Ah, this feels better. Still bloody hot but just listen to the quiet! Oh, you’ll hear the occasional car horn, but you can walk around Fort Kochi’s town square without dodging cows or their byproduct, while enjoying the huge stately Raintrees without being deafened. So that’s just what we decided to do. Think of it as orientation.
Once again we are drawn to the waterfront which features a small ferry, the usual Indian vendors and their insistent barkers.
One vendor had a large stack of red and blue boxed cap guns in front of his booth but his dispirited barker had to reload and fire a cap gun every 30 seconds or so. We were less than entertained. However, tuktuk drivers are the same wherever you are.
This chap handcrafts these clever harmoniums right in Kochi.
These boilers are evidence of past shipwrecks. It can get a little rough out on the Arabian Sea.
A walk in India will usually feature a visit to a fort and this walk is no exception. Fort Manuel of Cochin faces Kochi City across an estuary of the Arabian Sea, although no less than seven rivers empty into these waters making it quite brackish. The fort was built by the Portuguese in 1503 and it’s considered the first European fort in India. It’s hard to believe they beat the Dutch to it; they do so love a fort.
Many examples of Dutch, Portuguese, and English architecture still exist and are usually repurposed into hotels, restaurants, or art galleries.
Our main goal however is to see something described as Chinese nets which we found lining the waterfront along the shore of Fort Kochi.
They kind of remind me of the giant wooden squid-catching machines we saw in Indonesia, except those were mounted on large ungainly barges.
The crews of the Chinese nets would invite us to wobble out onto one of these things where we noticed that none of them were catching anything but flotsam.
This last guy dipped his net into the water with the same result, turned to us and demanded rupees. He seemed less than pleased with the amount.
We beat a wobbly retreat to shore. That’s the thing about India. Are they just being friendly? Or are they working an angle to cop a few rupees? In our experience usually they’re just being friendly.
Friendly or not we all gather for a spot of sun worshipping.
With the sun sinking into the Arabian Sea the temperature follows it down into the low 90°F/32°C.
It’s time to seek something interesting for dinner, which is not difficult in Kochi. I gotta go.