The second day, my friend Madison and I embarked on a second attempt at Indian adventure. We hopped in a rickshaw and asked the driver to take us to what the locals refer to as “Jew Town.” Here you will find a bunch of Jewish curio shops surrounding a Jewish synagogue built in the 1500s.
Our driver understood where we wanted to go and that we wanted to go straight there. Yet again, this driver attempted to take us to some government-approved tourist mills. We were smarter today, we had adapted. We held our ground and refused to get out of the rickshaw each time he began to slow down. Once we reached “Jew Town,” we thanked our driver and let him be on his way.
We stuck around this area for the day, exploring the synagogue, eating good Indian food and browsing the stores and art galleries they have near by. The synagogue was not more than a small open-air room that could fit maybe 100 people. Apparently there are only nine Jews left in Cochin, and this synagogue is the only one for thousands of miles. The tour was extremely uninformative so I would love to be able to tell you more about the Jewish history in Cochin, but I frankly have no clue. Yet, it was interesting walking around and just processing the implications of this synagogues existence.
We returned back to the boat for the night, made sure we were packed up for the next morning and laid down for what was more of a brief snooze than anything, as we had to be up at 4 AM to depart for New Delhi.
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| Madison and I at the synagogue in Cochin. |
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