KOCHIN, INDIA (Our first port in India)

The colonial era name is Cochin and is actually called Kochi (it's present Indian name) It was an important spice trading center on the coast of the Arabian Sea as early as 1102. Settled by the Portuguese Empire in 1503 as the first of the European colonies in India, it remained the capital of Portuguese India until 1530.  The city was later occupied by the Dutch and the British and all their influences can be found throughout the city.

The ship arrived at 8 a.m and we though did not have visas for any of the ports in India, a new purser came aboard who went above and beyond the call of duty and managed to secure visas for us.  We were excited to go ashore and very grateful to him for his efforts when all other avenues were closed to us.

Our ship was greeted by dancers, the banging of drums and the clashing of cymbals.  It took about an hour for Indian customs to clear the ship and the drummers played the whole time without stop.  I don't understand how their arms did not become sore nor their feet not hurt from dancing on the asphalt.  In the second photo Len caught the dancer in mid-air.

Since we did not know we could get off the ship, we did not have the opportunity to sign up for any tours so Len and I caught a taxi at the port to go into the oldest part of the city called Jew Town.

We had read that in Kochi there is the oldest synagogue in India, built in the 1500's and we asked our taxi driver to take us to Jew Town.  It was really an amazing place - here are some of the scenes we saw.

One of the streets and a store along the way.

Although the streets were busy with tourist I think this guy is pulling his hair out for lack of business!

FPL has nothing over this city's electric company. We love their ingenuity

At the end of one of the streets we found this sign and the synagogue  Too bad it was closed.
The bell still chimed 12 o'clock.

This woman was washing dishes beside one of the stalls.

Some lovely school children and an old man resting in the shade.

After the obligatory visit to the taxi driver's 2 souvenir shops, we drove back to the ship and passed these trucks. These are government trucks and silly me, I thought the circus was in town.