FORT KOCHI

21st - 25th May 2015

We made it on to the 2pm train headed for Fort Cochin after our backwaters boat tour. We arrived at 6ish on the baking hot train, sadly no one had invited us back to their house, so we had to figure things out for ourselves again. We got in the prepaid tuk tuk queue, and it actually worked! We were charged much less than we would normally pay for that length of journey. However, just before getting in to the tuk tuk, a bird pooped on my hand... A sign of good luck for our last stop in India or bad karma?

We arrived at the main boat jetty just as the sun was setting, so we stopped, watched and felt very happy. We boarded a battered looking government boat to Fort Cochin (which cost only 4 rupees) and watched the sky turn all sorts of amazing colours as the afterglow of the setting sun did it's thing. 

However once night had fallen and we had arrived in Fort Cochin, things weren't so easy as it was 8pm and we didn't know where we were staying and Will wasn't feeling too good. His board rash from surfing had got infected making everything uncomfortable. We dumped our things in the nearest hotel, went out for some very western food (Surprisingly good Italian) and went straight to bed.

Early the next morning I got up and wandered around the small neighbourhood to find us a new hotel as this place only had room for us for one night. I decided that because it was to be our last 3 nights in India that we should splash out.

And splash out we did!! We stayed in a place called Koder House and I shit you not, our 'suite' was bigger than our 2 bedroom flat in London. Koder House is a 200 year old Colonial mansion, once owned by a Jewish family and has since been converted into a boutique hotel with 6 rooms. It has 3 floors, with 2 rooms on each floor, either side of the restaurant on the ground floor, and a sitting room on the 1st and 2nd floors. We were on the 2nd floor, and no one was staying in the room opposite so we had the entire sitting room, plus our massive bedroom to ourselves. It was heaven! The ceiling was as high as two storeys, you had to use a step to climb on to the bed, there was a seating area, gorgeous dark wooden floors, 5 big windows and AIR CON!!! Then there was a dressing room which was almost as big as the bedroom again, then a massive bathroom. It was brilliant - just what we needed!

We dropped off our luggage, then went on a tuk tuk tour of the main sites - the impressive/surreal Santa Cruz Basilica was Catholicism - India style. Inside the cathedral were many images of Christ, most with fairy lights around the picture or worn as a necklace. Everywhere you looked there was an over the top depiction of a scene from the bible. We also visited a huge wash house where most of the towns washing is done, St. Francis Church which is believed to be the oldest European built church in India, the beach, a Portuguese museum charting the history of Portuguese settlement in the area and the rise of the church, and finally Jew town which is now the centre of the spice trade in Kochi. It was a whistle stop tour but it meant we had seen most of the tourist attractions on our first morning and we wouldn't feel bad for spending the next two and half days camped out in our amazing room.

Fort Cochin obviously has a big art community as everywhere we looked was gorgeous graffiti, political statements and there were tonnes of art cafes, which were displaying local artists work.

I must dwell more on the room. From the photos you can see that there are carpeted areas that reminded us of catwalks. After a couple of beers one evening, we took it in turns to catwalk the entire length of the suite, including clambering over the massive bed. Another fun game was trying to fly a paper airplane (made from the hotels stationery of course) over the two ceiling bars, whilst attempting to avoid the fans.

The best meal we ate in India involved selecting our fish from the fishermen at the seafront then taking it to the outdoor restaurants on Tower Road and getting them to cook it. It was the freshest most delicious seafood I have ever tasted. The jumbo prawns were ridiculous, about as much meat as 3 king prawns put together!! And the red snapper was divine. We sat on plastic chairs on the roadside, devouring our fresh fish, feeling content.

Hanging out at the Chinese Fishing Nets was another highlight. These nets are now more of a tourist attraction than an effective way of catching fish, but they really did look incredible all in a line at sunset. Men still worked the nets, but I wonder if they make more money in 'donations' from tourists they've invited to come look at the giant structure than they do in selling their fish! On the beach there are also men working exceptionally hard with hand thrown nets, with very little reward. However when they do catch something, everyone gathers round and they get a lot of kudos. 

One evening we went to see a traditional Kathakali show, an art-form native to Kerala. It was without doubt the most peculiar thing we have seen since setting off from the UK in March. First you spend an hour watching the actors having their makeup applied. Next there is an explanation and demonstration of the most important aspects of Kathakali. This involved a half an hour display of the skill and commitment needed to master the art, (actors and musicians spend 8-10 years in training) including eye movements, cheek and facial movements, hand signals (almost like sign language) and finally body and dance movements. Then came the headline act, a 1 hour excerpt from a much longer show (shows would traditionally start in the evening and go on all night). It was a bizarre mix of outrageous costumes and 3D make up, constant drumming and chanting, body movements in time with the music, intricate hand movements and outlandish movements of the face and eyes to convey a traditional Hindu story. We reckon that Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett must have been inspired by Kathakali when writing The Mighty Boosh.

The tourist friendly Princess Street was also a cool place to hang out, with many art cafés, interesting shops and old buildings. We can recommend Teapot and the Kashi Art Cafe. On our last day we attempted to walk to the Jewish area but it was too hot. We stopped off in another art cafe for cake. We eventually got to the synagogue but it was closed as it was a Jewish holiday. Went for a beer instead and it came with Bombay mix - result.

We had a lovely time down at the Chinese fishing nets on our last night before dinner. The beach was full of Indian families enjoying the seaside, flying kites and having a good time. I felt overwhelmed at how lucky we had been to spend so long in this beautiful country and sad that we had to leave already! The sun started to set and filled the sky with colour, so we took a party tuk tuk to dinner at a restaurant on the seafront for our last meal in India. The sunset was incredible, looking out over the ocean and the mixed seafood platter was a real treat.

We came back to the room after dinner to FaceTime my family at my cousin Toby's wedding. Seeing Toby and his beautiful bride Abi on their big day was brilliant and I especially loved Toby's reenactment of the ceremony!

All that was left to do was dance around our amazing hotel room to Alanis Morisette... Thank you India! We are going to miss this crazy country.