The first part of our journey was to move from the port on Willingdon Island across the Malabar River to Fort Cochin although don’t be fooled since whilst there may have been a fort in times past today it is just a district of bustling commercial city. The road was lined with massive mountains of teak logs imported from Malaysia and Indonesia, indigenous teak having long been exhausted. Given the vast quantities here one has to wonder if this comes from sustainable reserves but such is the prodigious demand for teak for furnishing houses in this rapidly growing economy.
Once across the Malabar River we entered Fort Cochin which the cruise brochure said “will transport you back to the last years of the 15th Century when the adventurous Vasco de Gama and valiant Cabral brought their religions to this land” enticed by the riches of this region. True enough we soon came to the St Francis Church constructed in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan friars and the oldest church in India. Vasco de Gama died in Cochin in 1524 and was buried in this church for 14 years before his remains were taken back to Lisbon, his tombstone is still to be found inside.
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