Kochi - Cochin (in Malayalam: കൊച്ചി ) via Mahé
 

... Mahé had been mentioned in the previous page and quoted in this one; its description will be included in the page "Les anciens comptoirs français en Inde" to be published later ...

we left Mahé on Wednesday February 7 by the 10:15 a.m. train. No major problems, just a slight 30-minute delay on arrival!
... Ernakulam is part of the Kochi conurbation and eponymous district (3 million and 470,000 inhabitants).
 

It's now a sprawling city, and tuk tuk services are regulated: you can't take one on the fly, you have to go through a ticket office, which issues you with a ticket for 2 RS ... we ask to be dropped off at the ferry pier for Fort Cochin ... off we go in crazy traffic and we soon realized that the driver would be taking us to Fort Cochin and not to the ferry landing as we had requested …

... when we get to Kochi, we show the driver the address, which of course he doesn't know... thanks to the GPS, we finally get there and have to pay 220 RS for the ride, 17 km all the same ... I should have been more vigilant ...

... so here we are, in Kochi since yesterday. The negative impression has faded a little, but there's still this unpleasant feeling of not being at all in tune with this India ... Indian tourism is booming, and Westerners continue to fill the guesthouses and trendy restaurants .

lots of French and Italians, and often organized tour groups made up mainly of retired people ...
 

Villa Mariana homestay (chambres d'hôtes) a small room in a large house in a very quiet area; the alleyways don't allow car traffic and only the locals' scooters are allowed ... very welcoming family ... we leave for a restaurant recommended by the owners' daughter; it's rather chic and we each have a chicken fried rice and a lemon soda that we had to choose from a menu displayed on the phone after scanning the QR code ... I'm still not over it (modernity when you like us!) ... huge portions, I'd say that with my plate, we could have eaten for three !!!

Villa Mariana homestay

... the Chinese "carrelets" (nets ) are still there and the system is well practised. The "fishermen" call out to the barges and offer to help manoeuvre the nets and bring back the counterweights, chanting "ohlala" in cadence ... for a fee, of course ! ...

... all around the stalls selling anything and everything from pseudo handicrafts to plastic toys, clothes and scarves ... heartbreaking ...

... the area around the synagogue has been completely renovated, and a few antique stores remain, but you'll have to go much further, to the spice warehouses, to find some authentic ones ...

We had to find somewhere to have our laundry done, so the owner suggested we go to the dhobi  khana, a discovery :

located mainly in the Veli district, this laundry center is operated by the Dhobi community, a caste that has specialized in washing clothes for generations. These launderers use traditional methods to wash clothes, a practice distinguished by its artisanal and manual nature. In 1720, the Dutch government moved them to Kochi to wash the uniforms of its army.

As I went further afield, beyond the tourist districts, I came face to face with that India I dread so much: garbage and unpleasant smells signal the more underprivileged districts ... dilapidated and/or abandoned buildings ... the subsistence economy is all too often achieved by recycling waste ... but obviously it can be "profitable" for certain people" !?

Further on, a small shipyard where dozens of small fishing boats are waiting to be hoisted into dry dock for repair...

Finally, the town of Kochi, apart from the fact that it's become a tourist mecca, is quite pleasant - spread out, of course, but most of the time, the walks are on foot.

... at dawn, it's a festival of birdsong, including the ones I really like, the ones that reach a crescendo and last so long! ... and always the indefatigable crows ... it must be said that the place is peaceful ...

But I can't leave Kochi without mentioning Vasco de Gama the  great Portuguese navigator, considered to be the first European to reach India by sea, rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 and who died of malaria on his third voyage. Buried in the church of Saint Francis of Cochin, his remains were brought back to Portugal by one of his sons in 1539 and transferred to a Carmelite convent, now privately owned under the name of Quinta do Carmo, near the village of Vidigueria.

Vasco de Gama's arrival in Calicut in 1498, Alfredo Roque Gameiro, c. 1900

… to be continued …