For the first time since we left Mauritius a month ago we had to put on the air conditioning as Kerala is in the far south of India and virtually tropical.It was clear,even from a midnight taxi ride,that this was a different India to the one we had experienced in the north. After a late breakfast we had our guided tour of the old part of Cochin.First we visited St Francis church,the oldest Christian church in India. It was the site of Vasco De Gama's tomb for 15 years after his death until his son fetched him back.Of great interest were the old fans to keep the congregation cool with the aid of the punka wallah,but now they have electricity.The pews were the most comfortable we have ever sat in and the tiles were were wonderful Victorian encaustic ones,so much so that we had to take our shoes off to help protect them.A brief glimpse of the Dutch cemetery,sadly closed to protect it as was the Jewish cemetery.We were amazed by the public laundry where generations of the same family have done all the washing,drying and ironing for travellers and hotels.Unfortunately with education the younger generation are eschewing the family business so it is likely to die out soon. We now arrived at the Jewish quarter,this was once a thriving community but now only 7 Jews remain and only is under 80 and she sells the entrance tickets to the synagogue,the oldest in India.It has a wonderful clock which has different numerals depending on who is likely to see it.Towards the synagogue it is in Hebrew,in the street it is Latin and overlooking the old royal palace in the local language.A fourth face in Arabic towards the sea existed once but that has all gone a long time ago. The synagogue has a wonderful floor made of Chinese tiles all with a different picture from the willow pattern story. The lights are all made of Belgium glass and the chandelier above where the rabbi sat is Venetian. Just over the wall is the former royal palace,known as the Dutch palace as they renovated it in the 1700's with magnificent teak ceilings to recompense the local king for some desecration of temples by some Dutch people.We managed to avoid going to an emporium but not the spice market where prince Charles had been recently,luckily we escaped having only bought some masala tea spice mix. finally we visited the Chinese fishing nets and as it was high tide they were in use. By this time it was time for a beer so our driver took us to a boutique hotel overlooking the beach and sea for our lunch.We strolled back along the beach to our hotel for a rest before our evening visit to the Kathakali show which was conveniently opposite our hotel. We watched the two performers put on their make up,then there was a demonstration of the facial and eye movements and their meaning.To finish there was a performance.the costumes were magnificent.Afterwards we walked around the shops and restaurants and found a nice upstairs restaurant overlooking the busy street and had another fish curry but no beer this time.that is only really found in the 5 star hotels.