9:35 Local time
Hi All,
Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to visit the marina on Bolgatty Island and we will move there tomorrow, Thursday morning at high tide. Randal really misses the interaction with other cruisers. I miss our friends who cruise but I also like living in the "city" rather than off and away in a marina. There is a ferry to the mainland just a 5 minute walk from the marina so it’s not really so "away."
Last night we went to see a cultural dance performance. It was educational and LOUD!
This email is about our Sunday lunch with John Crabtree, his wife Fumiyo and their friends Nick and Louisa.
Ru
Doramac
Sunday Lunch on the Island
Last Sunday we went to lunch at the home of John and Fumiyo who own the small boat yard where we are berthed. They also own a larger yard on Michael’s Land Resort. We were told to be ready at 1 pm and someone would come for us. We weren’t sure if that was by land or sea since we were going to an island. At 1 pm there was a knock on the boat. It was one of the two gentlemen named Nasir. There are two Nasirs and both work at times for John and both work with visiting cruisers. This Nasir told us that he had called a tuk tuk who would take us to a spot where John would meet us with a boat. When the tuk tuk arrived, Nasir told him where to take us and we got in and off we went. The drive seemed long, but tuk tuks don’t go very much faster than bicycles especially through crowded streets and later I read that it really is only a distance of 12 kilometers, not much more than 6 miles, from Fort Cochin to the Michael’s Land Resort meeting spot. However, remember the scene in Harry Potter when he’s on that tall skinny double-decker bus speeding through London and another bus comes directly at the bus that Harry is on? That’s what it’s like here, only we’ll be in a tiny tuk tuk and a huge bus will be coming towards us in our lane. At lunch I made a comment about the driving and seeing signs for several driving schools and was told that if you pay your money you get a license. If you are a terrible driver that just means you pay more money. Everyone honks his horn for everyone else to move out of the way or to say, “Coming by.” But it all works out and so far no traffic jam of big trucks on narrow roads lasts very long.
John arriving to collect his lunch guests.
It’s a motorized outrigger canoe made in the traditional way with coconut husk material and wood. Marco Polo had this to say: “Their ships are very bad and many of them are wrecked because they are not fastened with iron nails but stitched together with thread made from coconut husks. … This makes it a risky undertaking to sail in these ships. And you can take my word that many of them sink, because the Indian Ocean is very stormy.” p. 47 Empires of the Monsoon by Richard Hall. Of course Marco Polo was speaking of the larger ships that crossed the Indian Ocean not the ones small ones you see in the photo. But he was certainly right about the ‘stormy."
John explained the “almost island” was once named Angeli Terra for the angeli wood tree which grows there. He and Fumiyo live there with an assortment of dogs and cats. I say “almost” island because I read after our visit that there is a small path of land that connects the “island” to the mainland. The Crabtree home is next door to this building.
Rooftop dining.
John in blue, Louisa in orange, Nick next and then Randal across the table. Fumiyo is down in the kitchen whipping up a most wonderful lunch. Nick and Louisa are British x-pats living here in Cochin. Unfortunately Louisa had to fly back to London Sunday evening for her work and won’t be back in time for us to see her again.
Randal, John, Fumiyo, and Nick: both Louisa and I are taking photos.
Lunch menu:
Starters…..
Fresh vegetable platter and dip
Hot salted potato fries
Mixed platter of tempura treats
Light, wonderful vegetable croquettes
Freshly made guava juice
Main course….
Quiche with what tasted to me like linguica, sliced tomato and cucumber and potato salad served in a pumpkin shell
Giant prawns
Dessert
Rum jell-o topped with homemade ice cream
Coffee
Cold beer and cold water to wash it all down
A wonderful meal!!!!
Dessert is served.
Grace in her lovely blue sari had come to help Fumiyo with lunch. Fumio in her lovely red and white dress that she had made.
Fumiyo enforcing the “no dogs under the table or on the roof” rule.
Grace posing at the front door.
Front door view
Unfortunately we had to leave…..
Louisa, Fumiyo and the boat driver
Nick sitting next to me also taking photos of Louisa and Fumiyo.
Nick’s company has something to do with computerized investing but that’s as far as I can begin to explain and I hope I’m correct even about that.
One last photo.
When we got to shore we all got into N and L’s car and she drove us back to town to where we could catch a tuk tuk. They don’t live near Jew Town and Louisa needed to get back to prepare for her evening flight. We waved down a tuk tuk and we were home about 6 pm after a lovely, lovely day.
Not only was the food wonderful, but the company was wonderful and we discussed all sorts of things that make you friends instantly. None of that social chit chat for us. We jumped right in and talked about religion, what happens when you die, Indian society, how I feel about Israel, all with just gentle curiosity and no one getting mad, upset, insulted.
It was a truly lovely afternoon.
I never did get an exact answer as to why a medical doctor changes careers to become a boat builder in India. But if you Google John Crabtree and Rosa, the yacht he built: the first India registered yacht, you’ll learn more about our interesting new friends and Michael’s Land Resort.
Now to totally change the subject….
The following is an email we received from our friend Roy Moulton. He seems to have captured the essence of the area: here is what he wrote….
Hi Randal & Ruth,
It sounds like being there is better than getting there in this leg of your travels.
Looked for your location on GE (Google Earth) today, found Mattancherry, M. Palace, Bazaar Rd, long area labeled Jew Town, Malabar Hotel, and much more but could not find Kondo Syoki Marine. (It’s across from the Muslim Orphanage)
Lots of street scenes also, colorful, crowded, a little tattered, a different world indeed.
Am watching a TV show called ‘No Reservations’, host/star Anthony Bourdain travels and eats, now in Cochin, Kerala, India, how about that ! Gives good marks for street food, fish head curry and all spicy foods, tea, not so good for a fermented palm oil? drink. Some places low on ambiance IMO. (Randal and I haven’t yet eaten at any of the small local places as we have everywhere perhaps because John Crabtree recommended the Sea Gull just down the road and Randal really likes it. I’m ready for one of those low ambiance places though stomach issues can happen pretty easily here and most of our friends who have visited India have had to deal with that.) And according to Anthony, Cochin is in the most literate part of India. It looks like a lot of exploring in your location could be by water. An Indian company (Tata?) now owns Jaguar Motorcars, like losing the (British) Crown Jewels to the colonies.
With a BILLION people, a dozen different languages, movie industries and so much variety of everything, India would never be boring. India and China do seem to be on the way up in the world.
Happy Sails,
Roy