Tour 2 - Cochin
Today was the first day in Cochin proper with the tour group. We met last night for a meal and welcome meeting in the hotel restaurant and then retired fairly early. My room partner for the trip is a guy from Los Angeles called Less who works in the Movie Industry, and we seem to have hit it off ok. This morning we had a 'free' morning so we took our time and rose late for breakfast and then took a walk around to the local internet cafe to get our internet fix. The hotel is charging an exorbitant Rs120/ £1.80 and hour for wifi!, the internet shop at the back is Rs10/hour, work that one out?!?! Anyway part of the reason for going there was to try a usb keyboard on my Asus as the built-in keyboard has stopped working on certain keys. Anyway the internet cafe didn't have the right keyboards to try it with but we were directed to an area called Computer Bazaar where we were assured we would be able to get a keyboard to do the job. So off we set looking for a whole area of computer shops to find the 'Computer Bazaar' 'is' as single shop. Anyway the guy was really helpful as they are here and aloud us to try a number of keyboards which worked until I found a nice small lightweight one which actually has the same footprint as my laptop but is almost a full size keyboard and is actually easier to use than the laptop keyboard. I also ended up buying a memory stick for my laptop as my portable hard-drive is becoming a little flaky as well so I spent just over £10 on computer bits – big expense!
We wandered back to the hotel and les wanted some silver so we called in a smalls silver shop and looked at various pieces and eventually he bought a couple of 'coins' which he says can be used for medicinal purposes if needed. something to do with the electrolysis – apparently passing about 27v through pure silver in water produces a liquid which is very good for the body and has excellent heath properties so that is why he bought them.
We were due to meet the rest of the tour group at 1:45 so we went down to get some lunch from the restaurant at about 1 in true Indian style at 1:38 we were still waiting on the food and following various treats we eventually got the food at 1:42 so we wolfed it down and dashed apologetically to meet the rest of the party – not like me to be on the last minute! we had to be on time as we had to make a ferry across the bay and they usually for India run to a strict timetable. The ferry took us across to Cochin popper which is much more laid back than Ernackulm which is the area where our hotel is. This is like the old town an we first of all walked around the old synagogue, This is apparently the oldest synagogue in India and built in around th 1400 however the Jewish community has been here since much earlier that that from there we walked around to the 'Dutch Palace' which was actually built buy the Portuguese but remodeled buy the Dutch after they ransacked it, and continued to be called that after the British came and went. The 'palace' is now a museum which whilst very small was fairly interesting as Indian museums go, Unfortunately it was over-run with hundreds of cruise ship visitors all identifiable because they were all/looked/acted 70+ and were all sporting the regulation red 'lifesaver' from the ship, so we fairly quickly left there and took auto's to St Francis' church which is on the far side of the peninsula. This is considered to be the oldest European built Christian Church in India and was the place where Vasco de Gama was interred however apparently his son came and took his body back to Portugal, but the tomb rail is still there and the plaque states 'Here lay...' not 'Here lies...'. The church has also been through a few different associations, it started off as Catholic Christianity, then became Protestant with the Dutch influence, the became Anglican with the rise of the British, and so follows the South Asian Church, so there is a strange mix of Christian ideologies; on the rear wall of the church behind the alter is the Roman Catholic style creed on on panel and on the other panel is the Protestant Lord's Prayer.
Following visiting the church we walked over to the head of the peninsular where there are Chinese fishing nets. These were introduced by the Chinese (who according to Kerlans took away the Kerlan martial Arts and developed them into Chinese martial arts).
the fishing nets are like huge pioneering project set out on wooden jetties into the sea. the allow a net that is strung between 4 outriggers to be lowered into the water horizontally almost like a huge table cloth but lying just under the surface of the water, bait is thrown onto the cloth and then they await the fish. once sufficient are over the net it is rased and the fish a trapped and then poured into trays on the jetties. At the time we had arrived the tide had turned and the nets were not been used the current been too fast however the offshore fishing boats had just returned and the beach-side auction of marlin,tuna, red snapper, and multitude of other fish was being conducted with the usual fish market fever you find the world over.
