Day 21

First day travelling with my new group. Again, we are eight women with a female guide! This time, I am far and away the oldest (by at least 20 years). Age range of the others 25-45, at a guess. Aussie, English, German and Chinese.

We set off on foot and then caught a local bus to tour the city of Cochin. The city is set on 9 islands, and we are on the one which was once fortified by the Portuguese. Cochin was subsequently occupied by the Dutch and then British, so a mix of architectural styles.

We first visited Mattancherry Palace, or the Portuguese Palace, which was built in the 16th century to appease the local Hindu rulers. Amazing teak ceilings and beautiful wall murals.

As we were leaving we came across the beginnings of a Hindu festival (they have 10000 of these in Kerala in a year) with elephants. A bit distressing to see them used in this way.

Next we visited the Jewish Quarter to see the Cochin Synagogue, the oldest in the Commonwealth. Originally built by settlers from Europe in the 16th century, it is still in use. There were up to 20000 Jews in Cochin at times, but many who were here after Independence moved to Israel in 1948. The Synagogue still has services for visitors.

I have never been in a synagogue before.

Next we went to the Cathedral of Santa Cruz, but could not go in as there was a wedding going on. We visited the church of St Francis, which had an interesting history, having first been built by the Portuguese and then becoming Protestant under the Dutch, and Anglican under the British.

It’s great claim to fame is that it was the original grave site of the explorer Vasco da Gama, who died here in 1524. His remains were later exhumed and returned to Portugal.

After the churches, we went down to the seafront to witness a peculiarly Kochi thing. They have these huge frames which enable fisherman to drop large nets into the channel using a weighted cantilever system, and then easily lift them back out again. Seems to work well, but they did not catch much. Fascinating.

We spent a bit of time trawling around the shops in the Jewish area, but there was nothing exceptional and it was mostly overpriced tourist stuff.

Back to the hotel for a nana nap…

About we went off in our tuk tuks (they are actually called “autos” or “metros” but everyone says tuk tuk) to see a dance performance. We saw traditional Kathakali dance. It is a weird combination of eye movement, mime, hand gestures, dance, singing, and drumming. The performances tell traditional Hindu stories about kings and gods. All the performers are men. The costumes and make-up are part of the ritual. Apparently the traditional performances can go for up to 9 hours, but ours was only about two.

Fortunately there was lots of explanation and commentary. You would need to know a lot more about it to fully appreciate it.