Fort Cochin, Days 1 & 2 (or When We Were Almost Movie Stars)

From Madurai we planned on going to Kumily, a town on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, but the tour operators and hotel staff all said not to go, there are no buses and it's dangerous because of the dam. Allegedly, buses going between the two towns have gone on strike and those that do not comply get attacked... or so they say. On the other hand, once we got to Kerala, everyone said it was just a psywar to keep tourists from crossing over to their side of the subcontinent. Go figure.

Because there were no buses going to Kumily, we decided to take the 4pm train. That also meant an extra day in Madurai. But since we didn't feel like moving around much, we stuck to the hotel room and the restaurants, all conveniently a few minutes' walk from the train station. 

This coffee shop is always full of people! Probably because of the "memorable coffee."

Had breakfast at the rooftop restaurant again, hoping for good omelettes.
Still, it's hard to beat Didi's in Orchha.

Goodbye Madurai!

We were waitlisted for seats in the sleeper train and we got our numbers 30 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive.

For the first 3 hours, we practically had the section to ourselves, and we could sleep or watch the scenery change outside our windows.

The moon was starting to turn full and it was a beautiful sight...

But after dark, India's answer to the Addams Family arrived.

We were packed along with the most irritating bunch of miscreants the world had assembled. They were noisy and messy and didn't care that they were over their bounds in the seats. We were trying to sleep at 10pm because our arrival is at 4am, but they were shouting and eating popcorn with their mouths open. We tried to make them turn it down, but the young man with them said if we want quiet, "next time go to AC."

Oh, he got a piece of our mind. Still, the noise continued until midnight, and they hung a long strip of dhoti to make a hammock for the baby they had with them. So Henri slept with a child on his face. Still, it was nothing to what I endured in Varanasi, when I woke up on the train with a pair of cracked heels on my face.

So here we are, fresh and ready for the world at 4 am, waiting for first light at the train station.

By 5am we started walking to the jetty, which Henri remembered to be much closer to the train station. It wasn't. We arrived at Ernakulam about an hour later... On foot, mind  you. Still, even though my shoulders were hurting from the backpack, it was nice to see the city waking up slowly.

We took a ferry to Fort Cochin, only 6 rupees!

Then we hunted for a place to stay for about an hour more. We ended up staying at the first guest house guy we talked to, who looked like Rex Navarrete, I solemnly swear.

After taking a shower to wash off our night on the train, "Rex", whose real name is Ramee, asked us if we wanted to be in a movie because he knew some people who were asking for foreigner extras for the day. All we had to do was say a few lines and we could have some money. He joked that we were going to be famous next year. Ohmygosh!

Henri was apprehensive about standing around all day just waiting for the shoot to begin, although in my mind I was seeing my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ramee then added there would be food and beer. Henri's interest was piqued; to make sure he heard right, he asked, "beer?" "Lots of beer," Remee replied, eyes growing wide as if sharing the secret of lost gold. So we told him we'd think about it but we need to eat first because it was 8am and we were starving!!!

We went to the house where Henri remembers having "the best omelette in India." It was where he used to Skype with me when we were "just friends."  It was a week after we had started dating, but he had to go to Kerala to study Ayurveda. He pointed at the room where he used to sleep and the kitchen where he took cooking lessons and the room that used to be an internet café. I actually remember the room from Skype :)

A lot had changed since then, in fact, he said Fort Cochin had changed a lot in 3 years. The funny coincidence is that the daughter of the restaurant got married on the very same day that Henri and I got married. Incredible!

What hasn't changed is the food at Dal Roti, a dining institution in Cochin. The owner is very nice and helpful, a well-spoken man who advised us to order just one dish and plain rice even though it meant less money for him. They only make North Indian dishes, but they do it sooo well. One asian tourist DARED to ask for South Indian and the owner got really mad, he might have been insulted because 1) she didn't read the menu properly and it was a very nice menu with explanations and eveything, 2) you just don't ask a man like him to make something that's not on the menu.

I was so full after the veg rolls and the rice meal, I thought I would burst. Henri was just as full! The waiter came by to ask if we wanted anything else and I was thinking of asking for a wheelchair to get back to the hotel, but silly me, I asked for a dessert instead!

Henri was so tired of eating.

But we couldn't pass this up!

