Touring the Fort

Fort Cochin is an interesting place with lots to do. It's hot so the women wear saris and the men wear western clothes or lunghi, which are like sarongs that they wrap around their hips. They can wear them long or hike them up thigh high à la Catholic school girl. Sometimes they whip them off to wipe their noses and then tie them back on.The population of this state is far more educated and literate than the rest of India and there is less poverty. We were told that Christians comprise 45% of the population with Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and 6 Jews making up the rest. The land is lush with greenery and the bay is full of Chinese fishing nets looking like large spiders hanging out along the bay. It seems like a good place to live, unless you're a fish.

We have managed to find ways to entertain ourselves. The first official night of our tour we had front row seats to a Kathkali show. Kathkali is a traditional Keralan theatre art with elaborate make-up and costuming and ritualized movements and facial expressions. The eye rolling alone will make you dizzy. The show begins with the make-up application, which takes an hour. Then they gave us a demonstration of the various expressions and what they mean, since the characters do not speak during the performance. Right before the show, some of the performers will take a tiny seed to put inside the eyelid to change the colour of the whites of their eyes. The performances are quite athletic and the gestures are expressive enough that you know exactly what is going on. I found it so charming and entertaining that I may go see another when we are in Varkala.

Yesterday we went on a tour with a guide named Jude and, of course he had to suffer through us calling him "hey Jude" and asking him "don't make it bad." He was a good sport.

We visited the washer house where the dhobis do the laundry for all the hotels and b&bs by hand on concrete slabs and beat them to get the water out. They iron everything with 8lb. irons filled with coconut husk charcoal and a small fire. We also saw the synagogue in Jew town and the oldest European built Christian Church in India, checked out the Chinese fishing nets and the Dutch palace.

The highlight of the tour for me was the feeding of the birds at the Jain temple. Every noon the Jains invite the pigeons to hear a prayer and eat some lunch. I was given two heaping handful of rice and peas and held them out at arms length to be swarmed by pigeons. And swarm they did. At one point I had 4 pigeons on me fighting each other for food. They walked on me with their little pigeon feet, pecked the grains and blinked at me with their little red eyes. It was me and one older Jain man standing there long after everyone else was done because I was too delighted to stop.

I heard one tourist exclaim "they're going to shit on us," and I thought, "Honey, if you're scared of getting shit on you, India is not a good place to be."

One of our stops required us to cross a field beside a mossy pond. I went to take a look at the mossy pond and discovered a really long snake at my feet. This guy was orange and longer than my arm span. Still, he was scared of me and slithered off into the pond. I love snakes, so that got me pretty stoked.

What I am not seeing here are cows. Where are the sacred cows? Did the Christians eat them all?