Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Fort Cochin

Our first group outing was to Fort Cochin. It's a nice little town with some neat little shops and attractions. There's an old jewish neighbourhood started by some people who left the middle east a few hundred years ago. There's a dutch palace that has some very old murals depicting the great Indian mythical epics of Vishnu and the Ramayana. Really interesting, but it's fairly old and some sections are hard to make out.
There were a couple intersting churches to see and the town itself is nice to walk around. We had lunch in this little artsy cafe that had really good chocolate cake. I started getting pestered by shopkeepers and autorickshaw drivers so I had my fill of the place pretty fast.
We went back to the hotel for some rest before heading back out to watch a short Kathakali...traditional Indian theatre. It's been around for a while and the costumes are pretty elaborate. It was really interesting...I got some great pictures.
Indian culture is not subtle it seems to me. They're very direct and deliberate about the message trying to be conveyed in their art. It's refreshing in a way...

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