name is Pratti and she has worked as a Dhobi Waller since she was 15. When we met her I noticed the muscles in her arms and said to Glen that she’s probably not as old as we think. But the newspaper said she was 79, so maybe she’s 80 now, or will be soon! She was just one of many amazing hard working women we have met on our travels. 

Dhobi (English: “washerman”) is a caste group of India. Their traditional occupation was washing clothes, i.e. laundry. The word dhobi is derived from the Hindi word dhona, which means to wash.

These washrooms are handed down from one generation to another. There are sheds where the ironing is done after drying the clothes. I’ve read that the Portuguese introduced the ironing of clothes in India and the Bengali word for ironing, ‘istri’ is derived from Portuguese language.  

They use boiled rice water to starch the clothes. We don’t starch clothes anymore but I remember Mum using Robin starch when I was a little girl.

This laundry will go down in my memory alongside the vision of hundreds of people washing cloths and bedding in the river in Agra and the girl we happened across in Ubud who was scrubbing her families clothes on a stone in a stream. I am aware that I’m really sad getting excited about such things! 

Talking of washing clothes on a stone. I was amazed to see that you can still buy washing stones as well as washboards and modernised versions of both. I downloaded lots of photos and prices (from Amazon!) but there are too many photos in this blog already. One I will tell you about, because I was surprised to see it, was a portable bathroom washing stone! And at 11kilos it wouldn’t leave much room in your luggage for any clothes to wash. Lol!

I had to help another lady before we left… I say help, I was in my element of course. Lol!

Ironing is all part of the service at the Dhoby Kanna.

I don’t think there is such a thing as Portable appliance testing (PAT) of electrical appliances and equipment to ensure they are safe to use here!

They were using the ‘modern’ Elecric irons when we were there but there is at least one lady who still uses the coal filled irons below. (Wish we saw the lady you saw Allie)

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In another part of town this handsome man was ironing shirts for the navy. He was happy to tell us what he was doing. He didn’t have an ironing board but instead he had ‘pillows’ stuffed up the sleeves as he held the shirt with one hand and the iron with the other, to make sure each shirt was perfect. 

Our first experience of Kathakali. (Below) It was a very impressive performance of something that has become the icon of Kerela we were told. Prince Charles attended one when he visited, I could imagine this is the sort of culture ‘show’ he and many royals have politely watched the world over (Keeping it current! Wink) It is a story told by classical dance which involves elaborate makeup, bright costumes, intricate hand, body, facial and even eye movement. Kathakali is an indigenous Keralan art/dance form. It must take years for the performers to learn all the hand and eye movements which are used to tell a story. There is a narrator (back right on the actual performance photos below) who sings the story too (not in a language we could understand of course, but we felt his pain lol!) there are also two other musicians playing instruments along to the Performer’s movements. It’s impressive, if only for the hour they take before the event applying the makeup! I wouldn’t have the patience. They also explained what each movement meant ahead of the performance.

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I enjoyed the performance but I must say my mind did wander towards the end, I kept thinking that any minute their longyi might fall down lol!

‘A longyi is a sheet of cloth widely worn in Burma. It is approximately 2 metres (6.6 ft) long and 80 centimetres (2.6 ft) wide. It is worn around the waist, running to the feet. It is held in place by folding fabric over without a knot.’

(You can see why I was waiting for it to fall down! Especially with the vigorous drum playing lol!)

‘It is sometimes folded up to the knee for comfort. Similar garments are found in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Malay Archipelago. In the Indian subcontinent it is known variously as a lungi, longi, kaili or sarrum.’

Don’t blame them for folding up their Longyi to make it a shorti! It’s so hot Here! Glen bought a Longyi when we were in Burma, wish he had brought it with him now.

This was one of our favourite places to eat. ‘The Farmers Cafe‘ is set in a lovely old building with art in adjacent and otherwise empty rooms. The cafe in the inner courtyard put me in mind of a French Chateau (not that I’ve ever been in one Lol!) It was dwarfed by the huge tree outside.

There was washing drying everywhere here, even on top of this dirty van!

