Fort Cochin

To the west of Tamil Nadu, where Moriah and I worked at CMC for 4 weeks, lies Kerala, a thin patch of land bordering the Arabian sea. We stayed at Fort Cochin, a small town with an impressively deep history. It is home to the oldest European church in India, dating to the 17th century, but there is evidence of Christian influence here dating back to at least the 5th century, possibly even older.

Fort Cochin is also home to Jew town (their words not ours) and a synagogue that also dates to the 17th century. The museum near the synagogue claims that Jews came to Cochin after the diaspora, with more coming following the destruction of the second temple. Until quite recently there was a Jewish community in Cochin, but their numbers slowly dwindled through intermarriage, until finally the last remaining family moved to Israel.

We stayed at a home-stay called the Jasmine Villa, run by a very nice couple, Stanley and Jasmine, who also own a travel agency in the area. Dinner and breakfast were included, and man did they stuff us silly. In fact, after bringing dinner onto our plane to cochin and then also being served dinner on the plane, we arrived at jasmine villa at 10:30 at night to a full dinner spread. When we tried to explain that we had already eaten dinner, in fact two dinners, they looked crushed. So we said "well maybe we will taste everything" which perked them up and led them to serve us a full third meal. We have never been so full in our lives... Except for breakfast the next morning, that is. Jasmine specializes in south indian cuisine, and her sambhar was by far the best we have had. She also teaches a cooking class, but wasn't able to hold one while we were there due to a conflicting schedule. Its a shame, we would have loved to learn her secrets! The first day we toured Fort Cochin, going to the church as well as Jew town. We had our first mango in India (they hadn't been ripe yet).

One of the highlights were the cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, impressive 50 foot tall structures. These nets date back to a visit in 1400 by Kubla Kahn, but as it has become less and less profitable, Fort Cochin is one of the last places these nets can be found. As we walked up and down the pier looking at these structures in action, the fishermen kept motioning for us to join them. They were happy to let me join in the fun, and I stayed and fished with them for a few hours. This is a very low time in the year, as they would average only about one smallish fish for every pull, and they would do it all day every five minutes or so. Very hard work and very few fish. We caught manly sardines, shrimp and small mullet, a bony fish with a flat head and brilliant white underbelly. Catching one large mullet drastically improved the spirits of the men, and they broke out beedi, small hand wrapped cigarettes, to celebrate. Around five they closed up, and Moriah and I walked down to the fish market to see what the other nets had yielded. Here there were also fish from the boats that had recently returned. We saw a number of fish I was familiar with from Hawaii, including Mahi Mahi, Ono, and small tuna. They also had some enourmous grouper, and the largest tiger prawns I had ever seen. There was also a small grey tipped reef shark. The fish monger was pretty sure that no one would buy this type of shark, and sadly it would probably just go to waste.

Dave and Moriah