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The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

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November 4 (Wednesday, Day 7, Cochin, India) -

Port call: Cochin

Regent hosted a special event for everyone today in Cochin involving snake boats. The Indian state of Kerala is known for its snake boat races. These are long, skinny boats that hold 100 men.. The annual race occurs in August but Regent organized (i.e paid for it) 9 different boats to race for us. We were bused 1.5 hours away and then took boats to a permanent pavilion in the middle of the backwaters.

More after the jump . . . See Beautiful Cochin and Kerala by Bus! (A photo essay):

Teak logs

Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies

Garbage

A typical shop--bulk food bags, probably rice to the right, candy to the left

Pradeep Stall & Cool Bar, with hammer & sickle road paint

Nice houses

Nice church

Not so nice houses

Rest stop

Sree Narayana College

Nice temple

Our guide on the bus was fantastic. Ajita told us that Kerala (the Indian state that Cochin is in) is the wealthiest state in India and has a 97% literacy rate and everyone has a home. One problem that they have is that the educated people are refusing to do manual labor so people have to be “imported” from neighboring states to do manual labor. The Communist party came to power in Kerala in the 1950s but it’s really a form of socialism rather than communism that is in play. Ajita is a woman and has two daughters and told us that she doesn’t believe in arranged marriages and that she wears silver rather than gold like every Indian woman wears since she doesn’t believe in dowries, either. She and her husband (who earns less money than she does) are using their money to pay for their daughters education and they will be expected to find their own husbands and a dowry will not be paid since they are using that money now for their education. She is definitely a radical in her town!! Her 16-year old daughter wants to be a lawyer but Ajita realizes that many challenges will make it difficult for her to achieve that goal since she is a woman. However, she’ll support her however she can.

Next: The Boat Races!