After that we totally forgot about the movie shoot and went sightseeing, but we found the film crew just hanging around while the actors got into makeup. Looked like a waste of time, so I let go of my dreams of superstardom... for now :)


Kerala has a good mix of muslims, hindus, christians, jews and communists. In fact I think the communist party is the most popular political party in the south. We keep seeing their posters and billboards, and their flags fly almost every where, most notably in front of toddy (coconut wine) shops.

These are pictures of churches to please our moms (hello worst segue ever!).

Ramee pulled through for us in the morning and got us the very first two tickets to the Kathakali show.

We had a little snooze in the afternoon and came at half past 5, just enough time to see the makeup session.

The makeup they use is totally organic. They use rock shavings and coconut oil to get these amazing colors!

Then the two main actors of the day would lie down so an assistant can glue on paper accents on their faces with rice goop (AMAZING!). The guy was deaf so the actors would communicate with him through hand gestures.

Then the actors would put a certain kind of seed in their eyes to dye them red for the performance.

After that, they would put on the heavy costumes. Traditionally, the actors would perform these plays from 8pm til morning, but for us it was just an hour-long demonstration. But imagine doing this for just an hour, with the oil and the sweat on your face! These guys are real professional actors, unlike Henri and I who bailed out of our chance at stardom because we don't want to hang around the film set while waiting for set changes or whatever. We're lazy, pampered bums. Hee hee.

The first part was an introduction to facial and body movements. This guy was so graceful. Galing!

The monster was my favorite character. He came out of the "forest" a.k.a. two guys shaking branches, screaming and being terrible - but to me he looked so cute! Like the big guy on Yellow Submarine.

Too bad the hero killed him.

After the show we wandered into the cathedral, there was a Christmas pageant. The song these guys were singing was so catchy, it's still in my brain. Unfortunately :p

Over yonder, the white dot is the full moon.

We had a romantic dinner at the Koder House, an old dutch home shipped here piece by piece in the 1500s.

Here it is in the morning!

Henri told me that when he first came here, he dreamed of taking me to Koder House for dinner and his wish finally came true!

After dinner, we wandered around the tourist street and I was intrigued by this sign, it means "Countrymen, please come in," in Filipino. I found out that the owner of the store is a Filipina living in Bangalore. Too bad she wasn't around, I was hoping to come across some Pinoys but I never do. Henri finds French folks on every corner here in India.

The next morning, we did more of the same: eating our way through Fort Cochin.

We had a long brunch at Kashi, which has an art gallery and - I'm shocked myself that I am going to say this - the best omelette in India, yes, better than Didi's.

Henri got pressed coffee and I finally got over my fear of ice and salads in India. This stuff was amazing.

I had death by chocolate and then I asked again for the banana cream pie (big mistake! It was pudding pie!) while Henri got a tuna sandwich, and couldn't put it down even though we were supposedly hard at work looking for answers to the elusive toy train to Ooty.

After that we took an hour long break by the chinese fishnets and then got Ayurvedic massages at the place where Henri used to rent a room. It was funny because he was getting a massage in his old room :)

Feeling relaxed and sleepy, we got tea and cold coffee (two thumbs up!) at T Spot, the cutest joint in all of Cochin. It reminds me of Le Loir Dans La Thérière in Paris... and also of our own house which has a yellow living room. 

Then we walked back to the chinese fishnets for sunset.

It is the one of the most snapped images of Kerala. The fishnets are a souvenir from Chinese fishermen, and can only be operated by four men or more. It's so cool to see them pulling and pushing the big weights that swing the net in and out of the water.

So here we are, still very oily from our ayurvedic massage, enjoying our second magical sunset at Fort Cochin.

To celebrate our stress-free day, we went to the bar. Serving alcohol is illegal without a license and they take that very seriously here. Very few places have the license, and I wanted to have a beer in the place with the locals because they looked so wasted and I felt like it would be an adventure into uncharted territories. But we chickened out when we got a whiff of the place, it was humid and smelled so strongly of whiskey and sweat. We're such cowards!

The next place was quiet and only foreigners were drinking. An Australian with a black eye and a sling around his arm came in and ordered a beer, I would have wanted to get his story but the bar doesn't serve strong beer so we went upstairs, where they do have Kingfisher strong.

And that was how we ended our day. With peanuts and beer and oily faces. We love Kerala!