Two days later, we arrived in Kochin and I was ready to give India another shot. We were cleared for landing much earlier that morning because there was only about 200 kids on the boat, the rest had traveled independently (most up north to see the Taj Mahal). We got off the ship once more to a city on the west side of the peninsula that is India, and we were greeted by a similar scene of hustling rickshaw drivers and vendors. Kochin, however seemed to have more trees and had less of in industrial feel. It was actually very pretty and kind of pleasant once you got used to the smells. The minute I stepped off the boat, I had a better perception of the country than the one I got in Chennai. The process of getting off and on the ship was very tedious and the security was very tight, apparently because there had been high terrorist alerts that day. We were checked by at least 3 different Indian officials each time in and out. However, this is not the first time the boat has been on alert for terrorist activity. When we sailed through the Strait of Malacca, we were going at top speed after the news of a cruise ship attacked by pirates the day before in the area. The Strait of Malacca is the stretch of water in between the islands of Malaysia where Singapore is. We stopped in Singapore one morning as well, to refuel but we did not get off the ship, it sure was beautiful though. I remember going through the strait, I was up on deck 7 (the pool deck) and the head of security was doing laps around and using is binoculars every few minutes or so to scope out every direction all day long.
Anyway… Back in Kochin, we found a driver who turned out to be pretty straight up with us and pretty legit about price and destination, though from our Chennai experience, we were very skeptical. This driver even told us that he wanted to take us to a few shops so that he would get a free tee shirt, we obliged him and admired his honesty, but bought nothing at the shops. We cruised through the city in a rickshaw and got an idea for the layout. Kochin was made up of about 4 or 5 islands and connected by bridges. The islands were all pretty similar and could be described as much more of a towny, working man's place. We requested a hotel from our driver and he took us to 3 different spots before we settled on one. It ended up being about 15 dollars a person for a four person room, or at least we were going to make it a four person room. The crew, once again was Mack, Sam, Yudai, and myself. The hotel was very interesting. It was all cement, all white, and was open to the outdoors beside the rooms. From the outside, it looked like an embassy. We cruised around the town seeing the sites for the rest of the day, snapping pictures of locals, seeing establishments and viewing temples. We went back and took showers and got ready for dinner. There was a place called "princess street", which I'm sure had no influence from the British Empire being in India, which was rumored to have good restaurants that we decided to check out. We walked down to this place through dirt roads, we passed night soccer fields that seemed to still be very alive and random groups of Indians on the move. There was minimal lighting on the street and most places had fences from the street to the entry way. After finding a restaurant with some fairly priced food and traditional Indian music playing, we had found our spot. We enjoyed a nice meal with VERY spicy curry and a type of flatbread that we were encouraged to eat with our hands, but there were utensils available as well. I started out with my hands, but then just to speed things up, switched to my fork. Have you ever tried to eat rice with just your fingers?
That evening, there was a girl named Amanda who was having a birthday party, so we decided to go that. I was impressed with the organization of this event. It was at a hotel on one of the islands about 20 minutes away and had a DJ, a bar, and a dance floor. The night was very very hot. I was sweating so much, my nice collared shirt was drenched from top to bottom and sticking to me. We made the best of the night and had a fun time, and an interesting experience.
The birthday party, I think made me feel a little more at home and familiar with my surroundings of people. I'm very pleased to have been able to see Kochin, because Chennai left a bad taste in my mouth. The country of India was not my favorite port, but I'm glad and thankful for the experience. The next day we would sail for Mauritius.
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