Fisher Folk of Fort Cochin

Trip Start Sep 12, 2010

Trip End Apr 12, 2011

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Where I stayed

Kapithan Inn Kochi

(Kochi hotels)

Flag of India Fort Cochin, Kerala, India
Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We arrived in Ernakulam City after a short but busy train journey from Alleppey, we then chose to get a rickshaw from the station rather than the ferry as it was just too hot to wait around for ferries and then get another rickshaw. We arrived at our hotel after an hours rickshaw ride, passing through the busy streets of Ernakulam and then to finally get to Cochi island and see the slow paced life and beautiful Portuguese influenced streets of Fort Cochin.

Our hotel was okay but rather expensive but luckily there were plenty of cafes to relax in and read our books rather than spend time in the room. My favourite place we went to was called 'Teapot' a beautiful Portuguese building decorated as if we were back in Europe on the cobbled streets of Portugal. We headed to the other side of the island after lunch to Jew Town, the Jewish part of the island. It was interesting to see that the Jewish community worked closely with the Indian Maharajahs while here and the Jewish community even had their own prince

. We visited the small synagogue and the Dutch Palace and visited numerous amounts of handicraft shops before heading back to Teapot for afternoon tea and then finding a restaurant for dinner.

We woke up late on our second day, knowing that we had to wait until 10pm that night for our train to Goa and had no room to relax in, the 12pm check out was a blessing as we spent the morning reading our books under the cool breeze of the fan. We then headed out to Teapot again, can you see the pattern already? Before walking around narrow streets and taking in some of the sights. We went to St Francis church first, the oldest Portuguese built building in India, then we continued along the seafront to see the fishermen and their Chinese fishing nets. Their nets were huge and extremely impressive. It would take a group of five fishermen to pull the net out of the water on a huge crane-like frame. They saw me take a few photos and invited me to go and join them. After a little coaxing I walked across their wooden platform and joined the fishermen and pulled in one of the nets, taking the role of one of the fishermen while he took photos of the gora-fisherman. It wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be but I only did it once, these guys lifted the net out of the water every three to five minutes, tough work indeed. We then walked to Santa Cruz Basilica, had a look around and then retired for the rest of the day, swapping between cafes, trying to escape the punishing heat.

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