Kochi

Kochi (Fort Cochin) is another place you can visit to get away from the hectic rush of India. Of course it is still India, but because it is an island, very close to and connected to the mainland, it retains some of its colonial feel. You don't feel quite as pushed along with the crowd as you do in other Indian cities.

Along part of the coast, they still use the large square nets on frames, that are dipped into the water, to fish. While I was watching, they didn't seem to catch much; so I have to wonder how much of this effort is for actual fishing, and how much is for the tourist's benefit. It certainly does make for nice photos, though.

There are a couple of interesting churches on the island and inside one of them is the actual grave where Vasco da Gama was buried. Before they dug him up and took his body back to Portugal, that is.

On the coastal side of the island is the old town, the area that still, to a small degree, resembles what the town used to look like (before the antique shops came in anyway).

Also in that area is an old palace (Kerala style- meaning made of wood and probably not as grandiose as you might imagine) that has been turned into a museum. There are several wall paintings in the palace that are quite impressive. But I have to wonder about the king or maharajah who lived there. A wall painting in one room with a forest scene has all manner of forest creatures in the act of fornication. The human characters in the scene aren't actually doing it, so I have to assume that the painter used the animals to imply what he couldn't paint. Sorry, no pictures.

But I do have some pictures from the rest of my time in Kochi, so enjoy.