Today is a day of transition. We are wandering the streets and taking extended breaks at cafes to bide the time. It's our last few hours in Cochin. Check out time at the guesthouse was noon and our train doesn't leave until tonight at 7.45 p.m. (Fortunately, we don't have to carry our backpacks around because we were allowed to leave them in the common room at the guesthouse.) It's a perfect opportunity to catch up on email, exchange more read books for new ones, and just spend the last day here relaxing and enjoying ourselves.
Yesterday was a multicultural sightseeing event of a day. We strolled by an old Dutch cemetary where some of the earliest settlers here are buried, we drove through a predominately Muslim part of town and saw their beautiful mosque, and we visited our first synagogue! It is in Mattancherry (more commonly known as Jew Town) which is one of the historic centers of the spice trade. Though the current structure dates from 1664, the original was built in 1568. The first Jewish settlers came to this area about 1000 years ago and a few of their ancestors still live here. By a few, I mean a few. The Jewish population has dwindled to a "geriatric group of 14" due to emigration to Mumbai which today, has the largest Jewish community in India. There is no rabbi in town and services are held by the Jewish elders only when "enough people show up" but it was pretty fascinating to see the building. The floor inside was covered with blue and white Cantonese tiles dating from 1762 and hung from the ceiling were more than a dozen 19th-century oil-buring chandeliers.
As an aside (mostly for Trish's interest); after every meal in India you are given a small dish of fennel (or anise) seeds which is sometimes accompanied by small crystal squares of sugar. You are supposed to eat them together as an after-dinner breath freshener and digestive aid (though Trish was most fond of eating just the sugar bits). Yesterday in the spice markets of Jew Town we found sugar-coated anise and happily munched on it for hours last night during a couple of games of Crazy-8s!
Our next, and last, stop in India is Bangalore from where we will catch our flight to Nepal on Sunday. It was no easy feat to get a train ticket to Bangalore since there is one only train there from Cochin each day. When we went there a few days ago to get our tickets, the next eleven days were solidly booked! Our saviour was a once-a-week-on-Wednesday train that luckily had berths available.
India is the only country in the world that continues to expand its rail system (while other countries move towards widening their highways). The rail system here, originally set up by the British Raj, is a very complete and complex network that takes you just about wherever you want to go. In fact, just about everything about India Rail is complex; from filling out the reservation slips to buying a ticket to choosing a seating class. Let me explain. The different classes as far as we understand them are as follows (placed in order from most expensive to least): 1A is an air-conditioned sleeping compartment with two berths, 2A is an a/c sleeping compartment with 4 berths, FC is first class seating (no bed), 3A is an a/c sleeping compartment with 6 berths, Sleeper class is a non a/c sleeper (with 6 berths?), CC is chair car seating (no bed), and finally, II is second class seating (wooden benches shared with many, many people). Each route may have any number of class combinations so that not all classes are available on every train though there is usually a pretty good selection. We typically take 3A for our overnight trips but the train to Bangalore this evening only offers a rather small choice between 2A or II. Since it is an very long ride on an overnight train we opted for the much more pricey 2A class for about $20 each (we have taken II class in the past and it is probably not the place you want to find yourself spending an entire night). It's going to be a little more luxurious than we are used to but it's also going to be nice to have a comfortable ride as our last one in India.
Until Bangalore....
tothesea,
k&m