It was quite the luxury: After being woken by the Indian national anthem at 8, breakfast was ready for us in the refectory. We have to walk a little to get there, but we'll get used to it.
Around noon we decided to go to Fort Kochi again, to visit the Dutch Palace. After having had our lunch, we walked to the boat jetty. On our way there, we came across a supermarket on Broadway. We bought somehting to drink and some snacks. And I bought an umbrella, my own personal bit of shade. You see many people here, but mainly women, walking around with an umbrella. So I copied that.
We crossed another, very busy, road, and then we reached the waterfront. A large walkway by the sea, with trees and benches. A light seabreeze made it a wonderful place to stroll, although maybe not during the hottest part of the day -between 12 and 4pm. We still can't get over the price or the tickets to the ferry: Only 6 rupees. That's approximately €0,07. Soooo cheap.
Upon arriving at Fort Kochi, we decided to walk to the Dutch Palace, or Mattancherry Palace, which was around 1.5 kilometers. Near the palace is teh old Jew town. And apparently the oldest European cemetary in India: The Dutch cemetary. The way to the palace was not a very high-end street, with dilapidated houses and small but badly maintaind shops. Some of the shops were clearly meant for tourists.
We stumbled upon an extended corner house, carrying a large sign saying "Museum". At closer inspection, and a friendly chat with the owner, it appeared to be a collection of old, mainly Hindu art. Not really a musuem, but an art-dealer. We spent quite a bit of time in there. Such magnificent pieces we could see. Splendid statues of all different Hindu gods. Lamps made out of small bits of coloured glass. Exquisitely painted furniture with depictions of the Mahabharata. Elephants made of aal different kinds of materials. The salesman took us across the street, where there was even more to be found.
We were in awe over all this beauty, but eventually we wanted to continue to Mattancherry Palace. But our salesman thought he had us hooked, and tried showing more and more beautiful pieces. Finally we managed to get away, after asking for his businesscard, and a promise to return before we would leave Kochi. We were't lying.
We trudged along in the heat of the day, and finally came to the palace. It doesn't really look like a palace, but it definitely looks old. Part of the building now is a temple, and not accessible for general public. Going up the stairs, we entered the museum. The palace was built by the Portuguese for the king of Kochi. As recompense for destroying a temple. The Palace is called the Dutch Palace, because the Dutch East-india Company (VOC) renovated the palace when they were in Kochi. The king had the walls of the palace decorated with paintings of scenes from the Ramayana. Each panel telling the story of gods and their children. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photo's of the fresco-esk paintings.
Time flies when you're having fun. The museum was about to close, so we had to leave. We were quite tired by that time, so we took a rikshaw bach to the boat, and after crossing took a rikshaw back to St. Albert's. At 8.30pm we had supper with the Fathers and the Brothers. The chairman wasn't there, but we dined with Father Shine, the registrar, Father Jensen, the Bursar, our guardian angel Brother Rimesh, and Brother Edwin.
Sunday we did very little indeed. We did some shopping at Westside, the airconditioned clothesstore across the street, and went for a biriyani at a small place down the street. We needed some time to recuperate.
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