Day 33 - Friday - Cochin

Yes, as you can imagine I was awake first. I silently slipped out of the room and headed out into a sunny new city. I really love that. You arrive in a city under the fall of night and the next morning its all a mystery. Atypically I find a sense of a place first. Get a map, go for a walk to get the tone and energy of a place. Hold judgment and see what comes up on the awareness level with people and the surroundings. I probably presume a little about the Indian people at this stage. Expecting standard smiles and looks and greetings. Although I also expect to find the unexpected. I started by searching for a tourist office. I knew, from the Rough Guide, that Cochin was split into two main areas, Fort Cochin and Ernakulam. We had stayed on the later, the business district and I felt drawn to the other. My first stop was the railway station. Its always a safe bet to find a tourist office there. It was closed. Next after getting some direction I found another closed tourist office. Seemed kind of strange for a Friday. Okay, it looked like a little bit of discovering was in order. I walked a large block. On route I noticed a modern looking hotel. Went inside and asked if they had a map. They did. Yippee, every travelling man's best friend. Thank God for Mr. Cartographer. Now with map in hand, I continued on my journey, secure of my location. I was here.

The city was quite different than the ones we had being in previously. Probably the most western of the lot. Pathways and drains. Traffic lights and traffic. Advertisements and department stores. I waved and said hello to a few townies. Good to see it wasn't totally westernised. I got back to the Metropolitan an hour later, feeling chuffed with my little adventure. I checked on Ian and he was feeling terrible. He had really bad bout of the Delhi belly. Find it hard to hold anything in. The Immodium were not strong enough, so I said I find him some Norfloxacin and Lopermide, as recommended in a health pamphlet we had. Eoghan and Peter were in no shape to go anywhere, so Aidan and I were heading off to find a new location to move into that evening. We jumped into a rickshaw and headed to the main ferry port that would bring us to Fort Cochin. Off season fare should be around 20 to 30rps for 1 to 2km, all depending on how much your wiling to haggle.

The front of the ferry port, is a potholed bus stand, lined with a few food stalls. We headed in the direction of other passengers, into an some run down, old looking single storey structures that looked like buildings from the movie Empire of the Sun. As we continued through we were greeted by a grand new modern ferry port in stark white with a terracotta tiled roof. The front of the building was surrounded with piles of wet redish earth. Looking like a project that had gone astray somewhere along the planning lines. The interior was bare and basic. We cued and purchased two tickets at 2.5rps per person. The boats were long single storey diesel engine vessells, with a capacity of around 100 people. The seats were simple wooden benches with cracked and worn paint. We managed get two seats for ourselves as the boat packed quickly.

I consciously noticed something more here than anywhere else in India. In most places you go in India you will notice men holding hands or having their arms around each other. It cames across as genuine sing of affection. From the small bit of information I had gathered and the bit of knowledge I had heard from before, men are closer in a lot of Asian culture than we are used to seeing. Its quite strange being gay and growing up in a culture where this show of closeness between men would and is still ridiculed by many. From what I learn ed that this affection was no more than good friendship. What was different since I arrived in Kerala and now right in front of me was how loving the touches and the looks between the men is. As someone joked about me and an ex-partner many years ago, we appeared as “more than just good friends”. I can understand men being close, like women are close in our own society although this was more than that. Perhaps I was reading too much into it, although it interested me enormously this male social interaction, in such a strongly homophobic and religious society. I decide I would do some research into as soon as possible.

The boat journey across to Fort Cochin was quite spectacular. Fishing boats and oil tankers passed by on either side of the windowless vessel. We passed Willingdon Island on our left. Supposedly a dredged island created by the British in the 1920s, now a major port on the west coast of India. Within 25 minutes we arrived at our destination. The boat gently pulled alongside the jetty and before it had come to a stop people were jumpy off and making their way out of the port. As we walked out on to the main road I felt we had arrived in a good place. Over th next three hours we ate, walked around the nib of the peninsula, checked numerous guest houses, saw the Chinese fishing nets and found our place to stay. Prices vary considerably across Fort Cochin from a double room as low as 300rps to 6000rps for the boutique hotels. Bizarrely the price doesn't always reflect what you are getting. Kerala was not really humid enough to require a/c so we were only needing a nice clean room. The Rough Guide was quite accurate on its accommodation listing and the last place we checked out was the best. The Elite Hotel on Princess Street was impeccably clean with double rooms with TV's and fans in every room, for only 350rps. The moment we saw it we knew we were on to winner. There was roof top restaurant, cafe downstairs and internet cafe connected. Chuffed with ourselves we headed back to Ernakulam to collect the bags and make the move.

It was near enough to nine by the time we returned to the Metropolitan Hotel. The lads had not moved from the room and Ian was delighted to see we had picked up the medicine. He had had a terrible day with a large percentage of it spent in the bathroom. He decided he was going to stick it out in the hotel where he had room service and was at least comfortable. The rest of us got our bags, packed and were at reception paying the bill within ten minutes. We made it to the main ferry port with seconds to spare before the last boat for the evening pulled off. We all jumped on board, bags and all. We got a rickshaw on the far side to take some of us and the bags to the hotel. Myself and Eoghan walked back in the darkness. The island appeared to be having a power out. As we arrived at the Elite , Aidan and Peter were just coming downstairs. With all of us starving we found a nice outdoor restaurant at the end of the street. Special Tea was available :) We enjoyed a fine selection of Asian and Western cuisine. The place was busy and had a really nice atmosphere. Fort Cochin felt just right. Before sleeping I was delighted to catch a showing of Superman II on the TV in the room.