Our World Trip: Cochin – Incredible India

On the spice route between Europe and China, Cochin has been an important trading port for centuries and is still one of the richest parts of India. The Portuguese settled here in their colonial period, then the Spanish and then the English – the town has many English street names and the merchant and shipping companies all feel very Imperial. The Church of St Francis has the usual brass memorials common in English churches.

Our stop was just short of a full day, so we took a tour including a run around the town with stops at the Church and famous 14^th Century cantilevered fishing nets and a dance show at the Taj Malabar Hotel, just around the corner from the port. Our approach was welcomed with much shouting from small boats and the fishing nets beside the channel attracted several dolphins, which played in the ship's wake.

Bustling like most Indian towns, the traffic seems to sort itself out at random with much hooting of horns and shouting between drivers. Inside a bus you feel secure, but in a tuc-tuc it’s another thing as they are forced from the highway by force or by choice to get ahead of their competition. Great fun!

The fishermen were working hard for their returns of single fish but the snake-charmer was doing great business with his three cobras in woven boxes, passing round a lid and playing the pipe to arouse the snakes. Nigel & Lyn risked a tuc-tuc to cover the walking distances and got great intros to the market traders.

The dance show was long and intricate, exhibiting the Karala cultural heritage with unspoken routines and facial expressions with the most elaborate costume and makeup you have ever seen. The martial arts boys were impressive and had to adjust their act to avoid damaging the light fittings!

Despite being abandoned by our tour guide we spent a lovely afternoon in the hotel before taking our Morris Oxford taxi back to the ship.

We are now on pirate alert! The Indian Ocean between here and Aden is a hotbed for piracy so the ship has taken extra precautions, falling a bit short of armed response! The open decks are closed at dusk and extra lookouts are posted forward and aft with the sonic deterrents mounted of swivels on deck 8 aft. Lights are dimmed at night and all unnecessary display lighting turned off to make the QM2 less conspicuous. A passenger ‘attack response’ drill is scheduled for next week and it will be interesting to see if we get a Naval escort down the Somali coast! Next stop Dubai on Sunday when we lose Nigel & Lyn, which will be a shame as we start the last sector of this amazing adventure. Lovely to have a contact with home today and catch up with all the news - If forgot to mention the family of whales who passed by yesterday, there must have been 25 of them only a few hundred yards from the ship.