Fort Cochin

Today we discovered the island by bicycle. First we headed to the Chinese fishing nets, which are humongous wooden structures lining next to each other on the shore. Yesterday when I saw them I thought they were some ancient museum pieces, but as a matter of fact they are in use 12 hours a day, operated by 5-7 men, each. The men were so friendly that I joined them pulling a rope in order to lift the net from the water - some more pictures in the gallery will explain how the machine actually works - but the catch was really poor. They said when the monsoon comes there are more fish.

We continued our way to the Jew town, where there is a synagogue built in the 17th century. Unfortunately the synagogue was closed today - when else can we visit it than on Sabbath... - but we went around the neighbouring Jew town, which is famous of its' spice trading and Indian antiquities. The goods were sooo beautiful, that I did not want to enter the shops to prevent myself buying everything, however the shop owners with amazing azul eyes were difficult to ignore! The bookstores in India are incredibly good; they have everything and more: contemporary Indian literature in wonderful covers and reasonable prices. We also learnt in this bookstore next to the synagogue, that actually a big Central European Jewish community found asylum here escaping from the Nazi terror in Europe during the WW II. Books are another no go for us until we get rid of our currently too heavy 7 books. For the sake of completeness we also found the communist party HQs with Che Guevara's huge photo in it!