Christmas in Kochi

Our Indian Christmas was celebrated in a homestay in Kochi aka Cochin.  A large proportion of the locals are Christian, so Christmas is celebrated here for real and not just for the benefit of the tourists.  Our host family had decorated their house, and there are lots of lights and Christmas trees up in town.  Christmas here is sort of conflated with Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night, and probably some other Indian festivals as well.  The local kids put on santa hats and demand cash, and they build a giant wicker Father Christmas and burn him, which seems rather ungrateful after all his hard work.

We are somewhat limited with what Christmas presents we can give each other, since we will be travelling for another 7 months, but we feel the need to mark the occasion with some little tokens.  Mr Beet gets me a scarf and a little elephant.  I get him a t-shirt and some Celebrations that I’ve been smuggling in my bag ever since paying a vastly inflated price for them at Bangkok airport.

I am briefly excited by the fact that we have a TV with BBC World Entertainment channel, thinking that I might get some good Christmas TV to watch.  Alas no, and for future reference BBC; six hours of the Royal Wedding then someone getting shot in the head in a double episode of Silent Witness does not constitute a suitably festive broadcasting schedule.

Our hosts lay on a nice festive breakfast, with bacon and eggs and Christmas cake.  Fuelled up, we go for a little walk around town to have a nose around, some tea and cake and then an internet cafe to skype home and make sure that everyone is missing us.

In the evening we decide to break the budget on Christmas Day and go for a turkey dinner at one of the posh hotels.  They’ve even got sprouts!  It’s not exactly like home, but it is turkey and we are left uncomfortably full – the true spirit of Christmas.

More photos of Kochi are available on Mr Beet’s flickr page.