Kerala Diary-Day 1

Rowdies 3.0hhhhh went southya.
That was not, however, the biggest talking point on day one of our week-long trip to Kerala. That honour goes to the picture above; the first thing we saw when we emerged from Kochi station.

The trip had finally started after an interminable train journey from everyone-speaks-Hindi-or-Marathi-Thane to WTF-are-you-saying-Kochi. There were countless games of Mafia and Call, many bottles of water and soft drinks, chood (hot) vadas and cups of tomato soup that tasted like watered-down ketchup. All of these were borne with good grace by our seat mates, a middle-aged Kerala couple. The husband, by the way, had the most astounding belly you will ever see.


Our travel arrangements were made the excellent travel agency La Kerala, and their driver was waiting outside Kochi station for us. The ride to the hotel was short and the hotel itself provided the second big talking point of the day: the hotel was actually quite nice. It was a pleasant surprise for nine students unaccustomed to luxuries like complimentary soap and folded towels in the room.



We washed up and cleared out rather quickly, because it was already 4:30 PM and we only had that day to see Kochi. We headed immediately for Fort Kochi, an island connected to the mainland by two bridges. St. Francis Church, the oldest European Catholic Church in India, constructed by the Portuguese in the early 16th century stands in Fort Kochi. Vasco Da Gama, the first European to reach India by sea, was buried at the church when he died in Kochi on his third visit to India, in 1524. His remains were taken back to Lisbon 17 years later but his tombstone is still here.


Just behind St Francis Church stands Santa Cruz Basilica; nearly as ancient as its neighbour. It is a handsome structure and is stunningly decorated with frescoes and murals depicting the life and times of Jesus Christ. On the wall behind the altar is a reproduction of The Last Supper.


Next stop was the Fort Kochi beach, the most forlorn and trash-strewn strip of sand that you could ever hope to find. But that didn't matter because Kochi isn't Aruba. The real reason to go down to the beach at Fort Kochi is to see the Chinese fishing nets and eat their catch. These enormous (10 metres tall) fishing nets are fixed on the shore and lowered into the water with the use of stones as counterweights. They are said to be of Chinese invention, brought here during the reign of Emperor Kublai Khan; hence their appellation. The net only catches a few fish every time it is lowered into the water. Most of the fish are quite small but occasionally they will catch a biggie. Shacks along the beach sell the catch and street vendors will clean and cook the fish for you. This was exactly what we did; but first, there was some Rowdies business to take care of. You can see the videos here and here and also here.

That taken care of, there was nothing else to do but consume a delicious 1.4 kg pomfret fish, freshly caught and deep-fried. The vegetarians trudged off to XL Bar; more on that later. While they started on a beer odyssey, we ate our fish while cats rubbed up against our legs, imploring us for a morsel or two. The cats of Fort Kochi, looked exceptionally well-fed, I must say. I suppose cats usually are, near fishermen.

With the fish swimming in our bellies, we made our way to XL bar to join the herbivores. They had a good head start on the beer (pun intended). Kerala is surprisingly lacking in variety in beer brands by the way. Everywhere we went, Kingfisher was, erm, king. The only challenger to its supremacy is Royal. I'll shut up with the wordplay. Oh no wait, one more. Kerala is not a good place to find your Buddy.

Like all restaurants that we went to on the trip, XL had the deserted look of an establishment that's waiting for the tourist season to start. Since we were virtually the only customers and we wanted to watch cricket on the TV, the waiters told us we could sit in the AC section at normal charge. They wanted to watch some Mallu film, you see.

Thence we embarked on a memorable journey, in high spirits. The waiter's every entrance was the cue for all of us to chorus, "Five more beers". We ate and we drank, and then we drank some more. We tried playing cards and Mafia, gave it up and finally settled down to making noise and stealing gulps from others' glasses. It was only at around 9:30 PM, when another group of guys came in, that we realised we should get going. It was late (by Keralan standards) and these guys had warned us about "mafia" operating on the streets after 9 PM. Drunken jokes about Mafia, the game would have followed but with the bill mounting, we made a hasty exit. Those guys claimed to be working in the Mallu film industry by the way.

Back to the hotel to watch the big game: the second Euro 2008 semi-final between Russia and Spain. Except that no one actually watched it. Everyone slipped quickly into a deep stupor courtesy the king of good times. Ruud and I woke up in time for the second half, when fortunately all the goals were scored. Spain won 3-0. They would meet Germany in the final.