Cochin Adventures

Cochin!!

The blog of the century

For the last 3 days we were in Cochin so we were unable to put up a blog about the trip. But now we’re back and finally blogging. On the first day of our trip we did some much needed shopping (not like we’ve done that before…) and then we went to our hotel. Our hotel was 300 years old and very beautiful. After we settled into our hotel we went out and saw a Kathakali dance performance. Kathakali is a type of dance which includes exquisite costumes and amazing muscle control of the body. The first part of the performance was a demonstration of how different words were shown through dance. After a very long presentation of how breasts are shown through Kathakali (which seemed to take up half the performance) and some amazing demonstrations of emotions the dramatic part of the performance began. The story was about the gods Arjuna and Shiva. It was amazing to see the costumes and the dancing, but the show seemed to drag on for a long time and our stomachs did not seem to be able to wait. So we very slowly and quietly snuck out of the performance. We then went across the street to a very nice restaurant at which the food was amazing. After filling up our stomachs, we slowly made our way back to the hotel, stopping along the way to do some last minute shopping. The night was fairly uneventful aside from a few girls trying to act like they were ghosts (it didn’t work).

The next day we headed off to do a backwater tour of the waters of Cochin. That was a very peaceful experience and a lot of us found ourselves “resting our eyes”. The tour stopped at a place where we were able to get fresh coconut from some of the locals. Some of us attempting to climb the tree ourselves and that was when Andrew finally realized he was not a monkey. The tour ended and we spent a peaceful afternoon and evening back at the hotel and around the village. During our shopping, we met a local store keeper named Meer. He was a very funny man who we ended up spending a lot of time with.

We woke up bright and early to head off to a temple and an elephant sanctuary. The temple was quite beautiful on the outside but sadly people that were not of the Hindu faith were not allowed inside. So as Preena went in on her own, the rest of us headed around the temple receiving a lot of stares from the locals (some things never change!).

After that we went to the elephant sanctuary which was absolutely amazing. In total there were 47 elephants in the sanctuary and one trainer for each elephant. We were able to get close to the elephants and even pet them. The elephants were surprisingly very hairy and we got to see some of the elephants in action. One of the elephants was commanded by his trainer to pick up a couple of coconut trees, which had already been cut down, and with his huge tusks and snout he managed to pick them up and bring them to wherever his trainer wanted. This was the most amazing feat of strength I have ever seen. The elephant’s trunk is so strong and powerful. The trainers told us that they have over 10 000 muscles in their trunk alone. We ended up spending a full 2 hours at the sanctuary.

We then headed home, back to Coimbatore. The guys were very excited to relax in their house but we came back home to no power. Apparently the person who owned the house forgot to pay his electricity bill. But that was no problem, because we quickly took all of our beds and carried them to the girls’ home where we had a York school slumber party – girls on one side of the house, guys on the other. We made some Kraft Dinner (another first) and headed off to bed. That was the end of our very exciting three days, and we’re looking forward to having a few more fun days before heading home. Miss you all.

- Graeme

Pictures to come tonight!