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We saw these Aloe Vera plants hanging in a little shop. We asked if you could eat it and they said NO! It would make you ill! Which was a little surprising as our neighbour in the Homestay, who we shared a kitchen with, used to eat it as part of his medication! His name was Ofri, a Jewish man who was in Fort Kotchi because he was unwell. He came to see a Doctor who was telling him what to eat and giving (selling) him tablets. Ayurveda is regarded as a mainstream, rather than alternative, method of healing in Kerala. There were Ayurveda centres everywhere. I’m not sure they are any good for someone as skeptical as me though!

I was trying to tell this man why I wanted to take his photo, my Dad having been a butcher…. he didn’t understand what I was saying until someone who was passing interpreted for us. He was happy for me to take some photos of him but as always he stopped smiling once the camera was pointed at him.

The guys in this shop couldn’t understand much English either and so they seemed amused that I was so excited to see the meat hanging up and wanted to take a photo for you Dad. Both of these shops had meat hanging up in 30 degree heat with flies around. As you always say Dad “you’ve only got to fart in a butchers in the UK and you would need to fill out a health and safety form” lol!

Our favourite local shop was this one (below) with an interesting old lady serving. They didn’t exactly have Noren hanging outside, but this material kept the sun off her. By the way, the Express Bakery sign was a bit mis-leading. She did sell bread, from the little glass cabinet that you can see on the right. It had two or three small uncovered dodgy looking Western style looking loaves covered in mini ants! We only ever bought bottled of drinks and sachets of coffee there.

She didn’t wear shoes and instead of a colourful sari like other women she wore what looked like an old sheet wrapped around her! She spoke just enough English for us to get by and if not there was usually a customer to help us out. The fascinating thing for me was how she kept the money. Instead of a till or a box, she had it ‘hidden’ in very old grubby note books. The first time we went there she viewed our 500 rupees with suspicion before hobbling over to get her notebooks off a shelf at the back. She opened the very grubby pages to get our change out. We hadn’t the faintest idea if the paper money she gave us as change was still in circulation! Lol!

We were queuing in another shop and the lady in front of us was given a small sweet with her change. Something that is common in Egypt. However, I was surprised to see it said ‘milky way’ on the wrapper! So I pointed to the sweet and the lady went to give it to me and so I said “oh no thank you, I should not be eating sweets and patted my tummy” assuming she didn’t understand what I was saying but she smiled and pattered her tummy and said “me too” we both laughed and then started chatting. We were talking for quite a while and she brought up about the luxury lakeside apartments in Kerala that had been knocked down recently because of incorrect planning approval, (we had seen it in the news) and how women in north India stay at home, which is why we saw mostly men when we visited there, whereas women are able to go out in the South. She explained how her daughter picks her up at 11.30 at night to go out! I laughed and said we would be asleep at that hour and then suddenly she said “I need to go home I’ve got my dinner on the stove!” It was like going back fifty years and talking to my Nan’s and Ada Jones in her shop in Marshfield. It has that sort of local feel about it here.

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There were men queuing for the local bus in bare feet and eating from a food stall for 10 rupees per item. We bought food there to take back to our room for breakfast. We said how you could live for the equivalent of £1 a day here and I think some of the men queuing probably did.

Here is our favourite street food stall.

Here are the owners, and a couple of well dressed customers. This couple worked from 4.30am preparing and serving breakfast and then cooked more food until about 8.30pm when we saw them cleaning the stall and street area before closing up.

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They closed once a week for a well earned break!

We were surprisingly taken with the people who live in Fort Kochi and the way they engaged with us. You would think they would be tired of foreigners walking around their little town. But as I’ve said before, they were lovely friendly people who seemed pleased to talk to us. However, I can’t write this blog without showing the squalor here. Here are a few more photos which sadly show what seems like the lack of pride they (and the local government) take in thier surroundings.

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Someone realises the problem, this street art was painted on a wall near the litter strewn local beach.

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I just want to end on a positive. (as I proof this ahead of publishing it) We are now in our third area of Kerala and Fort Kochi remains our favourite place. Go see the people there if you ever get the chance… and take some pegs with you for Pratti and her neighbours in the Dhoby Khana, to save their poor fingers.