After a whirlwind tour of Delhi, we boarded a flight to Kochi, the port city in the western state of Kerala. Fort Cochin is a conglomeration of its many visitors from the past 600 years—the fishing nets of the Chinese, the synagogues of the Jewish settlers, the stores of many Portuguese traders and Dutch cemeteries still remain today. We wasted no time getting acclimated with the Kerala culture, as we dropped our bags and headed to the theater for a pre-dinner show. We walked into the Kathakali theater just in time to see the actors diligently applying their elaborate make up and costumes. Kathakali, the classic Kerala dance and play style, emphasizes extreme facial expressions and body movements to express emotions. Imagine Mr. Bean wearing bright green face paint, adding a couple hundred pounds and using his eyes to tell the story of the triumph of good versus evil! These guys were unreal!! Inspired, we couldn’t stop the eyebrow movements and facial expressions (more like a lip twinge in my case) to “speak” during dinner. I thought my incredibly large eyeballs would give me the advantage, but Megan quickly won the title as the family Kathakali actor.
The following morning, we all hopped into the van anxious for our Kerala cooking class in a local woman’s home. I warned my party, as well as many locals, that I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an experienced chef, unless you count Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese (I would!). The entire country let out a sigh of relief, as we quickly realized it was more of a demonstration than an active participation class. We benefitted from a delicious lunch with local specialties, all of which were properly cooked with no one injured. Nothing follows a good meal like a little shopping adventure and that’s exactly what we did, as we perused the shops of old Jew Town. Antiques, MC Hammer pants, a great book shop and much more filled our time for hours. Our time in Cochin ended with a delicious feast and music show at the Malabar Junction where the love affair continued with the Indian cuisine!
After a traditional dosa breakfast, our guide picked us up for an early Saturday morning surprise. Told to cover up, we knew nothing of what was in store for us. Within twenty minutes, we pulled up to a large fair grounds looking field, decorated with streamers and gold garland. Passing a crate full of multi colored chicks, our guide led us towards the sound of a “battle of the bands” type concert. As we turned the corner, 17 ornately decorated elephants stood in front of us, all holding up 4 choreographed dancers each To top that off, live musicians battled back and forth in front of the elephants to honor the great Lord Shiva! Hundreds packed into a small area to witness the Hindu festival. As you can imagine, we fit right in with our jaws on the floor in complete awe.
After an eventful drive, we arrived to our home for the next 24 hours--a houseboat on the Kerala backwaters. A network of windy rivers, lagoons and canals, the Kerala backwaters stunningingly beautiful scenery nourishes the surrounding rice paddies and coconut groves. You can't be the scenery and it was only topped off by a coconut upon arrival and three delicious meals. The setting proved conducive for plowing through India novels and countless games of everyone's favorite card game, UNO! We ate like king and queens, slept wonderfully and was sad to depart our house on the water.
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| Uttapam = Delicious |
Fortunately, we didn't had to head far as we stayed at a Kerala backwaters resort for the next two nights in Kumarakom. Advertised as "perhaps paradise on earth", the Kumarakom resorted boasted two swimming pools, traditional Indian dance shows and great school rooms! The true highlight of this time came with the introduction of two of my favorite Indian foods so far--uttapam and halwa. Uttapam, a traditional breakfast food, is the Indian style pancake mixed with onions, tomatoes and green chilies. With a little tomato chutney or vegetable sambhar instead of butter, it is the perfect breakfast treat! Halwa is the perfect (until I found galub jamun, more to come later) after dinner dessert. Made with either pumpkin, carrot or pineapple, the thick pudding made with butter and sugar required double helpings at the dinner buffet ;) Yum and yum!
After a whirlwind tour of Delhi, we boarded a flight to Kochi, the port city in the western state of Kerala. Fort Cochin is a conglomeration of its many visitors from the past 600 years—the fishing nets of the Chinese, the synagogues of the Jewish settlers, the stores of many Portuguese traders and Dutch cemeteries still remain today. We wasted no time getting acclimated with the Kerala culture, as we dropped our bags and headed to the theater for a pre-dinner show. We walked into the Kathakali theater just in time to see the actors diligently applying their elaborate make up and costumes. Kathakali, the classic Kerala dance and play style, emphasizes extreme facial expressions and body movements to express emotions. Imagine Mr. Bean wearing bright green face paint, adding a couple hundred pounds and using his eyes to tell the story of the triumph of good versus evil! These guys were unreal!! Inspired, we couldn’t stop the eyebrow movements and facial expressions (more like a lip twinge in my case) to “speak” during dinner. I thought my incredibly large eyeballs would give me the advantage, but Megan quickly won the title as the family Kathakali actor. 
Fortunately, we didn't had to head far as we stayed at a Kerala backwaters resort for the next two nights in Kumarakom. Advertised as "perhaps paradise on earth", the Kumarakom resorted boasted two swimming pools, traditional Indian dance shows and great school rooms! The true highlight of this time came with the introduction of two of my favorite Indian foods so far--uttapam and halwa. Uttapam, a traditional breakfast food, is the Indian style pancake mixed with onions, tomatoes and green chilies. With a little tomato chutney or vegetable sambhar instead of butter, it is the perfect breakfast treat! Halwa is the perfect (until I found galub jamun, more to come later) after dinner dessert. Made with either pumpkin, carrot or pineapple, the thick pudding made with butter and sugar required double helpings at the dinner buffet ;) Yum and yum!
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