| I've been enjoying my first days in Kochi. The guesthouse is nice, and there is interesting conversation around the breakfast table with the other guests. I went for a run this morning and passed through all kinds of interesting neighborhoods and saw the life of the town as people were heading off to work and to school. This area is next to the sea, and one of the tourist attractions is a series of giant fish nets that are lowered into the water and drawn out again through a system of levers and ropes. The guest house manager told me about a book fair that is going on in the big city across the bay, so I took the ferry over and bought a few books. I was the only non-local person in the whole vast tent with dozens and dozens of publishers' stalls. An enormous number of books are published in Malayalam, and the state has virtually 100% literacy. Afterwards I found a local restaurant where they served lunch on a banana leaf. Now I'm back at the guesthouse writing this post. Last note: at a tea house yesterday I met a Catalan speaker from Mallorca, and I'm having dinner with him today. The world is smaller than we think! |
| Created on 12 February 2020 by Samuel Ethan Fox |