Emmanuel and I woke up early as she wanted to get a nice breakfast. We went to a place called Quissa which was not far away, it was a very trendy hotel cafe. I had a cheese and mushroom omelette and she had a fruit salad! It was all very delicious!
We then went back to the hotel ready for our walk around Fort Kotchi. We had a guide which took us to the Dutch Palace, Jewish synagogue, and town. The St Francis Church, the oldest church in India we went into was very interesting, they used wooden beams with cloth hanging down as fans in the church, a man would be pulling a rope to keep the guests cool!
We then visited the Dutch Palace, this was Ever so crowded. It was cool to see what the royals wore. The women wore light and white saris whereas the men wore heavy beaded clothing!
We then walked to the Jewish quarter where we visited the laundry place, this was fascinating. There were lots of little concrete shacks with women slapping the clothing on rocks and washing them. There was also so many washing lines, I had never seen so many! The iron they used was also massive, I think Thai is why the men do it as it is so heavy!
We then visited the Jewish synagogue which was 400 years old, which was very interesting. The whole place was lit my tea lights, it must take the man ages every day to light them!
That evening we watched a kathakali performance, a form of traditional dancing from kerela. It is Considered one of the oldest dance forms in India, Kathakali is a combination of drama, dance, music, and ritual. Characters with vividly painted faces and elaborate costumes re-enact stories from the Hindu epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana. This dance drama
is famous for amazing costumes, extensive makeup, and explosive body movements, and is performed exclusively by men.
We arrived early to watch them out there make up on. It was weird to watch as they did it on a stage whilst everyone takes photos! The performance then started. It was possibly the weirdest thing I have ever watched. At some points I couldn’t look at the characters, there facial expressions where making me laugh. One man also sat on the stage doing eye movements which represented a feeling. It was hilarious! And then all of a sudden one of the starts screaming and running around the stage. Such a bizzare show.
We then went for dinner at a local restaurant and I had palak Paneer my favourite!