Saying goodbye to George, Dai their daughter Susan and baby and Grandma is sad after a truly genuine Kerala experience.

But a new adventure awaits. This time in Fort Cochin or Fort Kochi. It’s was a small fishing village settled in the 1500 by the Portuguese. They were here for 160 years so the influence can be seen – a little evidence remains. Then the Dutch came and for 112 years took control. Again they left their mark after destroying many of the Original buildings. Finally the British arrived and fought for control. They stayed until 1947 so once again the building and customs reflect British influence.

We arrived around lunch time and checked into Walton’s Homestay. It’s more a hotel than a homestay but the family who run the business are very lovely people Mr & Mrs Walton and their daughter Charlotte.

http://www.waltonshomestay.com

We settled into our home for 2 nights and walked out onto Princess St for a spot of shopping. We’d had a detox from shops at our last farm stay and were ready for action. We all separated to explore ourselves and I headed for the water and checked out the Chinese fishing nets. These are something to watch.

Legend has it that a Chinese explorer introduced these nets over 500 years ago.

Dawn and dusk is when you see these in greater action but they were working some early afternoon!

Over four fishermen operate them

check out this video. It’s fascinating to watch.

I continued along the water front and came up a wonderful exhibition. It’s a travelling one and is here in Kochi for a few weeks.

It’s about the co existence between man and elephants. There are 100 elephants on display all made out of lantana.

It’s wonderful.

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/english.manoramaonline.com/lifestyle/news/2019/01/27/lantana-elephant-biodiversity-message.amp.html

I continued on and found some wonderful buildings of Dutch and English influence and then gave in and looked at the wonderful cotton clothes for sale. I bought two dresses at Anokhi

https://www.anokhi.com

There are some wonderful hand blocked clothes. I couldn’t resist!

Dinner was at the hotel near our homestay. The Jetty restaurant at the Forte Hotel. It’s lovely with the most beautiful staff. But it doesn’t serve any alcohol. The water was lovely!

After dinner we walked a little and enjoyed the cooler night air.

Tomorrow our hotel will be without power from 11-5pm as are all the businesses and hotels without generators. We could be revisiting the Forte Hotel!