Wandergliding: Check Marking Kochi

October 4th, 2011

Naomi and I had a list of sights we wanted to check out today. Kochi had not captivated either of us, more the opposite, we were looking forward to leaving the city but first we should visit some of her sights.

The first stops were the two nearby churches: Santa Cruz Basilica and St. Francis Church. As I previously mentioned, Santa Cruz was anointed a basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1984 and is one of only eight basilicas in India. It’s a nice looking place of worship on the outside but the inside didn’t do too much for me. It was a bit gaudy with mismatching bright colours and slightly disturbing statues of various religious figures but then again religion is not my cup of tea. We spent about 10 minutes in the church before moving on to the next one.

Naomi arriving at the Santa Cruz Basilica:

The steeple:

The slightly tacky inside:

Near the altar:

A strange idol (or “i-doll”) in one wing:

A two minute walk later and we were entering St. Francis Church. Size wise it was about the same as Santa Cruz but the inside was completely different. It was stark, bland and hardly decorated at all. The one thing that caught my eye was some slabs of stone along the side walls with eroded carved letters and symbols on them. Upon further investigation, we found that the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama was once buried here.

Vasco Da Gama was the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India in 1498. He was not a terribly nice man as he once looted a Muslim pilgrim ship and then locked the 400 passengers inside and burnt it. Another time he thought a priest was a spy so he ordered that his lips and ears be cut off and then sewed a pair of dog’s ears back on his head! Strange. On his third voyage to India he died in Cochin and was buried in St. Francis Church but then his body was exhumed and reburied in Lisbon. There’s a port city in Goa named after him.

St. Francis Church:

With its bland interior:

Where Vasco da Gama was laid to rest for his first 13 years:

A brief stop at the post office:

Naomi was impressed with it:

Taking care of business:

So how many of these postcards will actually make it to their destination?

We hopped in a rickshaw and headed to the area in Fort Kochi known as Jew Town. The main attraction here is the Paradesi Synagogue. This is the oldest synagogue in Commonwealth being built in 1568. Indira Gandhi attended the 400 year celebration in 1968. Unfortunately the synagogue was closed from 1:30-3:00 so we had an hour to kill so we took a shortcut through an art gallery to arrive at the Dutch Palace.

Tuk-tukking through Kochi:

The Dutch Palace is a 500 year old building from Fort Kochi’s early days. It’s a large square building with an inner courtyard and is constructed with thick wooden beams. The main attraction are the intricate murals depicting stories of Ramayana and Mahabharat which are Hindu Sanskrit epics. Later we descended a steep, narrow staircase and the murals there were rather racy, along the lines of the Karma Sutra. Another section was dedicated to the rajas (which means “king” in Hindi) of Kochi who were coronated in the building. A large painting of each raja hung on the wall along with information as to what the raja did during his reign along with what was happening in the area, India and the world at the time. I remarked to Naomi that a couple of the paintings made the rajas look like the inspiration to the “Planet of the Apes” movie!

The unimpressive entrance to the Dutch Palace:

Can anyone figure out what the second symbol from the right means? Only steam cleaning the floors with a broken arm?

After the palace/museum and a bit of ice cream for me, we walked back along the quaint street lined with shops to the synagogue in the area known as Jew Town. It was the first synagogue that I’d ever been in so I wasn’t totally sure of what to expect. The walls were painted a light blue very much like my room I stayed in back in Goa for the last four months. At least twenty chandeliers with large, clear glass holders hung from the ceiling. No two of them seemed to be quite the same. In the middle the raised up altar was cordoned off by brass railings. At the front was a curtain covering the scrolls of the Torah and pews ran along the perimeter of the walls. The floor was covered by over 1100 individually handcrafted tiles depicting one of four scenes that looked similar to what you see on Chinese porcelain. I felt like it was one of those “Spot the Differences” between pictures you see in newspapers or a book of games for road trips. I kept trying to count all of the differences between two of the tiles.

Jew Town:

Where cultures seem to co-exist instead of clash:

Naomi near the synagogue entrance:

Shalom! I’m at the entrance to one of the last Jews living in Kochi. 86 year old Sarah Cohen still produces lovely needlework:

Some of Sarah’s work:

Naomi talking to Sarah:

The entrance to the Jewish cemetery:

Inside the cemetery:

Following the synagogue, we had one more stop on our list, the Indian Naval Maritime Museum (as you might have already guessed, this was my choice). Outside there were various missiles, torpedoes, radar equipment and some models of ships while inside a bunker like structure were some uniforms and displays detailing India’s naval history. The major conflict and proud moment for the navy was their war with Pakistan in 1971 which lasted a mere 13 days. The one sore point from this engagement was the sinking of the INS Khukri by a Pakistani submarine which cost the lives of 176 Indian sailors.

The Maritime Museum:

A big missile created over 40 years ago:

I really wanted to pull a “Dr. Strangelove” on this one but the armed guards deterred me:

Girls with Guns!

She really did look like she was interested!

One of the ship models:

Looking down at the museum grounds:

Just before leaving the museum, I headed off to the bathroom which was in a separate, small building behind the bunker. As you can guess, Indian washrooms are not always the most pleasant places but having been in the country for 10 months it takes quite a bit to faze me...but this one got me a bit. A man was in the first stall peeing from the side of a western style toilet with the door wide open. No biggie. I opened the full length door to the second stall and it was an Indian style toilet (pretty much a hole in the ground with two spots to put your feet on while you squat down). It wasn’t the toilet that threw me off as I’m used to them...but the large rat that looked up at me and quickly turned around and dove into the hole with a sploosh and disappeared! Yuck!!! Needless to say I waited for the man in the other stall to finish and did my business there.

While all of this was happening, Naomi was chatting to a lovely older Indian gentleman who worked at the museum and in the few minutes I was gone they were already deep into a discussion about the Israeli and Palestinian situation and the larger topic of the basis for all human conflicts. We continued to chat with him for another ten minutes or so and it’s encountering a person like this that fills your heart with hope and joy for the human race. A nice way to end our busy day of sight seeing.

After a war museum...what’s better than PUPPIES!!!

After all our hard work sightseeing, we opted for refreshments at the fancy hotel. I had to pay a shopping 250 rupees for a big beer (about a pint size)...that’s like 5 bucks! Almost what it costs back home...but in the fanciest hotel around!