I know that I’ve only been in India for two weeks, however knowing that we’ll be moving to Pune in mid-November, I thought this weekend would be a good chance to see a little more of Southern India. I really wanted to visit Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India but the flight and a very long train ride both there and back put it out of reach for a weekend trip. The next place recommended to me was Kochi. Trying to book flights and hotel ended up being very confusing as the city used to be called Cochin and though they sound very similar, the last thing I wanted to do was book a hotel in one city, and fly to another.

I arrived pretty late, and after an hour-long pre-paid taxi trip to my hotel I arrived in the middle of Ernakulam, the mainland of what makes up part of Kochi. I grabbed dinner at a local restaurant since it was pouring down with rain. I woke up to even more rain the next day, and since my hotel didn’t have an umbrella I could borrow, I took a rickshaw to first find a store that sold an umbrella and then made my way to the main ferry station. Umbrella in hand at only INR170 (£2.40) I caught the next ferry to the more touristy, Fort Cochin Island. The ferry was really something. I happened to be the only non-local on it, which by its nature meant plenty of staring. The ferry was not a very big boat, and loaded with lots of people, it really didn’t go very fast despite its very noisy and large gasoline engine. Blue tarpaulin hanging off the sides was all that kept the torrential rain (barely) outside. Quite an experience I must say and very glad to say one I survived.

I finally arrived at Fort Cochin Island, if not slightly damp, that although is slightly touristy also holds Kochi’s most appealing sights. A richshaw driver suckered me into a local tour, and although it started off very pleasant with visits to all the churches, museums and many sights of the island, also meant I was forcibly stopped at ten different stores around town. I feel like I spent much more time being herded from store to store without actually enjoying myself. One exception was a store found on Bazar Road found in the Mantanchery district (that is also known as the Spice Market) called “Castle”, and fortunately the only thing I bought something in. It ends up being one of the tallest buildings in that area, with a great sitting area up top looking out over the island. I sat there with one of the shop-keepers having tea for quite some time chatting about the local area and was probably one of the best bits to the day. One thing I learned, for example, is that people in Kochi actually eat quite a lot of beef which counters both the idea that Southern India centres around vegetarians and the sacred cow.

I’d probably avoid the Portugese Museum that, although shows some of the history of the Island, is really not that big or impressive. Instead, I’d spend some more time at the Jain temple, found in the Mantanchery district and if you manage to co-ordinate your timing to arrive at around noon, you’ll get to see them feed the pigeons. Like clockwork, a quick call out rounds up hundred of pigeons that do a quick loop of the temple before landing around the priests that man the temple. A few prayers are held before a bag of seed is poured out everywhere. They even let visitors feed them directly by taking scoops of the feed and holding them out. Other things that are worth seeing include the Chinese fishing nets down by the harbour, the several churches on the Island and one of the only beaches in the area.

Compared to both Mysore and Bangalore, Kochi offers quite a different experience. It’s obviously much more coastal with plenty more bodies of water (though probably still not very drinkable). It’s home to the shipping yards and we even saw some very impressive ships docking at one of the other islands. The recent rains also meant that the water was filled with plenty of uprooted water vegetation and didn’t seem to bother any of the tourist boats. They have some lovely restaurants, both by the water and not, with the focus more on the seafood and coconut-infused curries obviously very popular. Coffee didn’t seem to get any better here (still very watery) and although locals stared plenty at me, many of them still were very friendly about it. It’s a great destination to chill out as a tourist and I would definitely return to do several other things had I much more time in India.

Check out the pictures from the trip here.