India the estimated soon to be largest country in the world. Home of the Taj Mahal and the Ganges river. It has almost any landscape you can think of, from the world’s highest mountains to huge mangrove forests, it’s a crazy place.

We spent the first day seeing Cochin’s highlights on a SAS trip. Our first stop was Fort Cochin. We took a little walk around, then went to the Chinese fishing nets. They’re supposed to be something to see, but they ended up being very anti-climactic. Our next stop was the tomb of the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco De Gama. He isn’t still buried there, he is back in Lisbon. The final stop was a spice market. You could buy any spice, oil, or natural candy you could think of. For maybe two times the price at home.

My dad had a field class the next day, so my mom, little brother, and I went to the Lulu mall, the biggest mall in India. It felt like being back home. All the major western brands were there, Adidas especially, they had four shops on one floor! They even had a miniature amusement park on the top floor! We got back to the ship at 4:00 pm, and waited for my dad to get back so we could check into our hotel for the night.

On day three we didn’t feel very motivated to go anywhere or do anything, so we spent the day sitting by the pool and using the hotel’s Wi-Fi. We met a family from Colorado now Living in Doha, Qatar. They were in Cochin on vacation for a few days. The weirdest part was they all knew about Semester at Sea. We went back to the ship at 5:00 pm so we could pack for our trip tomorrow.

We left at 10:30 to get on our trip to the highlands of Kerala. This is the state that we docked our ship in. It was a four hour drive from Cochin. We arrived in time to have a late lunch of fourteen curries. Some of them were very good and others were too spicy for me to enjoy. After we ate it started raining, our guide told us it was most likely acid rain, because it was the first rain in a very long time (more than 6 months).

Our next stop was one of the houses people would be staying at. The other house was twenty minutes farther. The same man owns both of the houses, his name is George. He is a very nice and helpful man. The house we stayed was called Plappally Bungalow, or Kingly Heaven. Some of Georges friends live in the house we stayed at. They were super nice people, even though they didn’t speak much English. Their cooking was also superb.

On day two we did a lot. The first stop was a village where people from the lowest caste, otherwise known as the untouchables, lived. We met an eighteen year old girl and her family. We got to ask some questions about her and the village that she lives in. Now we want to get her to do a homestay in Portland.

Next up was the grave of John Joseph Murphy, better known as J.J. Murphy. He was the first man to start growing rubber in the area. He was known to treat his workers incredibly well and for being an all-around good guy. Then we made a stop at a small family owned rubber factory. They took us to see the rubber trees being tapped to produce rubber milk. There was a girl from Brazil on the trip who knew a lot about Brazilian rubber, one difference she noticed was that they tapped the trees in whole different way.

We then went to a larger rubber factory owned by George’s family. They are India’s only supplier to Nike and Adidas and other major athletic brands. In other words, I know where your shoes came from.

For us it was back to Kingly Heaven until dinner, which my mom, little brother and I didn’t end up going to. We spent the rest of the resting in the peace and quiet.

On the last day we went to a small school for about thirty minutes to visit with the kids. The first two kids I met were named Adit and Anish. I found that amazing because my friends name is Adit and his little brother is Anish.  Afterwards we began the long four hour drive back to the ship.