Blogs from Kochi, Kerala, India, Asia - page 41

I caught a Rs 2.50 ferry across to Fort Cochin this morning to allow me to visit Fort Cochin itself as well as Mattancherry, the two most picturesque parts of Kochi. The harbour doesn't quite fall into that category, being dominated more by container ships than smaller vessels. A short walk from the Fort Cochin ferry terminal brought me to one of Kerala's most famous sights - the row of Chinese fishing nets. Each of these requires 4 people to operate the pulley system that raises/lowers the net, with the counterweight being rocks tied together with rope. The whole ensemble looks like some sort of mediaeval siege engine. I breakfasted at a place called Monty's, in a shaded leafy back garden containing a curious but suspicious cat and an Englishwoman explaining the rules of cricket to ... read more

Hello! I am now feeling much better you'll be pleased to hear! note to self: don't forget the hat ! We are now in a place called alleppy which is the main place to take a backwater tour of kerela from although we havent managed to organise that yet... Ooty was enjoyable apart from the sunstroke, and on the trek I managed to gate crash an engagement party! I asked a man in the village we stopped for lunch in, if there was a toilet in the village I could use. He seemed very certain of this and I followed him a little way through the village to a building which had a big welcome sign over the door and lots of brightly coloured banners on the roof .Thinking it was a primary school or something ... read more

Co-ordinating pictures with Vernon's prose is proving to be a challenge. Part of the problem is that I left the cable connector for my digital camera in Canada and so far have not been able to replace it. Some cyber cafes can download my memory stick and burn a cd for me. In other instances I have been able to get this done in a camera shop. So, I have decided to pass on efforts to co-ordinate my photos with Vernon's prose, at least for the time being. What I have done is gone back to the material I have and have pulled out some photos that should give a flavour of our time here. If you click on the full image the pictures are enlarged. Southern India has been fasinating and quite different from the ... read more

Town built by the Portuguese after Vasco de Gama made his 1st visit to start the sea-based spice routes. Vasco lived and died in Kochi.... read more

So...we arrived in Cochin from the houseboat by train...but there's only one storey to tell.....We starred in a Bollywood TV production (yep really...read on) So, Cochin is a lovely town - well at least Fort Cochin is, which is the old trading port at the end of the Island. A marvellously preserved town, stuffed full of old colonial buildings, and mercifully, very little Indian traffic and general hubub. The old sea wall is stuffed with Chinese fishing nets and you can by the fish fresh from the sea and have it cooked then and there. We did !! 2 quid for a plate of Tiger Prawns. The town also has an Old Jewish quarter, with the Indian Pepper 'Stock Market'. We barged in to have a look - but it was all computerised - very disappointing ... read more