Day 43 (19 July): Southern Indian Fort Town
I took a flight this morning to Cochin which is about another 800 km further South of Goa along the West Coast of Inida; its in a state called Kerala where they speak yet another language. Kerala is very green and the most tropical part of India. It is know for its backwater canals and villages on them. The landscape is full of palm trees and rice patties. Jorge went back to Bombay to continue his trip there.
Cochin itself was created as an island in a natural harbor as a result of some serious flooding that never receeded in the 13th century. It was succesively a Fort town under control of the Portugese, the Dutch, and then the British.
I spent the day touring the city, seeing a bunch of churches, places where people were fishing, a spice trading center (as in a real, live commodities trading center with brokers naming prices, etc.) and the Mattancherry Palace. The Mattancherry Palace is a former Raj Palace that had a great museum in it with some cool portraits and Raj-era artifacts.
After all of that I went to see a Katahakali cultural show, which is a form of Keralan theatre. It emphasizes use of eyes movement and sharp body movements. The actors wear bright color outfits.
For dinner I went to one of the nicest hotel's in Kerala's restaurant called the Boghaty Boatyard, housed in a former palace.
Observations:
1) Service at the nice hotel's restaurant was a little over the top. The waiters, wouldn't even let me scoop my own rice on to my plate. I think part of it was that they wanted to talk to me.
2) Cost of food versus lodging. This seems to be off in India, relative to what I would expect, at least at the levels that I am willing to bear since cheap food seems to make me sick. Tonight was an extreme case (but the food was amazing), nonetheless it cost 5x what my cheap hotel room did.
3) Multipupose clothes. A lot of the fishermen in Kerala wear skirt like clothes that can be folded up and down. When its folded up it creates a natural pocket for carrying things. Plus the inside is usually clean, so it also provides a cloth to wipe dirty things onto without making the outside look dirty. This is just one of many efficiencies I've seen in daily life in India. It seems that since money is hard to come by for most people, that there way of life has to be a lot more resourceful and that they are a lot more creative with being able to do several things for the cost of one or for a low price. 4) Non-resident Inidan banking. I saw a lot of signs advertising this at the Kerala airport. Its interesting to see these since the accounts are primarily designed so that Indians working abroad can send remittances back to their families in India. I didn't realize the market was big enough to have active advertisements for it. Making it even more interesting is that when I was working at the SF Fed, I got to know a little bit about some of the Indian banks advertising, since my group was responsible for regulating the ones with a US presence.
Cochin itself was created as an island in a natural harbor as a result of some serious flooding that never receeded in the 13th century. It was succesively a Fort town under control of the Portugese, the Dutch, and then the British.
I spent the day touring the city, seeing a bunch of churches, places where people were fishing, a spice trading center (as in a real, live commodities trading center with brokers naming prices, etc.) and the Mattancherry Palace. The Mattancherry Palace is a former Raj Palace that had a great museum in it with some cool portraits and Raj-era artifacts.
After all of that I went to see a Katahakali cultural show, which is a form of Keralan theatre. It emphasizes use of eyes movement and sharp body movements. The actors wear bright color outfits.
For dinner I went to one of the nicest hotel's in Kerala's restaurant called the Boghaty Boatyard, housed in a former palace.
Observations:
1) Service at the nice hotel's restaurant was a little over the top. The waiters, wouldn't even let me scoop my own rice on to my plate. I think part of it was that they wanted to talk to me.
2) Cost of food versus lodging. This seems to be off in India, relative to what I would expect, at least at the levels that I am willing to bear since cheap food seems to make me sick. Tonight was an extreme case (but the food was amazing), nonetheless it cost 5x what my cheap hotel room did.
3) Multipupose clothes. A lot of the fishermen in Kerala wear skirt like clothes that can be folded up and down. When its folded up it creates a natural pocket for carrying things. Plus the inside is usually clean, so it also provides a cloth to wipe dirty things onto without making the outside look dirty. This is just one of many efficiencies I've seen in daily life in India. It seems that since money is hard to come by for most people, that there way of life has to be a lot more resourceful and that they are a lot more creative with being able to do several things for the cost of one or for a low price. 4) Non-resident Inidan banking. I saw a lot of signs advertising this at the Kerala airport. Its interesting to see these since the accounts are primarily designed so that Indians working abroad can send remittances back to their families in India. I didn't realize the market was big enough to have active advertisements for it. Making it even more interesting is that when I was working at the SF Fed, I got to know a little bit about some of the Indian banks advertising, since my group was responsible for regulating the ones with a US presence.
posted by Traveling Brian at 2:09 AM
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