Farewell to India

Tuesday 8th October
Surprisingly the weather is a little cooler down here, which is a bit surprising given that we are heading down towards the equator.  There were actually some spits of rain last night, just enough to make the outside loungers wet, so we couldn't sit outside after dinner.  This morning as we approached the port of Cochin, the weather looked perfect and as we were watching, a large pod of dolphins swam by, right beside the ship.  Yesterday it was a group of whales, off the coast of Goa.  The ship almost tipped over with everyone rushing to the starboard side - no that is an exaggeration!  There was an announcement from the bridge but by the time people went out we had gone well past.

Cochin is made up of many islands, linked by canals and we once again were docked in a commercial dock area on Willingdon Island.  While the main modern city area is to our east, the centre of interest is the old city on Vypeen Island to the west.  We elected to take the ship's tour, which took us down through the port area and across the bridge and up to the old town, which has roots back to 6 BC, when it was settled by Jews - we visited "Jew Town" which now has just 8 Jewish individuals from 5 families.  We also visited the Synagogue, built in the mid 1500s.

However, back to the beginning.  There was almost no one at the breakfast dining room, so we had excellent service (as always) and a satisfying breakfast, as we knew that our tour did not include lunch and that we would not be back until 2.30.  Our official time to get through immigration (how come you have to go through immigration twice, when you haven't left the country?) was 9.00, but we found that following the crowd, we could get through at 8.30.  As we later found out, this strategy did not actually help.  We boarded our bus just after 8.30, but still had to wait until just about 9.30 until we left port.  While the bus was air-conditioned, it had seen another life about 50 years ago!  It was filthy, but then so was the whole of the area.  Our guide was good, so no real complaints.  Our trip to the old city was not quite as hair raising as Mumbai, but was "interesting". The trucks are all multicoloured and look very cheerful while the buses are drab and over overcrowded.

The scenery was quite reminiscent of Bali or Thailand, with narrow streets, unkempt grounds, small stalls etc.  The Portuguese & Dutch had a great influence before the British and all 3 have left their mark on the area.  We visited the Dutch Palace & Jewish quarter.  A lot less than a quarter, but it provided a comfort stop and a nice air conditioned "spice market", which is actually one shop used by the tour company.  There were many other stores and markets along the way but this was not a shopping trip!  Forgot to mention, just like Bali, surrounded by street hawkers from the moment you step off the bus.  They even followed us up the steps to the Palace.  Very interesting looking at the history of the area and the local Royalty.  Cochin is very English in many ways and a large majority of the population speak English and similarly a large number work overseas.

Next stop was the Fort and what is now the naval base.  This was- formerly British and there is a noticeable difference in the houses/mansions now occupied by wealthy foreigners.  In this area we visited St Francis Church, which is the first church in India, built by the Portuguese in 1510.  The original wooden church was destroyed by fire and a new one erected in the 1700s - originally a Catholic, then Dutch Reformed and finally Anglican (1804), which reflects the changes in governance.  Just down the road are the fishing nets - 14th century Chinese still in use today - we actually saw them bring up fish and the adjacent fish market offers "you buy, we cook" No thanks

Moving on we pulled into the luxurious Brunton Hotel, which is an old hotel of the era, although not quite the Taj.  Here was an opportunity to have a drink of anything (free).  Vivian had coffee & I elected to have a Kingfisher beer.  The beer was premium and only sold in this province for some reason (probably taxes).  Anyway, it went down a treat.  Following this, onto a less than luxury launch for a cruise around the lake which surrounds the islands.  It was extremely good and a slow cruise with a cloudy sky and temperature in the early 30s, with a gentle breeze was all one could ask for to complete our whirlwind tour of India.

We left Cochin just after 5.00 and are currently headed down the bottom of India and on to Sri Lanka, with a well-earned sea day tomorrow.  Really we have been so lucky all of our holiday to have had great weather, just missing the Monsoon, although I should not tempt fate I know.  Sad to think that this time next week we will be pulling out of Singapore with a whole bunch of new passengers.  Just hope that they are a great as the ones we have got to know on this leg.  Certainly going to miss Margaret & Norman, particularly his party tricks!