Kerala Pt. 4 – Fort Kochin

We missed the first bus leaving Vagamon while eating parota’s for breakfast, but luckily enough it departed every half hour (the South Indian bus system is extremely good!). It turned out to be a little more complicated to go to Kochi than we had expected – at Erattupetta, we had to take a bus to Kottayam (which I almost missed). From there we had to take a third bus to Kochi, so we didn’t arrive until around 2:30pm. This unfortunately left us with very little time to explore the historic section of the city, called Fort Kochin. 

Chinese Fishing Nets

 

Vasco Da Gama Square 

 Fort Kochin is the area that was first settled by Portuguese explorers around the turn of the 16^th century – Vasco Da Gama had first arrived at Kochi in 1497, and was originally buried at the church of St. Thomas (oldest church in India) until his family had his remains moved to Portugal. On top of that, the Dutch arrived around a century later to be followed by the British, and the mixture of these early colonial settlements is clearly visible in the old town’s unique architecture. Even though we ate lunch in a restaurant balcony with a view over the harbor, it was still relatively cheap (at least in comparison to Bangalore).

Walking around Fort Kochin (especially in the off-season) makes one feel like you’ve been transported back in time. The streets are narrow and windy, and most of the old buildings have been preserved.  By the quay, modern boats are moored next to Chinese fishing nets that hang over the water. Snaking back and forth through the alleys, we saw the church of St. Francis (oldest in the country), Vasco Da Gama square (not really a square), and Jew Town street. This was the tiniest blind street imaginable (which makes historic sense, since Jews in the medieval ages were squeezed into tiny confined neighborhoods/streets), and had the Paradesi Synagogue at the end of it which was unfortunately closed by the time we got there. A Jewish community had lived in Jew Town for several centuries, until shortly after the formation of Israel. We saw an old woman sitting behind the window of a building that Parisa said was probably a retirement home for the last remaining Jewish people. While walking both down the street (which ends by the synagogue) and back again, a dozen middle-eastern shop owners tried to make us go into their antique stores to look at their wares. This is definitely a tourist hot-spot. 

 St. Francis Church

Jew Town

One of the shopkeepers asked me if I was from Denmark and showed me this Danish souvenir a visitor had gifted him.

We tried going to a different part of town to watch a Kathakali performance (traditional folk theatre with elaborate make-up and masks), but the theater was under renovation that week. We walked over to a restaurant and sat down for coffee and lassi, just as the rain started (again). Across the street there was a DvD store that Phu and Parisa shopped in, while I bought halwa in the next-door sweet store. Halwa is a thick gel made from fruits and coconut oil, and often has nuts in it. I have tried it once before, perhaps in Rwanda, and bought two thick slices to bring back to Wooster with me. Each color has a different flavor, and I ended up with a red strawberry kind and a brown mixed fruit flavor. 

With the rain still drizzling down to always-varying degrees, we made our way back to the bus station nearby. The bus trip back was a little better than previous, because I sat near the middle of the back isle and had more leg room.We arrived back in Bangalore around 7am the next day, and took a half hour power nap on Phu's couch before returning to work.