Thursday March 10th- Independent Cochin Trip

Arrival at train station
Roaches gross/arrival at Cochin
Finding a hotel and what we milked it for
Chinese Fishing nets
How to get to beach(ferry bus walk)
Day on beach/lunch with Pamela+Slim
Towards the evening at Cochin, I finally had the opportunity to give my One World Futbol away.  I was playing along the boardwalk on the beach when a 17 year old kid named Raul came up and we began kicking the ball back and forth.  Not many people in India play futbol because cricket is the popular sport but obviously he was one that did.  After a few kicks around he began to walk away and I called to him.  Raul was not great at English but his friend who he was with translated for us so I could explain the One World Futbol story and how the ball was indestructible.  He did not understand at first that I was giving him the ball and kept giving it back to me.  It was funny trying to get across that it was his to keep.  I was able to take a few pictures with him before leaving the beach and traveling back to town to find somewhere to stay for the night.
On the way back to the town of Cochin, Matt and I were bumping my stereo in the back of the rickshaw…it was awesome.  We saw some festival of some type going on and made him stop so we could walk in.  There were hundreds of little open fires on the ground with women cooking a rice and sugar mixture over them.  It was an amazing thing to see because later we learned that it is an offering to the gods which only happens once a year, and we caught it right at it was happening.  They offered Matt and I some rice on a banana leaf which we gratefully accepted and quickly scalded our hands on.  It was so freaking hot, I had to let it cool for about ten minutes before eating it.
That night we ate the dinner which I still say is the best dinner I have had to date on Semester At Sea.  Maybe it was the few beers we had consumed beforehand but we were sooo hungry and found this place called Del Roti which had been recommended in his guide book.  We arrived there to realize we had no idea what to order.  Our waiter, who the guidebook also spoke about, took our menu’s and told us he would bring us out something that he recommends…I tried to order more than he told us but he said it would be enough, even though we were really hungry.  It turned out to be some kind of chicken wrap split in two, a bowl of the best chicken curry I have ever tasted, and flat bread similar to naan on the side.  Matt and I killed it.  I mean in like 4 minutes flat we killed all the food on the table.  We told him we wanted another round of the exact same thing.  Best part about eating in India is the speed of the food.  Our second round was out not 3 minutes later.  I was able to hardly finish my part and Matt being the woman he is could not finish his.  I finished it for him and almost puked.  That night we had nothing to do because EVERYTHING in that town closes at 2200.  We walked around for a few hours aimlessly before walking into someone’s house that had a homestay sign on it.  As sketchy as it sounds…that’s exactly how sketchy it was, but the woman turned out to be really nice.  She arranged a taxi for us in the morning to drive us to the airport for our 0630 flight, we gave her 300R and went to bed.