Braving the Backwaters

Whizzing down the road in an auto rickshaw, weaving through traffic filled with cars, buses, bicycles and even goats, one thought kept repeating in my head, "How is this normal?"  It's an experience that is tough to describe.  It's both fun and terrifying at the same time. 

Obviously everything worked out and we survived our numerous "toot toot" or "tuck tuck" rides, but there were some close calls along the way.  Ironically we did get into one auto accident but it was traveling in an SUV when we got sideswiped by a local bus.  Fortunately it only resulted in a broken taillight and some scrapes of paint left on the side of the vehicle.  The craziest thing about traffic here, along with a few of the other countries we have visited, is that lines on the road mean NOTHING.  I had to stop counting the times I'd look up and see a vehicle barreling toward us as it passed another vehicle and entered our lane.  Sometimes you have to just trust that everything will work out and look at the pretty scenery out the side window.

A jackfruit bigger than my giant head.

Our minor accident occurred yesterday as we made our way to the backwaters of Kochi to see a local village and take a canoe ride down a canal..  After the minor setback we had a lovely afternoon learning about the local life outside of the city.  Our guide was amazing and described all the different plants and fruits along the way and it was just really nice to be in a peaceful nature setting outside.  Kerala, the state of India we are in, is really a nice area.  The fact I found most amazing is that it's got 100% literacy among its people.  It definitely doesn't have the poverty I've seen in the other areas of India I visited.

The canoe ride was a really great experience and something that we had only arranged through a local travel company the day before.  We shared our journey with a cute family of four who were on holiday from Nepal.  The six of us were slowly guided down the shallow waters while sitting in pink plastic chairs situated inside the wooden canoe.  The canoe was very solid and made from a local jackfruit tree using strings made of coconut fiber.  It seemed like they really used every part of every tree and plant in their environment in the local village.  It would have been more amazing had it not been for the discarded bottles, light bulbs and other items littering the banks of the river.  I'm not sure how people can be so Eco-friendly and pollute so much simultaneously.  Whatever the reason, it was still a wonderful two-hour boat ride and a much better experience than the last time I went canoeing.  It was nice to stay dry this time.  Likely due to the fact that I had nothing to do with the steering or paddling of our vessel and only had to relax and enjoy the view.

Is This India?

It's hard to believe I'm back in India, a place I really thought I'd never come back to.  My last trip to India was intense and I didn't really have a lot of desire to come back. 

When I traveled to India in 2006 I spent the majority of the time in Delhi, Agra and Chennai.  All three are major cities packed with people, poverty and pollution.  It was tough to see some of things I saw, like the cops beating a homeless man with no legs in the train station.  But I now realize that judging an entire country, especially one as large and diverse as India, was a foolish act of youth.

I'm only one day in to our visit but this part of India is already presenting a stark contrast to the other areas I've visited.  We are ported in Kochi, formerly Cochin, located on the west coast along the Arabian Sea.  Now there is still garbage strewn throughout the streets, crippled beggars and three-wheeled auto rickshaws weaving through traffic but the area is much greener and has a different, more tropical feel than the dirt and grim of cities I visited last time.

On our first day here in the Kerala state of India Kelly and I led a small group of SASers around the old city of Cochin.  We had a really good and knowledgeable tour guide who guided us through the streets of the "Jew Town" area, with a visit to the spice market, a synagogue and an old Catholic church where Vasco Da Gama was originally buried.  Da Gama had died there and his remains stayed buried there for 14 years before they were returned to his home in Portugal.  I've always found it weird when people dig up old remains to transplant them to another grave.

The highlight of the trip was getting to see the Chinese fishing nets that our still in operation.  Granted it's mainly for tourist and a small handful of fishing stands that sell fresh fish nearby but it was still an engaging activity to watch.  It's a simple mechanism, the nets are lowered into the water from the shore using rocks on ropes to balance the weight and, after being in the water for a few minutes, a team of men raise the nets with a catch of small shoreline fish and crustaceans.  And to think at one time in history it was cutting age technology.

Later in the evening we hired an auto rickshaw, affectionately known as "Toot toots", for a three hour hunt for mosquito spray.  We must have stopped at 8 shops before we found a small bottle with a small amount of Deet in it.  Something is better than nothing though because they have mosquitoes here that will suck a pint of blood from you and leave you with either Malaria or Dengue fever.  With our protective spray acquired, we had a spicy dinner of Indian food and then back to the ship.  The whole 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour, cost us $2.  Talk about fuel efficiency.  We'll be sure to look for our driver, Enis, on our next toot toot ride around the city.