5th of August
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| Kunjun Chayan & Amma |
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| click picture to see rain |
That day it was raining all day. We drove 2.5 hours from Aymanam north to Kochi in a hired car. We visited with Amma’s cousin Kunjun (Amma´s father´s sister´s son) and then with Mohan Papa’s (Amma’s brother) at his Kochi apartment. We then arrived at Sherin’s (GP´s sister’s daughter) apartment in the evening.
Kochi is a big historic city known to be the center of the Indian spice trade (this is the place that Colombus probably tried to get to…).
And 600 years later, Sherin’s husband Reji works in the spice trade for AVT Natural, a company who sells spice ingredients that are probably in many of the foods you eat on a day-to-day basis.
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| view from Sherin/Reji's apartment |
We found out from Sherin and Reji that Kochi is planning to become a bigger city, as it
is expanding its current port operations into a really large port for large shipping containers and cruise lines.
Therefore, there are high expectations of growth and prosperity in that city with lots of high rise apartment complexes being built with luxury facilities.
And you could see the signs of wealth pouring in… The main roads were nicely paved, and on the way to Sherin’s place, we passed a Volkswagen dealer, then an Audi dealer, then a BMW dealer, and finally a Porsche dealer (I would be too afraid to put a Porsche on the streets of India where everyone drives totally crazy!!)…
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| helping to make puri |
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| Puri for breakfast! |
Sherin and Reji were wonderful hosts! They prepared a LOT of food for us, and Sherin made sure that we ate a LOT… They even let us sleep in their 3 bedrooms and went to Reji’s mother’s apartment to sleep…
6th of August
Then, they arranged to take us all over Kochi!
First, we went to visit GP´s cousin. There was a lot of traffic, where a 10 min drive became a 1 hour drive (we found out later it was because a truck carrying trees lost its load…). Then Reji and Sherin treated us for a nice lunch at a popular hotel, and we continued to
Fort Cochin, a historic tourist site at the tip of the peninsula where Lake Vembanad meets the ocean.
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| Chinese fishing nets |
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| Lowering the net |
On the way, we saw
Chinese fishing nets, which are thought to be introduced to the area in the early 1400s by the Chinese explorer Zheng He.
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| St. Francis Church |
At Fort Kochi, we saw the influence of European settlements, and saw the St. Francis Church, the first European church to be built in India and where the Portuguese explorer, Vasca de Gama was buried in 1524 on his 3
rd visit to India.
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| School visiting St. Francis church |
Fort Kochi was one big shopping tourist place, so it was kind of fun since it was our last day and we needed to buy some gifts. And while we tried to bargain, Sherin laid down her heavy bargaining arms on the table and helped us get some much better prices!
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| freshwater meeting saltwater |
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| by the shore in Fort Kochi |
We walked along the water and tried to see some dolphins, but we didn’t see any dolphins in the 5 minutes we watched. We did see a lot of the freshwater plants that float out from Lake Vembanad meet the salt water and subsequently die and collect on the banks…
In the evening we had a dinner of stew and bread, and prepared to take a taxi at 1 AM to drive to the airport. At 4:40 AM, the Danish-Indian-American explorers flew back to Europe…
Then, they arranged to take us all over Kochi! First, we went to visit GP´s cousin. There was a lot of traffic, where a 10 min drive became a 1 hour drive (we found out later it was because a truck carrying trees lost its load…). Then Reji and Sherin treated us for a nice lunch at a popular hotel, and we continued to Fort Cochin, a historic tourist site at the tip of the peninsula where Lake Vembanad meets the ocean. 
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