I love India. Love the food. Love the people. Love the culture. I'd come back. This is my favorite port of the voyage so far. Right now, I'm writing this post on a bus to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is!). The last three days, I've been on a program through SAS called Princes and Palaces, and visited Jaipur and Bharatpur. It's been amazing. Tonight, we'll spend the night in a hotel overlooking the Taj and then drive to Delhi tomorrow. It's a lot of travel every day, but it's also been nice to have a couple hours of downtime; we see a lot when we're not on the bus and sometimes the amount of sightseeing can be a little overwhelming.
The first day I had in India was spent exploring Fort Kochi with friends. The ship docked early in the morning, but by the time we went through immigration and got ready to leave, it was lunchtime so we ate on the ship and then headed out. It was Brit, Jane, Eleanor and I exploring together and I was the mastermind behind the plans.
I briefly did some research about Cochin, because I had some classwork to work on "in the field," which is really just code for homework when while I'm not on the ship. My History of Modern China class is analyzing how the Chinese culture has spread throughout the world, so we are looking for Chinatowns in all of the port cities we dock in. There wasn't necessarily a Chinatown in Cochin, but they do have these giant Chinese fishing nets that are pretty famous, so my class was strongly encouraged to check those out. My Social Pysch class requires us to get data of bartering in three different ports. I did my first collection in Hong Kong, and was planning on getting more in markets here. It's really not my favorite task, because I have to have someone videotape every interaction I have, and it's hard to walk away from the vender without buying anything, so I usually just purchase the item. After spending more money than I had wanted in Hong Kong on a bunch of stuff I didn't necessarily need, my friends and I figured out that I would just barter for whatever they want and kinda came up with a good system. So I also planned on visiting the markets in Fort Kochi.
As we got off the ship, we asked where the ferry was to take us over there and started heading in that direction. We soon found ourselves surrounded by tuktuk drivers offering to take us around the entire day for only 400, 200, or even 100 rupees (about $1.50). Tuktuks are best explained as a mix between rickshaw type things on a motorcycle and a rustic golf cart. The drivers were persistent, walking with us or driving alongside us, despite our rejections. Eventually, we made it to the ferry to find out it wasn't going to leave for another hour. There were two tuktuk drivers offering us the same amount to take us around all day – 100 rupees for all four of us. No one in the group wanted to make a decision, and honestly, we had no reason to choose one over the other. It was only when we attracted a crowd of ten drivers surrounding us as we discussed our options did we pick a tuktuk.
Our driver's name was Sham, which means the sun. The sun's hot, but don't worry, because he's cool. He said it. Not me. I promise. I was somewhat hesitant with our choice, but I know we picked the right driver. He was 22, and had been driving tuktuks for 5 years. He talked to us about SAS, slowed down so we could take pictures, and even affectionately referred to Eleanor as Singapore by the end of the day, because she was the only non-American in our group. At this point, I was still convinced he was just taking us to the markets in Fort Kochi so we could wander around on our own, so I was super confused when he pulls up on the side of the street next to a community laundromat. That's when our group realized we found our very own tour guide for the day. We also visited the Santa Cruz Catholic Basilica, an art gallery, a spice market, and many, many shops full of saris, scarves, and jewelry. However, in these shops, it was really hard to barter for my project because everything was so expensive, and I wasn't into spending that much.
We did make it to the Chinese fishing nets, and got to watch them in action. Fishing with the nets is pretty labor intensive, so it's not as commonly used. It was really cool to get up close and watch the fish being caught – I think they were catfish.
The street behind the Chinese fishing nets was lined with market stalls full of clothing, which meant two things: more shopping and my social psych homework. We found one stall and I was able to barter for the clothes that Brit and Jane wanted to purchase. Only issue was, Brit is very indecisive. As I was bartering, she'd see something else she wanted. It worked out okay, but I only got three interactions, so I'll have to make them up in another port.
After the market, Sham let us drive the tuktuk. That's right. We got to drive. I have a great picture of Brit sitting in the front seat with him. She wasn't super confident like Jane was though. Jane really and truly was driving the tuktuk, but Sham didn't teach her really all that well because she didn't know how to slow down. As we neared a tight pass with a bus on one side and a person on the other, Jane had to choose to inch closer to one instead of the other. Thinking that the person would move if she got close enough, she chose the man. The man didn't move and she did what she called a love tap, which ended up in a stare down between the man and his friends and Sham. It was terrifying, yet I was trying so hard not to laugh. And that's one of the reasons why SAS doesn't let students operate motor vehicles. That was also the end of the driving for the day.
After the love tap incident, we wanted food and wifi, so Sham took us to a restaurant near the fishing nets where we ordered curry and a ton of different kinds of bread. The day was reaching its end, and we had plans that night back on the ship, so we had Sham drive us back over and we said our goodbyes.
That night, we all attended the welcome reception with university students (all male, all MBA students) – Brit, Jane, Chris, and I. Maddie even showed up on her field lab. It was cool and all, but my favorite part was the food. I thought there would only be snacks, but there was a full on buffet line and everything was delicious. It was all vegetarian, and I have no idea what I ate, because they piled it on as I walked down the line. It all mixed together, and I hate when my food touches each other. But it was delicious. And that's where I fell in love with Indian food.
Also, here's a picture of me at the Taj!
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