Candle Lighting in Cochin

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Where to start about today – it is hard to believe that even for a moment I doubted the wisdom of coming to Cochin.  So, let me ramble on a bit…

Cochin is different…We are 10 degrees north of the equator here, so the weather is hot and humid – really.  The roads are much better than others we’ve encountered in India and much less horn honking (which was starting to drive me crazy).  Since this is a big Christian community, we don’t see any cows on the road – it doesn’t feel like India without cows.  And last, but most important, Cochin is an old port city so it has had an influx of many cultures for centuries.  It was one of the ports on the spice route, so it has a rich and diverse culture and history. This area has the highest literacy rate in all of India. There are many more tourists here.  We had gotten used to being the only Anglos wherever we went and here it is not true.  This is on one hand annoying – who need to come this far to meet people from Cleveland and Massachusetts – but on the other hand, quite nice – I am able to get decaf tea and the waiter knows about eggs over lightly.  So for better or worse, we are in a more touristy area.

So we sang about the miracle that happened “po” and the miracle that happened “shom.”

Our hotel…We are staying at the Brunton Boatyard (http://www.nivalink.com/brunton/index.html) at the tip of Fort Cochin which is where all of the historic sites are.  This impressive hotel faithfully reproduces (but has added modern plumbing) 16th and 17th century Dutch and Portuguese architecture in a grand 26 room complex.  All of the rooms have balconies that overlook the harbor.  It is simply fabulous.  We have breakfast and afternoon tea in a garden that also overlooks the harbor and dinner in a wonderful restaurant that has a varied and delicious menu.  We are being treated royally…which is always a pleasure.

This sites…Our wonderful guide and driver took us on a tour of Cochin for the day. Our first stop was the Chinese fishing nets.  This is the only place outside of China where they are used.  They are huge, but very primitive.  We got to “join the pull” and help pull in one of the nets.  Definitely set up for the tourists – but great fun! We visited a church built by the Portuguese in 1503 and then renovated by the Dutch in 1779.  You can see both influences quite clearly.  Vasco de Gamma died here and was originally buried here.  Years later, the Portuguese took his remains back to Portugal.  When Marty and I were in Portugal several years ago, we saw his grave site and heard the story – we never thought we’d actually be in Cochin and see the original gravesite.  I do love traveling…even with all the hardships.  We saw the original HQ of the Dutch East India Company.  For two NYers who learned about the Dutch East India Company in grade school, that was really fun. Stopped off to gawk at the Arabian Sea and then walked through the Moslem area and the wholesale spice market.  I thought Marty would stay there forever.  He was having a blast asking a million questions about every kind of spice, pepper, tea, and rice.  Everyone was eager to answer our questions and have their photo taken.  We then drove out into the countryside and saw the rice farms and the shrimp farms and met a family that is living right on the water. We also stopped at a coconut processing facility (also known as someone’s home and yard) where every little bit of the coconut is processed and used.  It was so interesting to see how this is all actually done.

The Jewish community…Let’s start with the Shalom Internet Café.  Jewish community in Cochin is very old.  At one point during the Dutch reign, the Jews were the sole purveyors of the spice trade and they did very well.  We passed some signs for a “Jewish Festival of Lights” taking place at Koder House (http://www.travelmasti.com/koder-house.html) at 7 PM every night for 8 days.  We stopped by there to find that it is a restored home of one of the big Jewish merchants that has now become a guest house.  It is owned by Indians, but they are friendly with the Jewish community and at Hanukkah, they do a candle lighting every night.  On Fri night, they also have a dinner with “traditional Jewish foods.”  We knew we couldn’t miss that, so we figured we’d come back tonight.  Late in the afternoon we had a briefing from the director of the Centre for Heritage, Environment, and Development.  We were talking about restorations and Marty thought to ask him about Koder House.  Turns out he knows the owner very well and insisted upon calling him.  The guy was in Delhi but assured us that his wife would be there tonight and would take great care of us.  So, we were 4 people removed from this woman, but she treated us like we were visiting royalty – sitting with us and telling us the history of the house and the Hanukkah celebration.  She would not hear of letting us pay for our dinner and insisted that we be her guests.  There was a candle lighting and some singing – about 20 people…a few locals, some American tourists and some Israeli tourists.  So we sang about the miracle that happened “po” and the miracle that happened “shom.”  The “traditional foods” were traditional Cochin Jewish foods …not anything these two Ashkenazi Jews had ever eaten, but delicious.  What an incredible ending to a wonderful day!

Friends Charles and Debbie have arrived from Bangalore, but their plane was late (surprise!), so we have not gotten to see them yet.  We look forward to that at breakfast tomorrow.