Next up on our tour of Cochin was to visit a traditional arts centre to watch some traditional dancing. Not really my cup of tea and I could have quite happily just watched the first 15minutes where the explained all the intricate moves. The dances are performed by men who take on both the female and male roles. and the man dressed as a female firt came on stage to demo the 'moves'. Many of these involved very exaggerated eye movements whilst the head stayed completely still. This combined with the almost day-glo orange colour of the face and the garish multi-coloured costume made for an slightly un-nerving experience. After the demo we sat through a 'story' enacted by two dancers and three musicians. This went on for almost 45 minutes and got rather boring to be honest and I think I actually nodded off at one point. Anyway following the dancing we went to really good restaurant and had an excellent meal sat on a jetty of the peninsular for all of around Rs.200/ £3 and caught the last ferry boat back to Ernakulum just in time to get last orders at the hotel bar.
We wandered back to the hotel and les wanted some silver so we called in a smalls silver shop and looked at various pieces and eventually he bought a couple of 'coins' which he says can be used for medicinal purposes if needed. something to do with the electrolysis – apparently passing about 27v through pure silver in water produces a liquid which is very good for the body and has excellent heath properties so that is why he bought them.
We were due to meet the rest of the tour group at 1:45 so we went down to get some lunch from the restaurant at about 1 in true Indian style at 1:38 we were still waiting on the food and following various treats we eventually got the food at 1:42 so we wolfed it down and dashed apologetically to meet the rest of the party – not like me to be on the last minute! we had to be on time as we had to make a ferry across the bay and they usually for India run to a strict timetable. The ferry took us across to Cochin popper which is much more laid back than Ernackulm which is the area where our hotel is. This is like the old town an we first of all walked around the old synagogue, This is apparently the oldest synagogue in India and built in around th 1400 however the Jewish community has been here since much earlier that that from there we walked around to the 'Dutch Palace' which was actually built buy the Portuguese but remodeled buy the Dutch after they ransacked it, and continued to be called that after the British came and went. The 'palace' is now a museum which whilst very small was fairly interesting as Indian museums go, Unfortunately it was over-run with hundreds of cruise ship visitors all identifiable because they were all/looked/acted 70+ and were all sporting the regulation red 'lifesaver' from the ship, so we fairly quickly left there and took auto's to St Francis' church which is on the far side of the peninsula. This is considered to be the oldest European built Christian Church in India and was the place where Vasco de Gama was interred however apparently his son came and took his body back to Portugal, but the tomb rail is still there and the plaque states 'Here lay...' not 'Here lies...'. The church has also been through a few different associations, it started off as Catholic Christianity, then became Protestant with the Dutch influence, the became Anglican with the rise of the British, and so follows the South Asian Church, so there is a strange mix of Christian ideologies; on the rear wall of the church behind the alter is the Roman Catholic style creed on on panel and on the other panel is the Protestant Lord's Prayer.
Following visiting the church we walked over to the head of the peninsular where there are Chinese fishing nets. These were introduced by the Chinese (who according to Kerlans took away the Kerlan martial Arts and developed them into Chinese martial arts).
the fishing nets are like huge pioneering project set out on wooden jetties into the sea. the allow a net that is strung between 4 outriggers to be lowered into the water horizontally almost like a huge table cloth but lying just under the surface of the water, bait is thrown onto the cloth and then they await the fish. once sufficient are over the net it is rased and the fish a trapped and then poured into trays on the jetties. At the time we had arrived the tide had turned and the nets were not been used the current been too fast however the offshore fishing boats had just returned and the beach-side auction of marlin,tuna, red snapper, and multitude of other fish was being conducted with the usual fish market fever you find the world over.
Next up on our tour of Cochin was to visit a traditional arts centre to watch some traditional dancing. Not really my cup of tea and I could have quite happily just watched the first 15minutes where the explained all the intricate moves. The dances are performed by men who take on both the female and male roles. and the man dressed as a female firt came on stage to demo the 'moves'. Many of these involved very exaggerated eye movements whilst the head stayed completely still. This combined with the almost day-glo orange colour of the face and the garish multi-coloured costume made for an slightly un-nerving experience. After the demo we sat through a 'story' enacted by two dancers and three musicians. This went on for almost 45 minutes and got rather boring to be honest and I think I actually nodded off at one point. Anyway following the dancing we went to really good restaurant and had an excellent meal sat on a jetty of the peninsular for all of around Rs.200/ £3 and caught the last ferry boat back to Ernakulum just in time to get last orders at the hotel bar.
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