KOCHI,Kerala,southern India

I was to Kochi town in Kerala state India in 2011 for a full month somewhat after in general i concluded my aquaintance with the West Bengal area up the Ganges valley;and just to take a look at southern India and how does it look/feel,i went there as well.My idea at that time was that south India holds circumstances,better than those of the Ganges valley(this was not correct at all as i found out).I rented there a small apartment on the 2nd and last floor of a 2 story separately owned private house,which was situated upon its continent part.Now,Kochi is divided into 2,separated by a bay,parts-the penninsula 1 and then the "continental " 1,the central 1 being the penninsula 1(with both nice old architecture and complicated technology,a port etc)while the continental 1 holds mostly living quarters of local people.A long penninsula exists by the shore in that area,and thats probably how people started to inhabit the area once.As the habitation started,it was localized to the penninsula itself,but with time going and the settlement growing up in size the continent by gthe penninsula's line got inhabited as well.All of Kochi continental part is comparatively newly built,while the penninsula itself part holds older times' structures.Transportation between these 2 city parts is made by small speedy ships,which go each approximately with a 50 minutes break between each other and constantly move around.Thats just the time and no more,required to have the small boat,of like 50 people having on board when filled completely(and some went with even less than 50 people on board),and having like 30 averagely,to get collected anew.The amount of sunlight in the southern India there is amazing,i never saw this in any place i had been to unless when in Sri Lanka.Vegetation in south India is something extraordinary by height and size,something i didnt see even more south,in Sri Lanka,fauna also being in a higher condition,what to speak about the famous Ganges valley,where grocery is much smaller by its height,yet much more numerous upon the grand sized local bengalese markets,probably because the population wants to deal with grocery so much more up north in the valley than south upon the always hilly/and up the continent becoming even mountainous in the south of India)no valley in sight small hills all of Kerala state is upon.The numbers of fruits and vegetables,amount of kilograms of them upon markets too in Kochi are nevertheless seriously smaller than upon the markets in the Ganges valley,fruits themselves being more original and pŕicy and definitely less numerous.My own impression about this situation is that Ganges valley has people,mostly addicted to outdoors activities in sizeable quantities,while south Indian cities hold people,much more interested in home or office things to do and so the market is correspondingly abandoned in comparison,just as beaches are.Even as I did not discuss this topic with my home owners(unlike in my Kolkata guest house facility,where the owner was always friendly and could easily participate in socializing with his tennants),I could easily guess and seen that most of the family that allowed me to rent a room there was constantly occupied at home in small house chores,only the head of the family or maybe another person of the household being well busy elsewhere,most likely in weird complicated matters orientated offices in the small Kochi city of I would roughly guess no more than a 100 000 population.Some half an hour noth from the city of Kolkata, where I lived for approximately 1 full year with breaks inbetween,there was a constantly used ghat(an interestingly active for a 10 000 people i would say a town of Bally).Inside Kolkata itself the largest city of eastern India,about as short time upon your legs as 5 minutes walk from its main railway station Howrah,there also was a ghat a bathing spot,while the Kochi beach,even as yes existing,is situated a long way from the city,in a place to which only a separate train line is leading.I had the impression that locals are never upon that sea beach while foreighners sometimes DO go there.Yet it is mostly NOT used by people.To that Beach you must first take a specific bus root,an uncommon in Kochi one,through which buses pass pretty rarely,and get there after like an hour of a bus drive,all buses being old,made in 1970-es I would guess yet very well maintained by the technical part of the local garage of cars.All the local indian transportation buses,both in Kolkata and Kochi,were acquired from Soviet Union as are exactly the models,used there once,and are in a great active condition up untill this very day.One gets to the sea beach after maybe an hour in a bus and the roads there(remarkably NOT the way it is around Kolkata)are allowing the driver to have you very sufficiently thrashed around the moving bus to never ever wanna do the trip again.This Beach exists for mostly tourists that indeed ARE inflating Kochi in significant numbers,most of them europeans interestingly,unlike it is in Kolkata,where for all the very numerous months of living(close to one full year with breaks)I met no more than 10 foreighners and none comes there for tourism.In Kochi tourists spoke english AS much as some european languages and looked like constant around-the-world travellers would.While in Kolkata I only met proficient users of the American slank users(and very rarely to that)and Kochi mostly had european looking tourists instead.People simply normally prefer famous destinations like an excellent Beach of a very specific fruit and instead avoid very simply occupied folks of Bengal the area around Kolkata because sources of information about the places are mostly based upon specific destinations and not upon the main boons of Ganges valley natural richness I personally had been seeking in India.Going southwards from the Ganges valley by train(i circled upon those the entire Indian penninsula in 2011)i noticed this extreme height of vegetation southern India holds and also its suddenly dominant role in the area,in which the vegetation took over not AS many human interests as there are in both Bengal and especially the middle part of the Ganges valley.What IS interesting about Kochi is amazing lack of desire among locals to appear by the sea or lay upon beaches,which,by the way,are pretty remote from the town and mostly deserted too.Most likely because the local authorities despise or underestimate sea bathing,not giving it any attention to be developed and no serious size rivers are even existing in the south,the terrain being hilly,covered with wild looking and extremely prosperous grocery,very weakly and slowly transformed by humans into friendly terrain,and fully "controlled" by vegetation,which IS the master of that mostly uninhabited hilly area.Instead south India people are either busy at work in complicated activities or else lavishly spend their time inside of their homes in intellectual and other private life things like chatting around and home appliances management,at least this was my