Cochin
Trip Start
Feb 22, 2009
1
8
41
Trip End
Ongoing
Fort cochin, Kerala, India
Friday, March 13, 2009
Cochin is a just a small 'island' which has been used on spice and trade routes for centuries, with big portuguese influence, the first major seltemont of Jews in Central Asia and a very multicultural history. As a result its a tourist haven, the tourist spots are teeming and the requests for us to by overpriced handicraft endless. However after we walked a through streets away from the tourist areas and wondered (got lost) in the local areas, there was some real gems and fantastic people to meet.
The still working Ancient Chinese fishing nets are a superb site, especially at sunset, with teams of 3-5 men working the counterleavers and ropes to lower and lift the nets. Then the catch is either put on the back of a lorry for the local market or more likely sold to a tourist to take to a restaurant and pay to be cooked. We chose not to do this however as eswell as the vastly inflated prices the swolen dead cats and rubbish that were pulled out each time the nets were raised were enough to keep us sticking to vegetables.
Cochin was great but worth leaving the beaten track, after three days we had definatly seen it.
