A day of touring around Kochi. Firstly to the Dutch Palace built by the Portuguese in 1545. It has the most beautiful frescoes covering the walls telling the story of Vishnu and his sons. They are amazing but no photos allowed which I find very frustrating. Next we walked through Jew Town (yes Jew Town, not Jewish town). There are 5 jews in Kochin, the most famous of whom is 93 yrs and you can peer in through the window of her house and see her moaning on her bed. She is demented and thinks she is in London, we’re told!! That was an unedifying experience!! We wandered around there for a while, poking around in shops, visiting the synagogue that has no Rabbi and can’t get the Jewish equivalent of a quorum for services, but we couldn’t enter anyway because it was Saturday.
Then we went to the Kochi equivalent of the Mumbai laudromat. An area where about 10 men do the washing for this city, pounding the washing vigorously in cubicles. It then gets hung out to dry then ironed using an iron full of hot coals, folded and delivered back. Next we went to St Francis Church which was the first European Church built in India by the Portuguese. Vasco De Gama’s tomb is there but no body (I missed why that was!!). Old Vasco was a blood thirsty, murdering bastard from this side of the historical perspective.
We then walked to a restaurant called Arches for lunch. We had calamari and large prawns which was a treat, and in keeping with being down here.
After lunch we walked down to the water to see the Cantilevered Chinese Fishing Nets. A bit like the stick fishermen of Sri Lanka they are a relic from the past that is kept alive for the tourists. But fascinating nonetheless.
Then we demanded that Aji find us a bottle shop so we could all stock up with for night on the houseboat tomorrow night in mind. We all piled off the bus to ensure our needs were met but sadly the only drink they didn’t have was gin. I got some wine which suits me but Laureen, who had had to go back to the hotel due to the trots, is sadly missing out. We had a quiet word to Aji about who we wanted to go on the houseboat with which was good, there are 4-6 per houseboat and that could have been a total disaster. That is tomorrow night and there is no WiFi on the houseboat.
We are going out to a concert tonight then back for dinner and to pack a small overnight case for tomorrow. Kerala seems really different to the rest of India that we have seen. It is laid-back, hippy-ville. The pace has slowed down, there are less people hassling us all the time, the traffic has slowed and generally it feels more relaxed. More later tonight, then nothing for the next night!!
We went to a dance performance tonight that is specific to Kerala called Kathakali. There are no words spoken and it is all done with expressions. It was terrific…really interesting to watch. The female parts are played by men and the makeup is an art in itself.
Back to dinner and now time for bed. As I said, no WiFi for the next 36 hrs as we experience a houseboat!!