Beach, boys and bikes.
Outside the Jain temple. 
Women's spice selling cooperative.
Ayervedic medicine world distribution centre!
Ginger exchange. Exported all over the world.
High class brahmin temple
Chatting to the fishermen!
Fisherman and silver fish
Chinese fishing nets
Kathakali show
Kathakali face painting before the show.Have done so much I need to write this down so I don't forget. Got an hour or so before my cooking class. I'm going to make chapatis and fish curry plus it's raining like every bloody afternoon here! The monsoon shouldn't start until June.
Anyway, I had a bit of crap fish meal last night. Bought the fish from the chinese fishing boat men and a little wide boy with a gammy leg said he'd cook it for me in his restaurant. I strangely said yes to this and went back after the kathakali show(more about that later) and the restaurant was well grubby and shoddy. He kept trying to chat me up and the sardines tasted like shit. I said that if he'd poisoined me I was gonna kill him. He said he'd look forward to me trying. Luckily I feel fine today. I have a stomach of iron,infact my stomach feels great here in Southern india. Perfect food for me. Touch wood.
Kathakali show was something else. Very atmoshpheric, lots of Hindi whailing and miming and strange eye movements. It was a story from the Ramayana and resembled something between the 2 ugly sisters and Punch and Judy An hour of it was enough and the half hour before when they were applying the makeup was fantastic.
Anyway hopefully I'm gonna add loads of photos today. My camera is full now and I'm moving them all over to disk and it's taking a while.
Last night I got eaten to death by Mosquitos. It was a nightmare. I just couldn't sleep and at 5am I was still awake. Creams, lotions and potions just don't work and my hips and back look like the himalayas. Luckily my face is untouched otherwise I'd look like quosimodo. Because I slept yesterday morning I feel fine today and hopefully now that I have industrial bhopal strength spray i will sleep tonight.
So today I hung out with the fishermen this morning and helped bring in the catch and drunk tea with them. I walked around and saw Portugese buildings, English parade ground, syrian orthodox churchcatholic church, which was full of people. (S'pose coz it's Easter)Brahmin high class temple (which I couldn't enter) Mosque, Jain temple ,Gujarati temple ,Ayervedic distribution centre ,spice exchange ,pepper exchange and women's cooperative of spices, (where I bought some more junk). Never ever ever have I smelt such a heady mix of spice, chilli and pepper. Truely astounding! This world trade system has been the life blood of this area since the destruction of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem circa bloody ages ago! Plus to top it off I've been bullied into buying two pairs of Kerelan linen trousers, not cheap but made to fit and the linen is superb. The guy will deliver them to my homestay at 8pm after the cooking. So all in all a particularly lazy day!!
Oh yeah, I'm leaving Cochin tomorrow and going on the bus to stay in Allepy for a couple of days. I need to work down to Trivandrum for the flight back to Bombay. Booked a good place in Allpey with mozzie nets and much cheaper than here. Plus I'm doing an independent tour of the backwaters by canoe. the guy will take me out from 6am until 11am on good Friday. It's gonna be amazing. Better than a house boat I think because they can't travel very far into the rivers coz they are too big and the noise of the engines frightens away all the wildlife! Maybe I'll get to see crocodiles. Jane in a canoe with crocodiles nearby is rather a scary picture
Anyway, I had a bit of crap fish meal last night. Bought the fish from the chinese fishing boat men and a little wide boy with a gammy leg said he'd cook it for me in his restaurant. I strangely said yes to this and went back after the kathakali show(more about that later) and the restaurant was well grubby and shoddy. He kept trying to chat me up and the sardines tasted like shit. I said that if he'd poisoined me I was gonna kill him. He said he'd look forward to me trying. Luckily I feel fine today. I have a stomach of iron,infact my stomach feels great here in Southern india. Perfect food for me. Touch wood.
Kathakali show was something else. Very atmoshpheric, lots of Hindi whailing and miming and strange eye movements. It was a story from the Ramayana and resembled something between the 2 ugly sisters and Punch and Judy An hour of it was enough and the half hour before when they were applying the makeup was fantastic.
Anyway hopefully I'm gonna add loads of photos today. My camera is full now and I'm moving them all over to disk and it's taking a while.
Last night I got eaten to death by Mosquitos. It was a nightmare. I just couldn't sleep and at 5am I was still awake. Creams, lotions and potions just don't work and my hips and back look like the himalayas. Luckily my face is untouched otherwise I'd look like quosimodo. Because I slept yesterday morning I feel fine today and hopefully now that I have industrial bhopal strength spray i will sleep tonight.
So today I hung out with the fishermen this morning and helped bring in the catch and drunk tea with them. I walked around and saw Portugese buildings, English parade ground, syrian orthodox churchcatholic church, which was full of people. (S'pose coz it's Easter)Brahmin high class temple (which I couldn't enter) Mosque, Jain temple ,Gujarati temple ,Ayervedic distribution centre ,spice exchange ,pepper exchange and women's cooperative of spices, (where I bought some more junk). Never ever ever have I smelt such a heady mix of spice, chilli and pepper. Truely astounding! This world trade system has been the life blood of this area since the destruction of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem circa bloody ages ago! Plus to top it off I've been bullied into buying two pairs of Kerelan linen trousers, not cheap but made to fit and the linen is superb. The guy will deliver them to my homestay at 8pm after the cooking. So all in all a particularly lazy day!!
Oh yeah, I'm leaving Cochin tomorrow and going on the bus to stay in Allepy for a couple of days. I need to work down to Trivandrum for the flight back to Bombay. Booked a good place in Allpey with mozzie nets and much cheaper than here. Plus I'm doing an independent tour of the backwaters by canoe. the guy will take me out from 6am until 11am on good Friday. It's gonna be amazing. Better than a house boat I think because they can't travel very far into the rivers coz they are too big and the noise of the engines frightens away all the wildlife! Maybe I'll get to see crocodiles. Jane in a canoe with crocodiles nearby is rather a scary picture
1 comment:
Hi Jane
What an amazing place this looks.
Good luck with the cooking and hope it turns out better than the last fish meal!!
Enjoy the crocs! rather you than me.
Take care
Mum xxxxxxxx
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