Day 81 - Sunday March 19 Cochin, India

Cochin photos

position at 7:00am: N9 56.41 latitude E76 08.40 longitude
(about 9 miles S of Cochin, India, where we are schedule to dock around 8:00 am)
temperature: 81F, 95% humidity, hazy
distance since FLL: 26,529 miles

The tour description for today.
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Cochin and its Backwaters

Duration: 4½ Hours.
Walking.


A trading port since at least Roman times, Cochin, or Kochi as it is now called, is on the main route between Europe and China. With a relaxed seaport lifestyle, it has changed little over the centuries. Experience the bustle of commerce in and about the city's godowns (warehouses) and open courtyards heaped with betel nut, ginger, peppercorns and hanks of coir (coconut husks). The air is filled with the scent of exotic spices and the shouts of vendors pushing heavy carts. It is easy to forget that you are in the 20th century.

Most of Kochi's historic buildings are in Fort Cochin, constructed by Portugal's Alfonzo de Albuquerque in 1500. Albuquerque arrived with half a dozen ships bearing settlers and five friars, and built the first European church in India, St. Francis Church. The large, graceful Chinese fishing nets that line the shore of Fort Cochin are probably the single most familiar image of Kerala. They are said to have been introduced by traders from the court of Kublai Khan. They cantilever over the harbor, and operate by a system of weights and levers. The nets, on wooden frames, are raised periodically to check the catch.

It is a short and pleasant walk along green and leafy streets to a typical English village green. In one corner stands the church of St. Francis, its simple style enhanced by the handsome floor tiles that line the main aisle. On the same square, and in striking contrast, is the flamboyant décor of the 20th century Santa Cruz Cathedral - in an Indo-Romano-Rococo style.

The plain, squat walls that surround the two-story Mattancherry, or Dutch Palace, do not offer a particularly appealing invitation, but you will be delighted once inside. Its wooden interior is decorated with a remarkable series of murals. There is also an interesting collection of Dutch maps of old Kochi, coronation robes belonging to the maharaja's, royal palanquins, weapons and furniture.

Next visit the Pardesi Synagogue, a tiny but delightful structure built in 1568. Its eclectic décor includes a floor paved with hand-painted blue and white Cantonese porcelain tiles, no two alike, and a glass, oil-burning chandelier from Belgium. One tradition states that the first Jews settled near Kochi in 587 BC, after fleeing the occupation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The earliest concrete evidence of their presence is a copper inscription dated AD 388. Whatever the truth of their arrival, they became and remain respected members of Keralan society.

Embark on a small boat for an idyllic trip through the majestic forests and palm-shaded backwaters of the city. On our cruise, we will enjoy the magnificent scenery and stop to admire, from the comfort of our boat, what history and religion have left in many towns and villages along the way. The cruise will take us to Fort Cochin and Old Cochin on the Southern Peninsula and around the islands, such as Vypeen, Vallarpadam and Willingdon famous for their coir cooperatives. At the end of the cruise your boat will return you directly to the pier and your ship.

Please note: Sunscreen, sunglasses, hats and insect repellant are recommended. The synagogue is the place of worship for the entire Jewish community of Kerala. Therefore any visitors to the synagogue should be modestly dressed. Admission will be denied to men and women wearing short pants/skirts or sleeveless t-shirts/blouses. Bare shoulders and mid-riffs are not permitted and should be covered with shawls.

Program Pricing
Adult: $39.00.

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We were up early in anticipation of our 8am Compass Rose breakfast and 8:50am meeting on the dock for the tour described above. Clay walked and it was hot and humid. The sail in was scenic if a bit foggy. We were the first ones in Compass Rose. At 8:20am one of the headwaiters came to tell us that they were having the same problem this morning as last morning, but that he had corrected it. He left. Clay asked how long we would wait. They did not bring his breakfast to him first this morning. If one was going hungry today, both were. At 8:40am, our breakfasts were delivered. No fewer than 4 people came by to ask how Debbie liked it. Well, it was not a repeater, so no worries there. Someone in the kitchen must have a picture in their head of French Toast and the picture must demand that it be at least 3 inches thick and gummy. No thin crispy French Toast allowed. So, it was 4 pieces of white bread with the crusts cut off with cream cheese spread between as requested and then overly soaked through in egg mixture and cooked, maybe in the oven without browning. After she got some maple syrup, she ate most of it and Clay ate about half of his breakfast and we raced for the buses.

