Another day in Fort Kochi/Ernakulam

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Wanted to take it easy today, woke up around 9:00am. Did not like the breakfast as all they had to offer was just toast and 2 eggs with coffee and tea - that's it! Today, we went to visit the nearby St. Francis Church, built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan Friars where Vasco da Gama himself was buried when he died on Christmas eve in 1524. His remains were later transferred to Lisbon in Portugal some 14 years later. We stood right beside his tombstone which is right inside the church. Next we went to the Dutch Palace; we were unable to yesterday as it closed at 12:00pm. The entry fee for this was a mere Rs.2 !!

After the Dutch Palace, we strolled along Jew Town a bit more, looking at more antiques and stuff. We bought a pretty heavy oil lamp after bargaining hard - it was fun. Went to lunch at hotel Abad for yet another thali. Finally, Prem got her rasam there after a long search which begun in Trivandrum. This meal was pretty good and cheap, Rs. 150 which comes with quite a variety of items - enjoyed the food here.

We then went to Ernakulum again… to yet another clothing store. No sarees this time! On the way back, we stopped at a local supermarket to buy water and some mangoes since we did not trust the water that was provided by the hotel. The water provided by the hotel wasn't sealed properly and did not taste good so we decided to get our own.

Took a rickshaw back to the hotel around 6:00pm, this time the auto took us via the north side of Fort Cochin. We landed up taking a vehicle ferry from Vipin island to Fort Cochin in the auto. It took about an hour to get back to the hotel. Ferry was packed, again as they tried to cram as much as they can on board. No one gets on orderly and it’s a mad rush to get on as soon as the ferry is cleared of vehicles from the other side. We eventually got on and got back to the Fort area, took longer than expected. Went back to Talk of The Town, a restaurant with pretty good and reasonable food near the hotel. Again we had our deep fried bananas there - yummy! Shantha, I had a few for you too… know you love these.

We leave for Goa tomorrow by Kingfisher airlines, busy packing our bags in the evening. Realized we may be overweight as we are only allowed 1 piece of checked in luggage at 25kg each and we have a 3rd piece which is about 20kg.

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Photos

Breakfast at the hotel
Planning the day during breakfast at the Ballard hotel.

Vasco da Gama's Grave
This is Vasco da Gama's grave where he was buried in the St. Francis Church. His body was moved to Lisbon after 14 years.

The Dutch "Palace"
Not quite the palace one has in mind! The original murals dating back to early Kerala dynasties were still intact, except a number of them are fading out. In general, this palace is not well maintained.

A Toddy shack near Jew Town
We did not dare try any!

Thali lunch at Hotel Abad
Finally, we found the elusive rasam here! To our disappointment it was not great, we have had better.

A fully loaded ferry
It's the one we missed because of our unaggressive rickshaw driver!

Waiting to get on the ferry
It was a long wait, about 30 minutes for the next ferry.

Mad rush to get onto the ferry
Unfortunately our rickshaw driver was not aggressive enough to force his way through. We had to wait for the next ferry!

Sunset @ Fort Kochi from the ferry
Took this from the ferry while in the rickshaw. Those are the Chinese fishing nets in the distance.

Me enjoying some mangoes in the hotel
Still not the mangoes I'm looking for but it was sweet and delicious anyway :)

Mangoes close up
I had to buy the stainless steel plate and use my multi-tool to cut the mangoes. Our hotel was quite sparse on these basics!

Comments

[Shantha]

Dutch Palace
I went into the Dutch Palace, don't worry you didn't miss much ... it is basically three floors of painting of old dead dutch people ....

[Cempaka]

Dutch Palace
Hi Shanta, we are now back in Bombay. We did go see the Dutch Palace. It was no big deal - pretty sad actually, although the murals were awesome. Too bad the Indian govt does not maintain these old palaces. It is actually quite small for a palace.