Lovely day in Cochin after a horrendous queue of an hour for Indian immigration. Then straight onto the buses and down to the quay. Cochin is built on seven islands, some natural and some man made. We had a lovely sail amongst the fishing boats. One million people in Cochin are involved in fishing. We saw lots of birds including hundreds of egrets. We also saw the huge Chinese fishing nets for which the area is famous. The local people are lovely, full of smiles and waves.
We went ashore again at a colourful market and visited the Old Portuguese Palace with interesting frescoes and other Royal clothes, portraits etc Spent a little time in the market and bought some beautiful fresh vanilla pods- not cheap but a nice useable souvenir.
We visited an upmarket store but bought nothing! Saw the Bishop's House and museum which is set in gardens growing some of the local spices and fruits like pepper corns and breadfruit.
We saw the oldest Christian church in Asia. We saw there the burial place of Vasco da Gama. Had refreshments at a 5 star hotel overlooking the Arabian Sea. Wonderful walk along the Chinese fishing nets where we saw the amazing variety of fish they caught and listened to the fish auction. All in all a lovely day but very hot and humid so a swim back on the ship was essential.
Dinner under the stars to night at Sorento restaurant. Hope to see the famous phosphorescence on the sea. If not maybe some of the porpoises and flying fish we've been seeing the last few days.