Cochin:

December 14th, 2004

Greetings from Southern India...

We are currently in the town of Cochin, which is also known as Kochi (not to be confused with Cochin, Saskatchewan). It is part of a group of Islands. We are actually staying in the "twin" city - so to speak - called Ernakulam.

If you look on a map, we are in the Southwest corner of India, very near to the tip.

We left the homestay this morning and arrived here in Cochin this afternoon. We went right to touring because we leave for the north via airplane in the morning. We saw massive Chinese fishing nets this afternoon and a few churches, but the highlight was the Jewish Synagogue that dates back to 1568.

The Jews used to play a large part in the Cochin community but now there are only 4 families left and 14 Jews. The rest have left to Israel. It is a weird circumstance to say the least.

The Synagogue was beautiful and full of colours. It was by far the nicest building we saw in the city from the inside - the architecture in the south here is very plain and simple. We then wandered the streets of Jew Town (or what remains).

There are small symbols here and there, but no Jewish run shops still exist. We did enter a Jewish Cemetery which had massive graves, almost tomb-like, which is quite uncommon in the Jewish faith.

That about wraps things up. Hope this finds everyone well back home.

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