After our hectic time visiting some of the major tourist destinations in North India we fled to the South by plane from Varanasi to Kochi via Bangalore. Our posh hotel, the Xandari Harbour in Fort Kochi was pretty much what we expected with amazing views over the harbour and most days we strolled around the town taking in the ambiance. After the North it was good to be in a warmer, more relaxed atmosphere with much cleaner air, so that for the first time in ages I felt I could actually breathe in deeply. It makes me worry that there's an air quality crisis in the North of this country that is going largely unreported and practically everyone we met had a cough.
The streets of Fort Kochi reminded me a little of Galle in Sri Lanka with its old colonial vibe, which I have to admit I rather enjoy. But Fort Kochi is actually more run down and while some buildings are being salvaged there are a lot more that are approaching the point of no return. Near the hotel there is a transhipment area for tea, rice and spices whose smell and atmosphere reminded me strangely of the Wapping of my youth. The warehouses, which face the waterfront, where I guess they break down shipping cargoes and load them onto the trucks that create a permanent traffic jam in the narrow streets outside, are called "godowns" a name which also rings a bell in my memory, maybe of reading Conrad.
Anyway, a week passed here photographing the flaking old doors and crumbling walls and trying to take in the spirit of this old place occupied successively by the Portugese, the Dutch and the British before the locals took proper possession.
One thing that came as a surprise was that Kerala is governed by the CPI.M, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and there are red flags with the hammer and sickle all over the place, along with pictures of Marx, Lenin and Che Guevara. I hope those old British Imperialists are turning in their graves.
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