OMG!!! Finally in India!!!!: KOLLAM

We arrived mid day to kollam after spending an awesome time in Alleppey. By the time we got there we were starving but it was already 2:30-3pm and none of the restaurants our guide wanted to take us were open so we ended up having an awful lunch at a local restaurant. Apparently here in India you have set times to eat and at the time we were looking for food restaurants were either closed or had only chapathi and rice.

There wasn't much to do in Kollam so we went back to the hotel and rested until it was time to go on an orientation walk around town. On the walk we discovered that there was truly nothing in kollam but the local market.

At the market I tried gooseberry, which was beyond sour... I couldn't! I had to spit it out!

(thanks Jud for the beautiful pictures! Haha)

The next day at 6:30 am we were on our way to the local fish market where many men and women buy their fish for the day.

We arrived there a little after the sunrise

People outside the market loading their fish

The market

This is the way they sell fish...

... And the way they carry the fish! It is very clever how the put a piece of cardboard or plastic under the basket in order not to get soaked in fish "juice". The water dripping from the fish basket slides down and drips onto the floor either behind on in front of them preventing them to get wet!

Big fish coming through....

They literally had every single kind of fish. The huge ones were auctioned, I saw this one man put a fish down and people surrounded the fish while he screamed the price...just like in storage wars but for fish! I asked my friend to translate the video and he said that the fish went for $90... DOLLARS! I thought it was very expensive! Haha

People working on the nets

It was interesting to see so many women at the market. I'm thinking that men go fishing and the women sell the fish.

Here four men were working together to lift 3 very heavy fish baskets. It's incredible to see how much strenght so many skinny Indian men have. I have seen it throughout my journey these men can lift huge rocks as well as tree trunks and seem content doing it.

After our visit to the fish market we headed to the cashew factory.

To be completely honest I somehow thought it was going to be a regular westernized factory with machines and probably seeing the machines through the glass like at the jelly bean factory! Haha I was 1,000% wrong! I was not expecting what I saw.... At all!

When I entered the first building of the factory I saw 10, probably 12, stations with manual cashew machines. At least two men (and one machine with two women) in each station, one men staring and crushing the black cashew nut, the other one taking them out of the shell and sorting them.

I was in shock to see how my favorite nuts are made. I kind of felt sad for these people who have to spend all day long crushing nuts and getting very little money for their work. Not even that, I can't imagine having a monotonous job every single day. I usually have these kinds of thoughts when it comes to poberty and jobs in third world countries but at the same time I have to think that these nut cracking job even though is monotonous and not exciting for me it does bring food to every single household of the people doing it. So many times here in India we have asked ourselves why their system has some many unnecessary steps (like going to a store and in order to pick your item, pay and get your purchase you gave to deal with at least 4 people) but the reality is that their system employs a lot of people; they might not be paid a lot but it does bring some kind of revenue for their families.

Then we walked over to the oven where the nuts are roasted. They are coated with some kind of chemical that I believe is not very good for the skin. This guy here is in charge of pulling the nuts out.

This woman spends her whole day turning the wheel around! I can't imagine her backache! My back hurts just from looking at her! She literally pushed and pull with her back... Ouch!

Maybe they should put some pedals and she can turn it with her feet! Wouldn't that be the perfect cardio?!?!

Then I turned around and my heart broke in a million pieces!

Behind me where so many women cracking cashew nuts one by one by hand!!!!

We kept moving and we entered the sorting room, where women peel the nuts and separate them by whole, halves, and pieces

At the factory they run a little preschool for those women who have children and this cute little boy was waiting to go to school but before he came to take a peek at what mom was doing.

After the tour and the culture shock we were starving and needed to eat. The food so far has been very disappointing in south India (except for the homestay) and I've been getting mad at TK for taking us to touristy places. This time we made sure he knew exactly what we wanted "local authentic food where there are only locals, no tourist!" so TK took us to a very local restaurant to eat some dosas... I was in HEAVEN!!!!

I started by asking a plate of "that" (pointing at the dish of the people in front of me) to share. It turned out to be Parippu vada, a patty made of Dahl with Sambar and coconut chutney!