Spencer Home Stay

Arrived in Cochin/Kochi at break of dawn after an all-night train ride. We were so relieved to be on that train, that we slept very soundly – a 10 hour ride seemed to go very fast. The ticket agent had put us on tenterhooks by not confirming our seat reservations until a couple of hours before departure time. We had visions of needing to take a long uncomfortable bus ride to get us out of Kochi.

A taxi took us to Spencer Home Stay, a very sweet little B&B a very tiny place, maybe 10 rooms, well located and the manager has pretty good English. The rooms open onto a small courtyard shaded by palms and other plants. The only problem is that it is hot and muggy here. If the ceiling fan doesn’t cool us off sufficiently tonight, we may have to find a place with a/c.

The city is on several islands and peninsulas, connected by bridges and ferries. We are on an island called Fort Cochin, which is the location of Dutch and Portuguese trading posts and of a 400-year-old synagogue. The waterfront is a couple of blocks away. More western tourists here than we have seen during the entire trip.

On the water’s edge, we saw 8 or 10 huge fishing nets rigged to a contraption that lowered the nets into the water using a primitive counterbalance system of rock counterweights and long poles and requiring the efforts of several men to operate. We hope to have fresh fish for dinner tonight.

Looking past the fishermen, one sees a very active sea-lane with container ships, tugs and barges, tourist sightseeing boats, ferries . . . and 2 kayakers.

This evening we have tickets for a kathakali dance performance. I am sorry that we won’t be able to have the kind of experience that Suzanne described, having seen a dance troupe perform in a remote temple by moonlight.

While scrounging around in my suitcase this morning, I found an unmarked plastic bottle of shampoo that I had mislaid. This afternoon I took a shower and poured some of the “shampoo” on my head – only to discover – by smell, not taste - that it was whiskey that I had got by the security folks – but then had forgotten all about it. I still don’t know what happened to the shampoo I had so carefully decanted into a very similar plastic bottle.