COCHIN, INDIA (3/25/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Mar 25, 2007 2:16 PM
Subject: Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2007

COCHIN, INDIA

Fantastic. This place was great to see today. When we were here a year ago, we never saw such a bunch of miserable nasty people. There is an area they call Jew Town even though there have been no Jews to speak of for many years. There are supposed to still be seven or eight families but they are not involved in that part of town. When we had gone, there were small stores and venders. They were extremely pushy but we are used to that and it does not bother us. With these people, if you didn’t buy or at least spend time looking at their junk, they would make remarks and insults. When we went back to the area where the buses were waiting, they tried not to let us back on the buses and as the buses were leaving they hollered names and made insulting gestures at everyone.

This year could not have been more different. We took a river boat tour of the back waters of Cochin. After all, when was the last time we were on a boat.

We have had many nice welcomes at different ports but this was the most unique. At the bottom of the gang plank, were three elephants dressed in their finery for royalty. After taking some pictures we quickly got onto a small bus. The ride to the river boat took about an hour and one half. The scenery along the way was about as different from home as anywhere could be.

Cochin is an area of waterways, canals and lakes where it is not ocean front. Many of these canals are manmade and are the principal mode of transportation and the source of water for washing and sewerage. The parts that are land are taken up completely by buildings to live in, business or planted in some kind of crops. Where there is some open area, it is jungle. Rice is a staple but many different kinds of fruits, spices and produce are grown.

Today is Sunday and we are told that almost everyone takes off on Sunday. People were everywhere. Traffic was far less then on work days but we could see Taxis and Tuk Tuk taxis everywhere. The Tuk Tuks were larger and far easier to enter then in Bangkok. The taxis were all white and were some kind of London Taxi. The canals and waterways had many ferrys that were the cheapest public transportation.

The area where we boarded our river boat was no longer in Cochin but was Alappuzha. Be sure and remember that because there will be a quiz later. Yeah, sure. Like who cares. Bobbi insisted I put that in there because she is reading it in the guide book. And we wouldn’t want to ever confuse Cochin with Lalapaluza or wherever the heck I said we were. Never mind. Just forget all of that. We were still in India. Too many facts are boring.

When we purchased this tour, there were two types of boats we could have taken. We chose the double decked river boats. The other option was what they called house boats. The house boats looked like the top part was made of rattan and they were far more fancy and came in various shapes. Instead of a plastic chair like ours, the house boats had big rattan chairs. They were double the price and went to the same areas and had the same lunch.

After we boarded we traveled slowly down some of the canals and waterways. Here too there were people everywhere. All kinds of people wearing very different clothing, from almost nothing to wedding dresses. The houses and other buildings were very foreign to us. What I hated to see was how dirty everything was. When people were done with something they just dropped it on both the land and water. Scraps of paper and other things were everywhere. The water, everywhere, looked like one big sewer and yet there were women washing clothes in about a dozen places. People were in it and washing themselves with soap. Children were playing and swimming in it.

The areas that were not planted in rice were beautiful. There were all kinds of Palm, fruit and nut trees. People everywhere waved laughed and smiled as we went by and so did the people in every boat we passed. The scenery was beautiful and all was green. After riding up and down different rivers and canals for about two hours we went to lunch.

Lunch was a buffet at a resort in the middle of these waterways. It was very modern, quite beautiful, and most of the food , uneatable. The only meat was some kind of chicken chopped up with bones and gristle. I tried some, but all I was able to fish out was bone and gristle. There were two different kinds of rice. Plain and with stuff like pineapple, nuts and who knows what all. That was pretty good until I bit into something that taste like an old cigarette butt. There were a couple of other veg dishes or maybe they were just sauce of some kind. One smelled like curry. I like curry but this was not. It was awful and the last was some kind of bright green, green slop. It looked bad enough but I could not even get by the odor. There was some kind of soft rubbery bread that looked like a lumpy pan cake. It was pretty good and ended up being all I ate. Bobbi found some kind of fruit salad but it was all mushy.

After eating we went down the stairs we had gone up, to find the gift shop. We were stopped by some people from the QE II (Queen Elizabeth II). It too was in the same port. We talked for awhile until suddenly we were being called to get back on our river boat. That left no time for Bobbi to even look into the gift shop. You have no idea how broken hearted I was. Come to think of it, yes you do.

These people from the QE II were not real happy with it. They too were on a world cruise. They were being nickeled and dimed to death. Everything we are getting as included, is costing them. They are even charged for bottles of water. Another cutey was the boat they were on today. We find there was a third, cheaper kind of boat, we were not offered. That’s what they were on. There were no stairs, like ours had, to get to the top deck. You had to climb or be pushed up a chest high wall and then crawl over a four foot raised area to reach the seating. We watched several hurt themselves while climbing down. We watched them get back up. It was unbelievable. Old people being pushed up by the rear end and looking like animals. One elderly lady stepped on her own dress, causing the entire front of it to open. Good thing I had not eaten much. This was not a pretty sight. Bobbi and I would have never gotten on this thing. It was just plain dangerous.

The trip back to the original dock was just about fifteen minutes. This had been a very nice and a very interesting boat ride.

On the ride back to the ship we all opted to make a short stop at an air conditioned store. They had some very nice things at a very good prices. Thank goodness they did not have a large enough table cloth or I would have been the proud owner of a silk one. I mean, I was so sorry they didn’t have this beautiful silk table cloth in a size we could use. When we got back to the ship there were a bunch of very loud and pushy people selling what really was junk. Even Bobbi could find nothing to buy. Now that is a case of some really bad junk. This was a whole day of no purchases. Poor Bobbi. Right about now you might be asking yourself, or getting ready to ask me, what can she possibly buy on sea days. Well, I’ll save you the trouble of writing. There is a store on board. She has all kinds of clothes and jewelry she has purchased here because this was the only game in town.