11-03-2024
As we were very enthousiastic about all the artwork and antiques we had seen in Fort Kochi, Dr. Geo advased us to visit the Kerala Folklore Museum. It was easily reachable by bus.
The busiest point in our neighbourhood is High Court Junction. Every bus that passes there, has to stop at the busstop. The buses are usually owned by the driver and the ticketsellers, or more often a team of drivers, so people don't have to work 24/7. The bus has a license for a particular line. the different lines are represented by different bus-colours. The green buses ar usually city-buses. Blue buses go all the way to the suburbs. All buses are named by their owners. They're usually named after gods or saints, olthough sometimes other names are used.
In the past all buses used to be painted in extravagant colours, but that is no longer allowed. There has to be some kind of uniformity. On the outside. On the insides, the dashboards are brightly decorated, with fake flowers and grass, icons, hangers, garlands, etc. Behind the windscreen is a plaque -in Malayalam- with the route the bus takes. Unreadable for us. There is no strict timetable for the buses either. If you want to o somewhere, you just go to the busstop, and wait. As there are many buses, it usually doesn't take too long.
As soo as the bus slows down, the ticketseller starts to call out. Probably soething like: "quickly, hurry, hurry, quickly". The bus stops on the road, blocking the traffic. And besides: the quicker they make their round, the more money they can make.
It was quite a challenge to find the right bus for our visit to the Folklore Museum. Every driver or tricket seller we asked, told us they were not heading in that direction. Fortunately, there are usually some traffic police to be found on the road near busy junctions like this one. And as it turned out, the police are man's best friend. They helped us get on the right bus, and the ticketseller was even told to give us a heads up when we reached our destination. Thank you, officer!
Glass windows on buses are highly overrated. Okay, a windshield, yes. Rear window, sure. Glass in the doors, maybe. That was about it. But all this ventilation made it a nice way to travel, especially since it was very quiet on our bus. And very affordable also: only 18 rupees. Equals about €0,20. That doesn't get you far in the Netherlands.
As per instruction, we were given a sign after 15 minutes. We had reached the museum. As the bus stopped at a signal, we could get off. On the photo page you can see all the beatiful things we saw at the museum. We were quite in awe over everything, even the "shop"on the top floors, where redundant items were for sale.
After some two hours we had taken in all we could process, so we left the museum. We went to a coffee shop nearby, for a sweet cup of milky coffee and some snacks: Laddu and pazham pori. Then we went in search of a bus stop. Once there, we found out how irregular the buses make their rounds. We have been waiting for about 45 minutes, while three buses passed in the other direction. A group of boys joined us in the waiting. They were clearly used to it, better than we are. Patience is a virtue, one we will have to cultivate while in India.
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