The ship was docking just before we went to breakfast. Capt. Dag sailed up between two piers and sat in the center for a while. Then he did his 180 degree turn to prepare for his speedy departure and we docked on the port side.

We walked right off the ship after waiting in only about a 6 person line. There were at least 8 buses lined up outside for our tour. We got on bus 7 with the ship's rabbi. He was very excited about the visit to the Jewish area and synagogue and we went straight there. Nothing was open yet. It was Sunday so a lot of businesses were closed as well as the church we would visit had a service going on. The people selling souvenirs were out in force, but the guide asked us to stay together and kept changing the times and places that we would be doing things, so you could not really stop and shop because if you were not watching, he and the group would disappear. He did take us to 2 forced shopping places, one in Jew Town called the Spice Market which was an air conditioned shop and another 2-story building that was a shop with bathrooms. Unfortunately, we did not see anything we wanted to buy in those 2 places and all the things that we did want to buy we were rushed past to stand and wait for the group to all appear to go somewhere else. We are really not cut out for this group tour stuff. Cochin sounds much more interesting than it was. It is really hard to see history. You have to be able to stand and study the details and the design and the architecture and have someone explain the significance to you. We could not do that. Everything we did see on the land portion was extremely crowded and you could not see much except the other tourists. And, you really had to watch them. Debbie took a sharp blow from some guy's elbow to her cheekbone and was glad it missed her glasses. She was watching and tried to step around this guy, but... The guide gave some scant historical background about sites we would visit, but once there, he would waver about the order or the time or he was rounding up and counting heads. Also, we seemed to be not the only group in town, everywhere we went we kept running into the same large group of Indian tourists including on the boat sightseeing. So, there were at least 60 Voyagers and maybe 45-50 Indian tourists sharing small historic spaces with us at every turn. Debbie did manage to buy a small painting on silk and a peacock feather fan only because each time a vendor stuck with her to make the sale as she stuck with the group. Debbie did just fine on the small boat but it was not really a backwater trip. We just went in a big circle around where the ship had sailed in and around the ship itself. We did travel briefly under a bridge that the ship could not have sailed under but we had seen down those same waterways to and past the bridges from Voyager. There we did see some small fishing boats but we did not really see much scenic or much of how people were living on the water.

RSSC is not providing any shuttle buses during our time in India. Roger explained that it is because there is a very strong taxi drivers union here. He said that the last time they managed to arrange for shuttle service in India that the taxi drivers committed some acts of sabotage and created blockades. So, RSSC has bowed to the disruption and will no longer offer shuttle service in India. That said, Roger, as well several passengers who have been here before, also report that the taxi drivers are pretty uniformly dishonest and worse. For this reason, we decided to do this tour today when we had originally planned to go it alone. Frankly, it would have been hard for a dishonest cabbie to take us worse for the $78 we spent today, and we could have avoided the long boat ride to see nothing but what we had seen from the ship and the ship. Oh, well. Live and learn.

We were back on the ship at little before 2pm in time to have lunch at LaVeranda. Debbie had pasta and Clay had a sandwich. There was an ice cream social for the sail away at 3:30pm but we went out to check the ice creams being served about 3pm (before the social) and it was only chocolate and vanilla. It was very hot and humid and sunny on the Pool Deck so we decided to skip it.

We sailed away a little after the scheduled time of 3:30pm. Since we were docked on our side, we could just step out on the balcony to wave goodbye. There were several families on the dock waving goodbye. There are quite a few Indian people working on the ship. All of the butlers are Indian. So, several of them have plans to visit family or have family aboard during our time here just as the Filippinos did in Manila.

Debbie did a full slate of exercise classes this afternoon. Jacquie was back but she was not at full speed. She has some light work days now though while we have all shore days for a while.

Tonight was Informal again. We ate at Compass Rose. Clay swears the portions are getting bigger all the time. He might be right. We have seen some unusually large portions in the past few days and if he is correct then that is just evil.

Cochin photos