impression as I lived among locals myself for a complete month and could observe them a little.Outdoor life just isn't a thing to do for Kochi town inhabitants,i observed this during my numerous walkabouts around Kochi,most all of those upon my own feet,while in Kolkata it is the undisputed life topic number one to travel around the area for some time per day,people often intentionally finding the time for this.I noticed this upon my own numerous trips around the local Kolkata trains' system.I rented a small room upon the second roof floor in a private house there,owned by a well to do local family.They rarely left home,at least several family members always were inside their place.The family itself was numerous,keeping to its own self inside either the house the family nest or the work places they had.That goes along with Ganges valley people,actively and easily using both city ghats(bathing spots)on Ganges river,where whichever hour did i come-always several people were bathing,and of numerous local trains too, that allow passage among the Bengal province towns.Kerala(the south-western coast state of India)state(India is divided into like 20 territorial states-provinces by difference of populating them folks),where Kochi is situated,is very different from the Ganges valley in such respects and south India is much not like the Ganges valley area,which is densely populated and active in outdoor activities,home ones scarse.The percentage of south India inside of the common economics output of India must be very low.Markets of the small Kochi city are comparatively rare and small,their grounds not easy to cover upon own feet and flocked with badly managed vegetation bundles-out of curiocity i had been around NOT only the selling grounds,but the close-by areas of the market too.Some pieces of the Kochi market are not managed correctly and are nothing but put away and awaiting the attention of people flocks of grocery,just left to lay around by people.Unlike around Kolkata,where the amount of middle size dealers in small sales of things,needed at home daily,their number around Kochi is very small and grocery is more expencive in south Indian states even as more rare fruits are available in the south.I recall that Kochi had considerable sales of mangoe fruits,a fruit,I saw in Kolkata very rarely.Yet Kolkata fruits were cheaper in comparison.Mangoes were the local Kerala state grown,and had the price of magnificent altitude in comparison to Kolkata fruits' prices.The difference in prices between the valley and the slopy south shows that ALL is much cheaper in the valley,especially closer to the bay of Bengal and lower by Ganges river.Mangoes themselves were rare upon Kolkata markets,taking a small side of the entire selling and put much aside by very numerous fruits of sugarcane,bananas,coconuts(exclusively common and cheap in Kolkata)and different vegetables i never saw in Israel,but that were present in Kolkata in significant quantities.When i browsed variations of bananas for instance,i had the choise among like 50 different sellers of that fruit(upon one main city market only),all crowding a specific spot upon the main city market,and would bargain with them about the price for a while at first.Bargaining over the price of grocery is AS much a part of sales as coming to the market itself,finding a place for sales etc.Not so in Kochi,where the market is considerably smaller,holding maybe around 10 sellers of bananas for the entire town,sales going much weaker wwithout the constant huggling over the price this bizarre feature of immense Kolkata markets but with slow determination to simply do the job of selling foods off instead.The Kolkata markets are well kept and are very clean while the Kochi one isnt organized too well,is flocked with stored foods,much less clean and sanitary rules following,passage of foods around the market often blocking the sales themselves,while all seems so much more organized up north upon immense Kolkata markets.Also southern India fauna is much more notable,and exactly the way it is with flora,the fauna is much more in control of life around,people being only a part of the entire picture.The price of fruits and vegetables in south India is somewhat higher(no larger than twice the valley price)because the amounts of people that wanna grow this commodity is comparatively small,not because the food is harder to grow at all.Once as living in Kochi(south India,unlike the Ganges valley area,isnt interesting at all for browsing it by transpotation means)for a change i even used a local train to browse the life of a close by inland city without sea close to it,situated maybe an hour off the coast inland.Their life wasnt AS interesting as Kochi one was and the terrain was even more hilly and less valleylike,people visibly more active in stringent tasks that never do remind the slow lazy lifestyle Kolkata area possesses.The further are you inland(was there upon local trains too)and away from the coast in the indian south the more hilly/slopy and less valley like the terrain becomes,grocery of the land visibly taking over the entire life of the area and pressing humans out into the outskirts of the area, while in the Ganges valley the nature is under complete control and even some useful protection from the undisputed masters of affairs the humans.And as you pass those southern India high slopes(not the excessively high mountains as Himalayas certainly are as i was close to them too)you keep wondering just how much less human influence did touch southern India;as northern India and especially the Ganges valley is that much deeply developed while the train to take you south by the seashore is inbetween open sea and completely not worked over and wild forest.Once(funnily in India too this was rare and in Kolkata nonexistent at all)i saw an elefant upon town streets;the animal though wasnt at all a large 1,but rather a small 1 with all the markings of well nourished and cared about home animal;i impression was that the duo was very naturally looking and more like a part of the same family than master vs servant;homelike animals are seen from far away as either lazy or sleepy and such;this was exactly how did that elefant look-more of a home held dog than any other elefant i ever saw.And it was much smaller too;its owner looked like he was THAT comfortable around his animal as to work with it in 1 unbriken ansamble;fit physically to a weird extent,the elefant owner looked like a very flexible/capable physically and monkeylike person.Kochi in general is much a scene for weird actors like elefants,complicated schemes upon based intelligent companies including their workers etc;In Kolkata weird/looking unnaturally things are obviously frowned upon and things are generally simple and lazy;all anuimals(weird actions workers included actually)are kept away from the general populace,which hates their sight.Not so in Kochi,where weird acting entities ARE inpublic favour.Funny thing that such different by behaviour areas as Kochi and Kolkata are at all in 1 common country even.