Monday, January 17, 2011

Ports, Spices, and History

After a long day out and about in Fort Kochi I am back in my room at the Bharat Hotel. Filled with history, Kochi is a peninsula and major port on the Arabian Sea north of Trivandrum in Kerala. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British all colonized the area, making for a culturally diverse place. Today we visited a synagogue in Jew Town, toured the Basilica, Palace, saw a church by Vasco de Gama, and accomplished some major shopping.












Kochi is known for being a center of trade, and in particular the trade of spices. We visited a spice market where I bought tea, spices, ayurvedic soap, and ginger candy.
After sight seeing and shopping we enjoyed lunch seaside. Some tried the fresh fish cooked with a ginger sauce and wrapped in a banana leaf. I opted for vegetable chop suey. We each had a Kingfisher beer, the local brew of choice, which was very relaxing after a long day in the heat. The seaside location was very nice and as an added bonus we got to see dolphins!

After taking a ferry back to the mainland we made it back to the hotel for some much needed rest. 

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