Wednesday January 9:
We checked out of our hotel home in Trivandrum early in the morning to begin our 5-day long road trip traveling up Kerala to take a break from academics and do some sight seeing. We drove to Alleppy and got on a houseboat to take a tour on the backwaters. Apparently, they are called the "Venice of the East". Literally all we did was sit on a houseboat, eat fresh fish, take pictures, and enjoy the scenery. It was a great break from the city. We docked and spent the night on the houseboat.
Not our houseboat, but similar style
Dana cheesin for the camera
Even Jerry was excited to be on the houseboat!
Those are all ducks! So many!
Our fish that we had for lunch. It was delicious!
Just livin' the life.
Kids traveled to school in boats!
Thursday January 10:
In the morning, we took a one hour boat ride while they served us breakfast. Then they kicked us off the boat, so we drove to Fort Kochi. On our way there, we stopped at a Marxist/Communist factory that takes the husks from the shell of used coconuts and weaves them into string, aka coir. They make rugs and giant spools of weaved coir. The ladies even made us bracelets for all of the girls with their bare hands. Then we got back into our tour bus and kept driving (we do a lot of driving, by the way). Once we got there, it was lunch time so Katie, both Dana's, Stephanie, and I went for lunch at this cute little hotel restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It was quite the experience trying to figure out what the fish special was.
After lunch everyone gathered and we went to view two cathedrals, a synagogue, and an Indo-Dutch museum. Kochi is an extremely touristy area and some of the architecture reflects European architecture because way back in the day the French, Dutch, British, and Portuguese colonized the area. On the outside of one of the cathedrals there was a sign with a little blurb and the first sentence was "This church represents the struggles that Europeans faced while colonizing the area." Yes. I'm sure it was very difficult for you. After walking around and looking in some shops, we all hopped on a ferryboat and rode over to the mainland of Kochi (Fort Kochi is an island) to meet up with another India Winterim Class from the University. I was excited because I knew a couple of the people in that class. We chitchatted with them for about an hour about what our classes are doing and what everyones favorite part of India is. They are studying eco-tourism and determining whether or not tourism can be eco-friendly and beneficial to the locals. Both classes planned on going to a traditional dance performance, but our class had decided we wanted to go back to our hotel and rest. We began walking back to the ferry when an events coordinator called telling us that the event was just for us. So, we all had to pile into auto-rickshaws and find our way to the Cochin Cultural Center asap. The dances were awesome. I'm glad that we were able to make it. There was one dance where they literally stood on a brass plate and moved around the floor on it! Afterwards we caught the last ferry home and crashed in bed.
The restaurant we ate at
Dana
After lunch everyone gathered and we went to view two cathedrals, a synagogue, and an Indo-Dutch museum. Kochi is an extremely touristy area and some of the architecture reflects European architecture because way back in the day the French, Dutch, British, and Portuguese colonized the area. On the outside of one of the cathedrals there was a sign with a little blurb and the first sentence was "This church represents the struggles that Europeans faced while colonizing the area." Yes. I'm sure it was very difficult for you. After walking around and looking in some shops, we all hopped on a ferryboat and rode over to the mainland of Kochi (Fort Kochi is an island) to meet up with another India Winterim Class from the University. I was excited because I knew a couple of the people in that class. We chitchatted with them for about an hour about what our classes are doing and what everyones favorite part of India is. They are studying eco-tourism and determining whether or not tourism can be eco-friendly and beneficial to the locals. Both classes planned on going to a traditional dance performance, but our class had decided we wanted to go back to our hotel and rest. We began walking back to the ferry when an events coordinator called telling us that the event was just for us. So, we all had to pile into auto-rickshaws and find our way to the Cochin Cultural Center asap. The dances were awesome. I'm glad that we were able to make it. There was one dance where they literally stood on a brass plate and moved around the floor on it! Afterwards we caught the last ferry home and crashed in bed.
St. Francis Church
Behind each plaque like this, someone is buried. There were quite a few of these.
Inside the church
Santa Cruz Cathedral
Sam from the other group and Jeremy in their kitty shirts!
Pictures from the dances:
Friday January 11:
In the morning we left for the "9th annual International India Development Coalition of America" conference. And we were there almost the entire day. It was pretty boring. There were a couple good speakers, but for the most part I was pretty bored. Finally we left and drove to our next hotel in a little town right outside of Thrissur. On the way, we went through a toll booth and then our driver somehow managed to be on the wrong side of the highway. Now, normally, this would not concern me if we were on a normal road, but we were on a highway that had a border between the roads going different directions. We had to do a three point turn in the middle of the road and pull a U-turn by the toll booth. That was interesting. Our poor driver. He was probably so embarrassed.
So glad to see you have internet access again! I'm glad you enjoyed the house boat! Looks like the scenery was pretty! Jacob would LOVE all of that information about the buildings and stuff. I'll have to get him on here so he can see your pictures! Glad you are safe after your driving fiasco!!
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