The Lonely Planet says that you can hear travellers’ sigh’s of relief on arrival at Fort Cochin – how right they are. It’s pretty, charming, laid back, hassle free, chi-chi, and in a beautiful natural harbour setting. What more could we want. The journey here started off with a 24 km autorickshaw ride as we headed south on Vypeen Island towards the ferry – our auto rickshaw laden with us inside and our baggage on the roof. It was slow at times as we wended between coconut groves, small hamlets and backwaters with the occasional view of a beach. We boarded the ferry in roll on roll off style with our wheelie bags together with the ice cream vans, motorbikes, autorickshaw’s and pedestrians to make the short crossing to Fort Cochin. Gill had already anticipated the international headlines – “overladen ferry sinks in Cochin harbour – all lives lost”. Actually the 300 metre trip was uneventful, Ganesh was looking after us. We saw a beacon in the distance next to the roll off ramp – a posh hotel with canvas umbrellas in the gardens sheltering people drinking wine – hooray we will love it here!
From the moment we disembarked Fort Cochin’s laid back hassle free vibe had an effect, yet another different Indian experience. Here we were to sleep in a homestay the Mother Tree Inn a short autorickshaw ride from the fort. Run by two brothers, cute little rooms (Gill hated the very blue bathroom….) in a quiet sidestreet by the Basilica for $10 a night. In the time we were here, we even got to know the neighbours who were painting their bright blue house for Xmas – this is really a Christian town, with churches everywhere. There a number of large 16th century Portuguese and Dutch basilicas dotted around, as well a proliferation of smaller churches which are an interesting mix of Hinduism and Christianity, and again we lit a candle for Kev. A town made for wending which we do very well. Cute little shops, narrow lanes, goats everywhere, neat schoolchildren, but still no “bars” that actually sell alcohol. However to beat the licensing laws, special tea is everywhere. It took us a while to realise that people were not tea junkies, the teapots were filled with beer – are the police really that stupid? But Ant did enjoy many a cuppa! Fort Cochin is also famous for its large cantilevered fishing nets and it is fun to watch the effort going in to catching so little. But the background to these ancient nets is a deep channel out to the Arabian Sea with almost constant container, fishing and oil tankers gliding by less than 100 metres offshore. Promenading along the sea shore we were yet again a source of bemusement as we had to stop every few yards to pose and shake hands with Indian tourists… We still haven’t worked out why us. Perhaps it’s the Brangelina effect – but don’t worry there are no plans to adopt loads of children yet – the only kids we are interested in are the baby goats which are everywhere and are very cute. The only time we weren’t photographed (but really wanted to be…) was when we walked by a Bollywood film in the making. Ant did his best Bangra dance to get the attention of the Director, but to no avail.
The only problem with Fort Cochin is the niceness of the shops and it didn’t take long – Gill indulged in an ayurvedic detoxing blouse (the King’s new clothes comes to mind) and given the small amount of alcohol available, it’s not needed just at the moment. But shopping still necessitated an emergency parcel home. Sounds easy but it isn’t. Parcels are not accepted at the post office unless they have been wrapped and sewn with white cotton and sealed with wax. That job duly completed, and multiple carbon copied forms filled in, the parcel was despatched. It may be gone some time….
Our days were spent wandering with frequent dips into the two boutique hotels, the Malabar House and the Bruton Boatyard. They became home from home very quickly, even though the Indian Sauvignon Blanc was £5 a pop, but it is nice to see a white linen tablecloth after ten days on the road. Talking of alcohol, keen observers of this blog would have been aware that our travels had been saved up to this point by a one litre bottle of Duty Free Gordon’s. This had frequently sustained us in times of need, but we still had 1/3 of the bottle left. Such need occurred one afternoon on the terrace of our overwater bungalows in Cherai Beach. BUT ANTHONY LEFT IT OUT ON THE TERRACE OVERNIGHT. When we got up the next morning the bottle was completely empty. Anthony has a lot to make up for for being so careless with our most valuable asset! This necessitated a desperate hunt in Fort Cochin for supplies for our forthcoming two day backwater houseboat trip. We finally were successful – we queued up at the Kerala Government Beverage Corporation shack along with the town’s wino’s – it felt like queuing for methadone at Superdrug – it came wrapped in newspaper from behind a strong metal cage. But we’re not proud and we’ll let you know what it tastes like in a couple of days. In typical Ant & Gill fashion we headed off in the opposite direction to the other tourists and found ourselves in the old alleys by the waterfront dripping with atmosphere, beautiful but falling down houses, every kind of rice and spice (including courtyards of ginger drying in the sun). Fragrant India came to the fore, star anise battling at times with sewers – only in India. This brought is to Jewtown which is the antique quarter and we visited an Aladdin’s Cave of Indian antiques. Let’s hope that Ant’s purchase of a pair of life size temple bull heads, which are being shipped as we speak, make it home before we do…….
Our days were spent wandering with frequent dips into the two boutique hotels, the Malabar House and the Bruton Boatyard. They became home from home very quickly, even though the Indian Sauvignon Blanc was £5 a pop, but it is nice to see a white linen tablecloth after ten days on the road. Talking of alcohol, keen observers of this blog would have been aware that our travels had been saved up to this point by a one litre bottle of Duty Free Gordon’s. This had frequently sustained us in times of need, but we still had 1/3 of the bottle left. Such need occurred one afternoon on the terrace of our overwater bungalows in Cherai Beach. BUT ANTHONY LEFT IT OUT ON THE TERRACE OVERNIGHT. When we got up the next morning the bottle was completely empty. Anthony has a lot to make up for for being so careless with our most valuable asset! This necessitated a desperate hunt in Fort Cochin for supplies for our forthcoming two day backwater houseboat trip. We finally were successful – we queued up at the Kerala Government Beverage Corporation shack along with the town’s wino’s – it felt like queuing for methadone at Superdrug – it came wrapped in newspaper from behind a strong metal cage. But we’re not proud and we’ll let you know what it tastes like in a couple of days. In typical Ant & Gill fashion we headed off in the opposite direction to the other tourists and found ourselves in the old alleys by the waterfront dripping with atmosphere, beautiful but falling down houses, every kind of rice and spice (including courtyards of ginger drying in the sun). Fragrant India came to the fore, star anise battling at times with sewers – only in India. This brought is to Jewtown which is the antique quarter and we visited an Aladdin’s Cave of Indian antiques. Let’s hope that Ant’s purchase of a pair of life size temple bull heads, which are being shipped as we speak, make it home before we do…….
