We docked in Kotchi this morning just after dawn so got a good view of the port area during the docking operation. It was clear that the passenger terminal was an after thought in what is a very large and busy cargo port. Like Colombo yesterday the air was thick with dust or polution and visibility was restricted.

Our excursion today started with a boat trip around part of the harbour. The boat trip lasted about an hour and did not even scratch the surface of this very large harbour. As you can see from the photos we saw all kinds of boats, many islands supporting hotels and other kinds of accomodations, and those famous large fishing nets suspended from poles at the end of small jetties. This fishing technique was started in this harbour by Chinese immigrants in the 1600s and has been adopted by locals.

Following the boat trip we visited a St Francis Catholic Church that was for a the initial resting place of Vasco Da Gama but his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539.

We then visited a beach front that was reaaly a large outdoor informal market. The apparent purpose of our visit to this location was to get a closer look at those Chinese fishing nets.

Our final stop of the day was the Mattancherry district where we were supposed to visit the Dutch Palace, but Nina and I opted for a walk around the local streets and found many goats, many spice stores, got a refresher course in walking in Indian streets without foot paths and finally enjoyed watching the full size buses manouver in the tight space in the streets outside the Dutch Palace.

We voted this a very interesting day.