Day 4

I started the day with very early guided tour. It was completely individual tour with this lovely older lady who was really amazing. She was very knowledgeable about history of Kerala and Kochi, but she also weaved personal stories, from her childhood and different times of life, into the fabric of Fort Kochi. How like residents transformed that place into tourist spot and where people want to come. Because it was so individual I didn't have problem with saying that I read books about Kerala like "Ivory Throne" or "Last Jews of Kochi" and we dwelled deeper. That's not particularly new for me in general, but somehow story about Anglo-Indians who are descendants of Portuguese men and low caste Indian women (try to wrap your head around the name of community then). Probably because she also joked once that with my knowledge I probably should just marry local lady. She also had weird blue eyes which were in contrast to her typical malayali face. I couldn't help, but asked about it. She said that it's either some sickness or it's due to all this mixing that was going on here. After some googling I think it's Arcus senilis due to how it looked like.

Next on my list of task to do was going to the mall. Normally it wouldn't be especially touristic goal and not the place that I would go without other reason. That reason was that I forgot to pack formal shoes to my suit. I used that opportunity as to go further into "modern city", Ernakulam. So far I have been traveling there just back and forth through the buses. Today I went for buses too, but also traveled on foot way more, trying to wrap my head around the rules of the roads and when can I cross the street. There's no better way to put it that any road rules, traffic lights, zebra crossing or even pedestrian lane are just loose sugestions, not hard rules. "Can I cross the road safely?" - operate more on vibes than rules. I traveled also by metro (in contrast to water metro) which went above the ground and then ferry boat which inside looked like very wide bus.

I think malls are rarer here, but then they build something like LuLu Mall which is so huge - four levels, every one very big, filled with such a mass of people. I tried to quickly fulfill my duty of buying shoes, but then I traveled here for such a time that I decided to roam a little bit. Of course I found bookstore - interesting tidbit, even though not surprising for me at this point is that language distribution was reversed here. Most books were in English and Malayalam had only one section, although bigger than English section in polish bookstore.

At first glance I thought that in "modern" city people wouldn't react at me the same way (although I should know better, because I traveled a little with bus in Day 1 and 2). When they were in a crowd or preoccupied they seem didn't notice me, but when they notice behavior was basically same - staring, smiles, waving, giggling, chatting. The only small difference is that I think they often were more surprised (as far as I can tell).

I was so far into the mainland part that I didn't want to go back right away. I looked up map and my first point of interest was beautiful Syro-Malabar church (St. George's Syro-Malabar Church in Edappally). Interior design was like perfect harmony of simplicity and intricate detail. I'm not artist or art historian so I'm not sure why it has that effect on me and how to describe it. It reminded me that I didn't know how's the deal with shoes, should I even buy them if we leave shoes outside of temple - never mind if it's church or mandir. But of course I would need to go in something before entering church and after leaving it.

My next stop was some relatively small Hindu Ganapathi (Ganesha) temple. It was very calming place, supposedly in the middle of the city and yet felt like in some wild place. I wasn't sure how to behave. In fact, it was first Hindu temple I entered as at least some previous ones that I saw earlier from outside were forbidden to enter for non-hindu.

After that I went to some park when kathakali just happened to be performed. I watched a little, but because I watched previous day, I decided to go after short time. With the metro (above the ground) I reached the ferry, but before it I roamed a little in a very nice park placed next to the coast. After returning to Kochi typical shenanigans - some guy started to dance with me and then some old uncle proposed me ganja, but I politely declined.

After cooling my feet in the ocean I returned slowly to the homestay, along the way chatting with some dude who gave me free postcards. Blisters on my feet and mosquito bites are a little worrisome.

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