Southern India - 12 February 2012 (1)

Kochi

The hotel restaurant was on the roof terrace but wasn’t set up for serving lunch and dinner yet.  It wasn’t really set up for serving breakfast either, so choices were limited: omelette, juice and toast.  The omelette was nice, but I didn’t get any toast.  Service was very slow, with a very elderly man bringing it round as well as making the toast.  So Lukose took control of the coffee service to speed things up.

Entrance to Matancherry Palace

At 0900 we were back on the bus and heading towards Jew Town.  First stop was the Dutch Palace or the Matancherry Palace.  This wasn’t very imposing on the outside and not much better on the inside.  It was a square with an internal courtyard, so we did the circuit of the rooms.  Despite several electric fans, the palace was exceedingly hot and stuffy.  Many of the rooms were gloomy, with dark wooden ceilings, and some had frescos on the walls, which meant that photography was banned throughout.  The frescos showed scenes from ancient Hindu myths.  There were two closed palanquins in the first room: a small one for the household gods and a larger one for the royal ladies and children.  In another room, there were two open palanquins for the men.  There was little else to see except for written displays tracing the history of Kochi and the Royal Family.  The last king had died in 1964, but he had stopped ruling in 1949 as a result of Indian Independence.  The last room had some swords and two royal costumes, one male and one female.  The ceiling in the room was embellished with metal, intended to catch the candlelight, but it did not really lessen the general gloom.

Ship Seen From Ferry

Then we had to leave all our bags and cameras on the bus and head to the synagogue.  This was a real tourist area so there were lots of shops with people calling on us to come in as we walked past.  With no handbag and therefore no money, I had a good excuse for walking past.  We were also very short of time because we had to be back at the bus in 30 minutes to retrieve our bags and catch a ferry.

Colourful Boats Seen From Ferry

We had to take our shoes off to go in the synagogue, but this was more a practical matter to preserve the tiled floors.  The tiles were made of blue and white china.  There were lots of chandeliers and all the other accoutrements of a synagogue.  Lukose did the tour and explained that the synagogue can only function when other Jews visit from elsewhere because there are very few left in Kochi and not enough to hold a service.  Most of them left when Israel was created.

Previous Explore Hotel

On the way to the synagogue, Lukose had popped into a curio shop which also did currency exchange.  It offered Rs76/£1, so he recommended it.  Jen and I both needed more rupees, so after leaving the synagogue, we dashed back to the bus to retrieve our money and then dashed back to the shop.  She was very slow with the previous two customers who were purchasing stuff with a credit card.  We could see the clock ticking.  At long last, it was our turn.  Lukose came past just as she had gone upstairs to get more rupees.  He said that he would wait for the money so we could dash back to the bus and get ourselves organised before catching the ferry.

Brahmini Kite from Ferry

More Colourful Boats Seen From Ferry

Jen had dematerialised when Lukose appeared with our money, so I found myself clutching a wad of her cash.  I held back from the rest of the group to wait for Jen, but didn’t want to lose sight of them, so I was alone with the cash and feeling very vulnerable.  Nothing happened though and Jen rematerialised in time for us to make it to the boat.  This was a regular service from Jew Town to near where we were staying and not an especially scenic trip, though we did pass some brightly coloured boats.  Kochin is built on many islands and ferries are a useful service.  On the way, Lukose pointed out the hotel where previous Explore groups had stayed.  Our hotel was much more central.