Cochin - Part 2

Loved the smiles of children and their excitement when they see foreigners. =)

KFC copycat. They have very similar items to KFC. And we are served in a fast food restaurant! Tasty!

Ajish John - Friendly and helpful shop owner of a mobile phone shop. He got our new sim card and we rented a mobile internet broadband device from him. So hopefully the device works well in other state and u can hear from us more..

More porata! Egg prata with eggs, onions and even tissue porata. It's slightly diff from ours and it's called ceylon porata. No free gravy here and we have to order chicken curry separately. Sedap!

Gayathri - The seamstress who stitch both my sarees blouses. She's quite high tech and has web cam, takes measurement via email, sew and courier it to anywhere! She was chatting via email chat when we got to her shop..

Getting ferry ticket to Fort Cochin. 

I was right in front waiting for counter to open. Someone was trying to cut queue next to me and the lady behind me, Gayathri, said, "you do not have to give way to anyone cos sometimes they think you are not local and they do this!" Then I turned to the cut-queue lady and told her to queue cos it wasn't even long and she din understand a word. haha..Gayathri told me not to bother..

From right: Lola, Gayathri - The 2 students we met while queuing for tickets. Shared with us about Cochin, where we should go, how to go, information on locals etc..

Mattancherry - Jews Street

The Jews settled in Mattancherry (off shore from Cochin) under the protection of the Maharaja (King of Cochin). They were forced to leave Israel during Roman Times. 

Synagogue at Jews Street. No photos inside.

In 1940s, these Jews emigrated en masse to Israel, leaving behind furniture, heirloom and 40-60 families left.

Church of St Francis - First church build by European in India and it became the model for most Christian Churches in India

Vasco da Gama, Portuguese Explore, was buried here and later removed to Portugal.

Interior of the church

Noticed the vertical stripes of white cloth just above the seats? Fan of olden times..cool!

Chinese Fishing net in Cochin was introduced by Traders from the court of Kublai Khan. It's everywhere we go. Locals use this method and their local methods for different catch.

Back to the old days...

It was just so pretty...the sun, the sea, the wind and the net.

You buy, we cook! Fresh catch of the day.

Streets of Fort Cochin 

The locals use their head to carry many things..

Meh meh meh meh...

Our romantic dinner for Jeff's bday!

We got here at 6pm and dinner only starts at 7pm! The staff said, "ok, special.." after checking so they served us! hehe.. lucky bday boy!

In the land of Kerala, we gotta have seafood! Fish, prawn and squid! All delicious!