The Cochin Diaries - Day 3

We were back to the usual dilemma of deciding on what to do (my only plan was to get back to Fort Kochi and get into all those places that were shut yesterday) when Tharian suggested that since the Synagogue at Mattancherry was shut on Saturdays we better go back to Fort Kochi the next day. For the present, he said there was a compulsory viewing of two films which he has chosen for us and it looked like a good idea after the exertions of yesterday, so we settled down to watch the same. 

Marine Drive

Somewhere there lies Fort Kochi

Water Metro Station

Long queues

Standing inside the Metro

Just as Tharian had promised - the two movies ('Nna Thaan Case Kodu' and 'Vellimoonga') were engrossing enough to keep us going through the morning and into the early evening. Since my viewing of Malayalam films  is very high these days, I feel very Malayali inside, and feel like I know these places, people, language, food very well. Anyway, this happened through a lovely breakfast, beer and lunch and we were all geared up for the massive evening adventure - a trip to Kumbalangi where one gets to see bioluminiscent algae in the water. Deep in the Kumabalangi area (an eco tourism village) which is about 12-15 kms from Kochi, one gets to see the Chinese nets, eat a fine meal and go kayaking in the backwaters to see the sea sparkle or what is locally known as kavaru, the bioluminiscent effect in the water.

Chinese nets

All sorts of fishing equipment

Chinese net from up close

But that being late in the night, we decided to take the Water Metro from Kochi to Fort Kochi and see the Chinese nets (I guess one has to really watch them in action but I was quite content to see them doing nothing). Sanjana had a Sangeet to attend so she signed off for the evening and it was just the five of us. We drove to Marine Drive, waited in a long line for the Water Metro, hopped on and rode it past the Willingdon Island and other islands right up to Fort Kochi. We got dropped off pretty close to Seagull restaurant and then we walked down the beach front through the Vasco Da Gama Park. A stopped to check out some stuff to buy - she has immense patience and interest and picks stuff for her friends etc. I can never understand how she does that.  

Inscribed on it - Erected on 17 October 1890 by JE Winkler, Port Officer

Steam boilers from cranes used in dry dock from 1956 

Anchor - that guy should get off, its symbolic

Now the famous Chinese nets are all along the sea front here - a 14th century gift to the people of Kochi from the Chinese who were doing trade by then in spices and stuff. There is also some sort of a Chinese proclamation or declaration which makes Kochi a favored pal of theirs in those times. From what Tharian tells me (he said he would see these at his mother's hometown where they operated) - there is a system which lowers the net into the water and pulls up with the catch. Its a 'shore operated lift net', a fixed system that works from the shore. There is a light which is lowered to the edge of the waterline which attracts the fish and ensures a bigger catch (never get attracted by lights and shiny stuff, you don't know who is out there to snare you). 

I took some pics of the nets and walked along the paved beachfront that was full of people walking and vendors catering to those walking - pineapple, ice cream, fresh fish from the Chinese nets which you could get cooked in a nearby place, coconut water - stuff like that. I was hoping to hit Fort Kochi beach at some point. But alas, just at the most interesting place where the path juts into the sea and provides great scenic shots, there was a movie shooting going on bang in the middle of the walk - Siddharth Malhotra and Jahnavi Kapoor apparently.  

To the right are Siddharth and Jahnavi somewhere in those lights 

More nets

Could this be the wall of Fort Kochi

I took some pics of the Fort's wall (I am thinking its the wall), a few items that were displayed along the pavement for our interest, like the boilers in some cranes and an anchor etc. We decided to drink some coconut water and carry on to the Water Metro and head back. We somehow survived a sudden and savage mosquito attack and got on the Metro just in time.

Kumbalangi at Night - we need to get there across this water

Back at Kochi Marine Drive we got into the car and headed off to Kumbalangi. I noticed that many areas in Kochi were all part of famous movies - Kumbalangi Nights, Manjummel Boys, Angamaly Diaries etc (it might set off a friendly war between each locality the way its going). The ride was interesting, and we passed through areas with many large churches. 

Tharian and I - aboard the leaky boat, looking on with the same apprehension and bewilderment as we did when we joined our first job in 1991 (Photo courtesy - Marina)

And then the road grew ominously darker and and narrower, with water laden shrimp farms, on either side. Maps said we should turn off into an even narrower and darker one-car road amidst shrimp farms. It was pretty dicey since it did not look like there was any space to turn around (which means one has to drive reverse all the way back!). Tharian drove on, expertly, until we found one guy who was heading back and had this panic-stricken face and advise for us - 'don't go', 'go back' and some words to that effect. Quick to take up any such advise we were about to turn back when we noticed that a car right behind us in the completely filled up car park, pulled out. It appeared that there was a divine hand to all this and we decided to follow it and parked.

Path to the restaurant

The kayaking space - go straight, at second lifebuoy, turn left

Patient boy giving directions - A and S setting off

The next step (Marina was coordinating the whole thing on her phone with complete calm and composure) - we were told was to wait near a small dark bank and a boat would come and pick us up. The place was pitch dark and there were a few others like us waiting in trepidation for the arrival of the said boat. In the distance one could see Chinese nets with lights on, snaring unsuspecting fish. In time the boat was spotted or rather heard - first there was a sound, then a shape loomed and then the boat arrived with the boatman. It was a little bigger than a canoe with a motor and he somehow got all of us in and we chugged off in the dark - I asked how deep the water was and someone said four feet which was rather comforting for me. We stumbled off the boat at the other end, and spotted the restaurant amidst the fields, lights and all (like the Chinese nets drawing fish), people milling about. 

Marina and Tharian off

Looks something like this, only darker - kayaks going around here and there haphazardly 

We got there via a narrow path and were told it would take a couple of hours before we get a whiff of food, the place was packed being a weekend. So we headed to the right side where a solitary boy was patiently handling a bunch of paranoid kayakers - move left paddle back, right paddle forward etc. Since each kayak takes two and we were five I was quite glad to stay back and hold the bags and my baggage with water (I can always blame Sanjana for not coming and leaving me minus the bio-luminescent experience). While I waited for our kayaks to come in I had fun watching the others come in, go out, go round in circles, yell at one another, scream and cuss. When our kayaks came back I was told how each time the paddle hit the water it would turn blue, the sea sparkled. Fantastic!

The restaurant receding at a distance - full up to its gills on the weekend

Chinese nets at work

We headed back out and waited for our next boat back to civilisation. Again the sound first, the shape next and then the boat. This time around he asked us to wait as he started scooping out water from the boat - there's a hole in the boat he said casually - adding a few more worries to my already worried state of mind. Anyway we wondered if we could put a finger in the hole like the famous Dutch boy who stopped the dyke form flooding the place by putting his heroic thumb, but it wasn't necessary (luckily, because, what if the finger gets stuck, its worse than going into the drink in four feet of water). 

Tharian and I - the same thoughtful (apprehensive) poise on the way back (photo courtesy - Marina)

We headed back and alighted safely and went to the car park. After a few tense moments with oncoming traffic (can someone put a 'we are full' board at the beginning of that road and save everyone this trauma please- or perhaps its part of the experience), I could finally breathe easy as we hit the main road. 

By then, it was close to 12 and our next mission was to find a joint to eat. Couple of places looked promising but they told us that they will not serve any food because they were closing (what about those guys who are eating then) and we finally found the welcoming Thalapakattu biryani chap close home and ate some nice biryani. I liked these guys, no frills, just focused on the biryani and let it take care of everything else. 

Off to dreamland after another hectic day.