The Last Stop in India – Cochin (Kochi)

Finally we had arrived at our final destination in India – Cochin or Kochi as they call it nowadays. We had curtailed our romantic ideas of heading up into the hills of the high country and its capital Munnar. The combination of bus, rail, bus (local) for hours on end lost out to jumping in a tuk-tuk back on the beach within 2 hours. So back to Varkala we went for 3 more leisurely days, and in a small world moment Andrea bumped into some former London colleagues circa 2002! On the 22 December enough was enough and off we headed for the train station and the 4 ½ hour journey to EnrnakulamTown for Fort Cochin. This was the first journey in Sleeper Class, not as sumptuous as it may sound as it is one of the lower classes, the same layout as AC3 but with the added advantage (or disadvantage if you are traveling overnight) of no air con, there’s also no windows just a few bars across the gap to stop people clambering in. But it does give you a great unhindered view on village life in the backwaters as we chugged our way through.

We arrived in Cochin just as the sun was setting, after another high adrenalin tuk tuk ride from the mainland across the very narrow and crowed bridges as you leap frog from one island or headland to another. Finally at the top of the furthest headland you come to Fort Cochin, home to the Portuguese, Dutch and then English. It’s a bit like a larger version of Pondicherry but with a bit of latin Catholicism slapped on it. With its many convent schools and tropical cathedrals, with a lot more colour and life than some of their European cousins. This time we stayed at a place called New Fort Residency, it was about the cheapest place we could find in the run up to christmas and the racking up of prices that goes with it. The staff are very nice but the place doesn’t look at all like the website portrayed, and the rooms (well our one had correctly been described as a prison cell, accept for it being unlocked and very spacious).

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It was a good location, a 5 minute walk into the tourist hub centred around 5 or 6 blocks in the fort area. Its quite un-indian in some ways here as it’s relatively quiet both on the roads so it makes for good wandering opportunities. Which we did thoroughly on one of the days as we followed the shore around from the old chinese fishing nets at the entrance of the harbour all the way down through the fragrant smells of the tea and rice warehouses to the crumbling piles of Jew town. As you may guess the home of the former and current small jewish community that still live there, it even has an old wooden synagogue. The wander back up the peninsula from here took it out of us as the day got hotter and hotter.

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Later that afternoon (23rd December) after a very late lunch we walked past the cathedral and heard a lot of noise and inside found a 100 or so Santas on bicycles getting ready for a mass ride, led of course as is the norm in India by a small van with amp’s bigger than itself attached to the roof. After a a few problems with the petrol generator (also tied to the roof) for the sound system the lads were off cycling along to blearing christmas carols. They returned later that evening and performed the nativity play to a large crowd in front of the cathedral which we glimpsed on the way back from dinner, sadly there was no strawberry in this one Raff!