Karnataka & Kerala Trip III.

Kochi 14 & 16/05/2009

Kochi is one of the principal Indian seaports and the second largest city in Kerala. It's spread over the mainland Ernakulalm and few peninsulas and islands. On our way from Munnar to Kochi we stopped few times to see waterfalls (which were because of the dry season very small and the only big one was inaccessible due to safety causes) and to have lunch. That's why we finally reached our guest house in Kochi quite late and thus decided just to relax and enjoy the sea air. The guest house was again pretty deluxe, situated on Wellington Island just next to ferry station.

There was a lovely promenade lined with orange blossoming trees and huge poch white houses with a view of Ernakulam Island with its huge commercial and administrative builidngs.

And a little ship parked just under my windows ;o)

I spent some time just wandering around, sitting by the sea and reading my travel guide (oh, there are still so many places I'd like to visit!!!) on a cozy terrace. Next day we went to Allepey to enjoy famous backwaters. But I'll tell you more about that after I finish Kochi. In fact there is not that much to see in Kochi apart from Fort Kochi. So on Sunday morning we took a ferry and set out for Fort Kochi. The ferry journey was short but still quite exciting because I experienced another "first-time in my life"...I saw dolphins!!! Unfortunately they didn't make any big show but still it was great to see them playing in the sea.

Fort Kochi is the oldest part of the city. Occupied by the Portuguese in 1503, it was the site of the first European colonial settlement in India. Later it was occupided by the Dutch and the British until India gained independence in 1947. Even today after several centuries you can still feel Portuguese laid back atmosphere when you're wandering in small, calm, almost empty streets. We decided to walk 2 km to the first attraction: Dutch Palace. Well, it wasn't a very smart decision to walk because it was already 11 a.m. and the heat was quite unbearable. So when we finally reached (this time I felt it was at least 5 km!!!), I was all sweaty and looking like if I had had just taken a shower. Fortunately, we were just about to hide oureselves inside the Dutch Palace. From outside it wasn't anything special (but still you don't see this architectural style in India that often ;o)) Inside was a little exhibition describing the history of Kochi and showing portraits of all its Rajas.

Then we wandered in Jewish Town with its synagoge and small colourful shops.

Since it was Saturday (or Sabbath), even the shops were pretty calm and not that many shopkeepers were trying to allure me to their shops ;o) Then we continued to rest of "tourist attractions":

St. Francis Church - a proof of Portuguese presence in 16th century

And another one: Santa Cruz Cathedral

And finally famous Chinese fishing nets. It was quite funny to watch the poor guys making so much effort to put these huge creatures into the sea and after some time pulling them back with not a single fish inside. But since there was a fish market around, I guess they catch something from time to time ;o)

We spent some time sitting on the beach, relaxing and searching for dolphins (we so some more!!!) and then set out for the ferry and got back to our guest house to take some rest between our night train journey back to Chennai.

But I still owe you a story about Allepey backwater, right? Well, let's make it fast...

Allepey 15/05/2009

Kerala is well known for its backwaters. You can hire a boat or even a houseboat and spend some time (from few hours to few days) travelling between small town and villages, admiring wonderful pristine nature and watching day-to-day life of village people.

Given our time and money restrictions, our backwater trip was just 3 hours long but I really enjoyed it. Here are some pics:

Our boat.

Big houseboat. You can see many of them all around. They are pretty deluxe and very expensive. But it's a great tourist attraction so I guess a very good business ;o)














Village people do really everything in the backwaters. This lady is washing dishes, others are washing clothes or their kids...However, it's not clean at all and I even wasn't temted to put my feet in. I saw one guy who threw an empty bottle into the river and then jumped inside with its little daughter to take a bath.















Finally I have a picture of a guy wearing "lungi" Isn't it funny? Ladies are all covered in tons of cloths and guys are wearing kind of skirt ;o)

So, that was my biggest and best trip so far. Let's hope there will be some more like this. Now I'm leaving for a 3-day bike (motorbike!) trip to Western Ghats and it's raining quite heavily there so please keep your fingers crossed that we are not washed away ;o)