Cochin, India

Cochin (now Kochi), India
Eastern Time plus 1 ½ hours

Cochin was substituted for Sri Lanka due to unrest. There have been incidents there in the last few days that showed the wisdom of this, but we were sorry to miss Sri Lanka. I really liked Cochin.

Due to some passenger reactions to Chennai, refunds for other India ports were offered. We stuck to our plan and were happy we did.

Chennai has 8 million people and Cochin has only 1 ½ million, so it was a completely different city. Cochin is about 20 years ahead of the rest of India according to our guide. He says that most families have at least one person in the family that goes to the US, UK, Far East or Europe to work and send money back home. That is why they are so prosperous. It is one of the principle seaports of the country and has 3,000 to 4,000 fishing boats. They ban fishing in June and July which are fish breeding months. The main exports in addition to seafood are rubber, latex, 15 different spices, vanilla, tea and coffee.

We were up early to watch our approach into port. It was one of the prettiest that we have had in a long time. Roscoe found a perch to watch. He reminds me of Stirling the way he is always exploring and finding new places.

We were welcomed by musicians, dancers, an elephant and armed guards. I heard one old lady discussing the elephant later in the day. She said he was so big…and had nice smooth legs, not old wrinkly ones. I will have to take note next time I see an elephant.

Our tour for the day was to visit the oldest European community in India and Matancherry, the old Jewish quarter. We visited the Dutch Palace (Mattancherry Palace) which was built buy 16^th century Portuguese merchants as a gift to the Raja. Veer Kerla Varma in exchange for exclusive trading rights. We were unable to take pictures in there because of the original frescos. They were very detailed and beautiful. The palace was very small with a courtyard that contains the Hindu Temple.

The next stop was the Paradisi Synagogue built in 1568. The floor is paved with beautiful old Cantonese tiles. We removed our shoes to preserve the tiles. They looked somewhat like Delft, but we were told that the Delft is a takeoff on this. No pictures were permitted inside and I forgot to outside.

We visited the Church Of St Francis which was founded in 1503, the oldest church founded by Europeans in India. The great Portuguese explorer Vasco De Gama was originally buried here. This apparatus with the fabric is used to fan.Then we were given a little shopping tome. Not much time to cut good deals, but I did buy some stuff.

Our final tour stop was to see the Chinese nets. They are a set of permanent cantilevered fishing nets that are operated with a system of Pulleys and weights. They were probably brought to India by 14^th Century Chinese merchants.

We drove through the streets and noticed much, much less poverty and litter. We were in the old section. I was told the new section was anything built after 1642! The new section may have been less nice than where we were, but I didn't hear anyone else mention that. Everywhere we looked people were working, building and collecting garbage!

Once again the people were the best part!Sail away was beautiful. We had loads of people along the shore watching the departure. We could also see the Chinese nets from the water side.

The picture of smoke is a funeral and they are burning the body ( according to the person that was next to us).