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January 16- 17, 1999

While waiting for the train in Goa, a man, who appeared to be a janitor (he was carrying a dirty bucket of water), walked by as we were discussing our plan to take a train from Mangalore to Cochin the next morning. He told Jeff in broken English "train to Cochin 7 km before Mangalore." Jeff smiled, nodded, thanked the man for the info (whatever it was) and promptly disregarded it. The next morning we stopped briefly at the station just before Mangalore terminal and looked out the window to see a station name, which sounded vaguely familiar. We thought, "hmm", and then continued on to the Manglore station where we went to the reservation office to secure tickets to Cochin. As usual we were told "trains to Cochin - Not Possible!" It was then, that Josh noticed there was a train leaving for Cochin from the station we had just passed through (the one the janitor told us about). It left at 9:30am. We looked at our watches. It was 9:32am. We figured being about 20 minutes away by rickshaw we had about a 75% chance of getting on that train. So, with 5 hours of sleep and slightly less than excellent temperaments we got a rickshaw and went back 7 kilometers to the small village station. We walked up to the empty reservation counter.

Us: "Three tickets to Cochin please."
Lady: "280 rupees!"
Us: (slightly dazed and puzzled) "Uhhh…..okay……each?"
Lady: "No, total"
Us: (sure that at any moment she would say not possible) "When does it leave?"
Lady: "Half hour"

Oddly enough when all was said and done we got to Cochin for about 270 rupees each on a train, that days before in Goa, we were told was 1180 rupees each, full until January 31, and "not possible"! Apparently, it just goes to show that in India you should never assume that the person working in the ticket reservation/booking office knows any more about the train schedules then does the night janitor.

We pulled into Ernakulam, the city across the bay from Cochin around 10pm, and were determined to put an end to our excessive living and fancy hotels ($10-20 u.s. a day between the three of us). Since it was late and most places were full we wound up staying at the expensive and fancy Hotel Metropolitan. The next day we took the ferry across the harbor and stayed in the less expensive area of Fort Cochin. We found the Fort Hotel. It was a rustic but beautiful one-story hotel with a garden that overlooked the bay and cost half the dollars. In Cochin we visited the British Empire's oldest Jewish synagogue built in 1568. After the Jews fled Israel in the Diaspora, some of them arrived on the banks of Ernakulam India in 72 AD where they lived and prospered as spice traders for several centuries. When the catholic Portuguese arrived in Ernakulam, they once again started in with the killing and expulsion of the Jews. The Jewish king swam with his wife on his back across the bay to Cochin where he was given protection and later made a prince by the Karalan king. The Jewish community has survived in Cochin for over 400 years, but after Israel's independence many Jews left the area. The Jewish population in Cochin has dwindled to about 20 people. Five families remain who protect and maintain the synagogue.

In Cochin we saw a performance of Katakali dancing, traditional Keralan folk dance, literally translated play/story. The show begins with a display of the elaborate make-up application office. The make-up is made from vibrantly colored minerals mixed with coconut oil. This application process takes about one hour and ends with the actors putting a powder into their eyes that makes them turn bright red. The performers have an incredible control of eye, face, hand, and body gestures, which they use to express emotions and to tell the story. Their role in telling the story is complemented by the accompaniment of three percussionists one of whom also sings/chants portions of the tale. The performance lasted about one hour and was only a small segment of the otherwise nine-hour full-length version.