Post #105 – January 24, 2013 – Kochi, Kerala, India

What we did: Mattancherry Palace, wandered around Kochi

Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4050R/$76

Neither Patty nor I slept very well last night. For me it was the fact that the absolutely necessary AC was blowing directly on me most of the night. We couldn’t do anything about that, so Patty and I actually switched spots halfway through the night since Patty didn’t seem to mind. I’m not really sure why Patty couldn’t sleep…seems like she just had a restless energy all night long.

So, we both woke up on the tired side and dragged ourselves down to breakfast that is only served between 8:30-9:45am. When we arrived there were no seats at either of the two tables provided, but two people saw us coming and removed themselves so we could sit down. That was nice.

The breakfast was actually pretty elaborate. I guess this is what we get for staying at a homestay. We were given watermelon, pineapple, papaya, toast, eggs to order, and coffee/tea. We could eat as much as we wanted, with people actually serving us! It was lovely.

We had conversations with a Danish woman and an English man. Patty is pretty sure the Danish lady made an extremely awkward comment toward a transgendered (we believe) person sitting at the table, who promptly left. The comment was directed toward her husband and went something along the lines of “So, she’s a woman.” Her husband also promptly left. Patty thought that perhaps the comment was just one of those really embarrassing things that slip out at an awkward time.

In any case, the Danish lady otherwise seemed like a very nice person. She told us about her daughter who lives in Australia, where they had been traveling, and how they don’t want to go home to the cold. The English man was very soft spoken and at times difficult to understand, but he did tell me that he had been to Winnipeg some 30-odd years ago on a North American tour with his friends. Sounded like an awesome time! We’ll have to do that one day.

After breakfast we went to check to see if the café next door (that has free internet!) was open. Unfortunately, it was not. So, we wandered down the streets looking into various shops. It was only about 10am, but it was already scorching hot. I basically ran from shaded area to shaded area. We ended up at a store that is recommended by Lonely Planet called Cinnamon. Turns out that simple tunics and kurtas for women cost more there than what Patty would like to spend on a Lengha, a formal-y dress she could wear for a wedding. Basically, these items of clothing started at around 8000 rupees, or $160, and after Patty saw one for 12,000 rupees, we walked out. Not our kind of store.

By this time it was close enough to 11am (the café’s opening time) to head there. It still wasn’t open when we arrived, but it’s attached to a hotel, so we just sat there, using the free internet until it did open. We ordered some coffees and two apple streusels (like muffins) and did internet research, checked email, and worked on the blog. We wasted away a couple hours doing this and didn’t leave to do any sightseeing at all until after 1pm.

To be honest, though, we really didn’t do much of anything today. We did take an auto-rickshaw to the part of Kochi called “Jew Town” (interesting name…), where an old palace is located. The palace is called Mattancherry Palace and was a gift from the Portuguese to the Raja of Kochi in 1555. The Dutch also took it over at some point. The palace itself was pretty boring. There is a lot of discussion of the history of Kochi, a couple neat artifacts, like seats people used to be carried through the streets on, and some beautiful murals on the walls, but honestly none of this was particularly interesting in 35 degree weather and sweat pouring down our backs. To be fair, though, it probably wouldn’t have been any more interesting at a more reasonable temperature.

After our disappointment, we naturally sought out food to make things better. After wandering around a bit and some good directions from a shop keeper, we found a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Casa Maria. I’ve been getting used to ordering fresh lime sodas with most of my meals, and this was no exception. They are the most refreshing drink of all time, and I’m pretty sure they are just made from lime, soda water, and sugar. Yum.

Our lunch was unfortunately not as good as our drinks. I’m still averse to Indian food, so I ordered a pasta, but it was nasty. The sauce was just way too sweet. Patty ordered an Indian lentil dish (Dahl Fry) and I could barely stomach it. I ate it because I knew it was good for me. I started out liking Indian food so much, too…

There is a Synagogue in Jew Town that is supposed to be worth seeing, but neither of us were up for it. We caught a ride back to our hotel and headed up to our room for some AC action. We were also both dead tired. I set my phone to ring after 20 minutes and we curled up at the foot of our bed and fell asleep.

It was a beautiful 20 minutes. We both passed out hard, and there was definitely a pool of drool next to my face when I woke up. Best nap of the trip!

Feeling revitalized, we decided to head down to the café next door and use their free wifi. We bought espresso shots, which were quite tasty and also justified our presence in the store. We had some booking to do, including a flight to Bangkok from Kolkata and a hotel in Kolkata. We managed to confirm both before heading out for dinner. Actually, we got a great deal on our flight to Bangkok on Air Asia. It looks like we’ll be heading there just in time to attend Mintoo’s cousin’s wedding. Should be fun!

We decided to go back to Casa Linda for dinner, since we had enjoyed it so much the night before. Thankfully, tonight was no different. I ordered a spicy grilled fish and Patty ordered a grilled fish that was a little simpler than mine. Both were ridiculously good. Definitely the best Indian-food restaurant in all of India for us so far. Every spoonful was amazingly flavourful. Kerala, it seems, is the place to go in India. Besides the food, though, we had a very deep discussion about the nature of reality, prompted by my brother, Ivan, sending us some videos criticizing Deepak Chopra, who is the author of a book we are reading now. I won’t bore you all with details.

We wandered back to our room after dinner, stopping to pick up some junk food for a movie. We ended up watching 12 Monkeys. Odd movie, and I didn’t really get the ending at first. Patty explained to me that it seemed like Mr. Willis had accomplished his task because of the last scene in the airplane. Anyway, I’m not sure I liked it much.