Logtheplanet.com Family Travel Log - Cochin

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Travel Log
Kerala Backwaters, India 24 Mar. 2002
Cochin, India 25 Mar. 2002

30/3/2002
Cochin (Kochi)
We were suprised to find Cochin so charming. The city that had been described to us as "just another city" turned out to have the charm of a small town and we made the best of it. Being there for Passover was unique, since Cochin used to have a very large Jewish population. Most of the Jews have since moved to Israel, but there is still a small population of about 20 in the area still called Jewtown.

Jewtown in Cochin

We celebrated Passover by doing the unbelievable - going to synagogue. There was a holiday evening service that we participated in along with about 15 other Israelis, a few other Jewish tourists and a handful of locals. Following the service, the Rabbi offered people to join the local families for the seder, and for those who could not be accomidated he offered Matzot. We had already arranged to have the seder in a small restaurant where we arranged to be able to cook for ourselves, so we gladly took the box of Matzot and, gather an additional Israeli couple, and went back to Fort Cochin for the seder.

Cochin was extremely hot and humid, but we loved it.

27/3/2002

Kerala Backwaters

It wasn't easy, but we finally got ourselves out of the laid back ways of Varkala. It was just too easy to be there. We knew that it was time to leave though, when we saw Passover coming up and we barely noticed. We decided to start planning for the holiday and decided that we would work our way up Kerala to Cochin, but first we would take the famous Backwater Boat trip. We were going to leave on Saturday, but Friday afternoon Alex asked us if we could wait a day and go with her on Sunday. Since we really wanted to have her around - the children were desperate for new blood in the traveling pack - we obliged. It really didn't take much to convince us to say an extra day. We really love the place and it wasn't a coincidence that we had stayed for so long. The combination of beach, Yoga, meditation, meeting people, a nice room with a kitchen and an extremely friendly atmosphere was what made Varkala so inviting. So we set Sunday morning for the day of departure.

On Sunday morning we finished packing our 5 packs, had Uriah run down to the bakery and pick up breakfast, made some chai, ate with Alex and prepared to leave. The Taxi came at 8:30 and all six of us piled in and started off to Quillon to catch the boat up to Allepey. The truth was that we almost skipped the backwaters altogether. But a fellow traveler and woman who participated in our Yoga class, Jessica from Detroit, who has been traveling and working in the Far East for two and a half years, said that it was one of the best parts of her trip. That's quite a statement for someone with her travel record. So we thought it's not a bad idea, and we have to get to Cochin somehow, why not via boat.

The taxi ride was uneventful and took about one and quarter hours to get to Allepey. We knew that traveling or doing anything in particular on Sunday could be problematic, but we were told that the boats run everyday. All we knew was that we had to be there by 10:30 when the boat left. What we didn't know was that on Sunday there is only one boat - a government run operation - that attracts Indian tourists in great numbers. Jessica had told us that there were only 20 people on her boat, and it was very relaxing. We had about 50, making it a bit crowed. After searching for alternatives we quickly conceded and got lugged our kids, our gear and ourselves onto the boat. We had arrived early, which was lucky, since being as crowded as it was we had to find a place to settle without being squashed into a corner. We managed to arrange ourselves a few seats on the backside of the upper deck, and we were able to thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the backwaters.

The weather outside of the cool beach breezes of Varkala was humid and warm. On the top deck of the boat we were shaded and once the boat got going, we cooled down a bit....

More to come...Gotta run to get ready for the seder. I'm actually going to synagogue! It's amazing what can happen to you on these trips.
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