Arrival in India
So we managed to get through Kochi Airport pretty quickly and changed our last few LKR into Indian Rupees (INR) we went out the exit and grabbed a mobile sim from Airtel. We'd read getting this sortred at the airport was a good idea as its not the easiest place to get a mobile sim, they need a copy of your passport and take a photo to cross reference with the passport. This took about 20 mins to sort and was up and running about 1hr later. From the exit we walked to the right about 100 metres and found the Fort kochin bus, its bright orange!!
We were on the bus from the airport for about 90 mins before we were in Fort Kochin. You will go past lots of big bus stations, but hang on you will know when your nearly there by the increase in density of guesthouses\homestay. Fort Kochi is rumoured to be the birthplace of the homestay.
Accommodation
We stayed at a place called Allan's inn
When we arrived the guesthouse owner had come to meet us at the bus stop and showed us where to go. We stayed at Allan's inn, a budget stay, the hosts are lovely. But the time we were at the guesthouse it was getting late so we dumped our bags and Fexy made us a tasty fish curry for dinner.
Our breakfast was included which was tasty, the first day was idly and curry, the second day was pancakes with spiced coconut sugar. Fexy and Nestor really looked after us, checking our plans for each day to make sure we knew where to go, whether we needed buses/rickshaws etc.
Fort kochi
We spent the morning of our first day walking around seeing the sites in Fort Kochi, the Chinese fishing nets, the basillica catholic church ???? The church??? Then from there we hopped in a rickshaw for the rest of the day, he took us to the jain temple, Dutch palace, Jew town...... and for lunch he took us to a busy local restaurant to have our first Indian Thali. Afterwards, we moved on to a spice warehouse and ginger factory, followed by a large hand washing laundry place where all of the hotels get their laundry done...it was really interesting! He dragged us to a few shops also -Most rickshaw drivers will do this as for each of these we went into, The rickshaw driver said he gets a litre of fuel and if we bought anything he would get 2% commission. It was quite nice to know the reason they all want you to go shopping. We finished the day being dropped off at a cafe called the teapot. Where they specialise in tea, we stayed in the cafe for about an hour researching our next Keralan adventure.
We spent the morning of our first day walking around seeing the sites in Fort Kochi, the Chinese fishing nets, the basillica catholic church ???? The church??? Then from there we hopped in a rickshaw for the rest of the day, he took us to the jain temple, Dutch palace, Jew town...... and for lunch he took us to a busy local restaurant to have our first Indian Thali. Afterwards, we moved on to a spice warehouse and ginger factory, followed by a large hand washing laundry place where all of the hotels get their laundry done...it was really interesting! He dragged us to a few shops also -Most rickshaw drivers will do this as for each of these we went into, The rickshaw driver said he gets a litre of fuel and if we bought anything he would get 2% commission. It was quite nice to know the reason they all want you to go shopping. We finished the day being dropped off at a cafe called the teapot. Where they specialise in tea, we stayed in the cafe for about an hour researching our next Keralan adventure.
Planning...
The next day we took a day off to plan the next couple of weeks of our trip. What we were going to see in Kerala and we'd read a lot that in India for some trains you need to book weeks in advance. So we tried to setup accounts with Cleartrip and IRCTC. Due to website issues and intermittent internet at our homestay this wasn't a hugely productive day. (This seems a recurring theme in budget accommodation in India and Sri Lanka.)
However for our lunch that day we went out for a walk and ended up at the Chinese fishing nets where we bought 2 Kerala fish and 3 squid. We took these to the restaurant on tower street and they cooked them in Kerala curry sauce. This was delicious. The fish cost us 500 inr and getting the restaurant to cook it was another 350 inr. This made it quite an expensive meal but you were paying for the novelty of picking your fish and taking it to the restaurant. After this we went back and continued our failed attempts at trying to book trains.
The next day we took a day off to plan the next couple of weeks of our trip. What we were going to see in Kerala and we'd read a lot that in India for some trains you need to book weeks in advance. So we tried to setup accounts with Cleartrip and IRCTC. Due to website issues and intermittent internet at our homestay this wasn't a hugely productive day. (This seems a recurring theme in budget accommodation in India and Sri Lanka.)
However for our lunch that day we went out for a walk and ended up at the Chinese fishing nets where we bought 2 Kerala fish and 3 squid. We took these to the restaurant on tower street and they cooked them in Kerala curry sauce. This was delicious. The fish cost us 500 inr and getting the restaurant to cook it was another 350 inr. This made it quite an expensive meal but you were paying for the novelty of picking your fish and taking it to the restaurant. After this we went back and continued our failed attempts at trying to book trains.
Keralan Backwaters
We booked our trip to the Kerala backwaters with Stanley Wilson tours. We didn't go to Allepy as it is very expensive and very touristy. We also read a lot about the damage the masses of motorised boats are doing to the beautiful backwaters and its wildlife. So we picked an eco-friendly boat that was based in a little village called thurovor, (half way from Kochi to Allepy- easily accessible by bus). It cost us 4000 INR for an air conditioned (at night) one bedroom houseboat tour, this includes all food and the day relaxing on the boat whilst the boat owner punts the boat or walks pulling it. This was very relaxing, sitting on the porch of the boat drinking tea\coffee, getting fed good food, and sitting on a still lake. In the evening the boat owner takes you to his guesthouse and parks up for the night, he then got his wooden 2 man kayak out and let Abi and I row around the lake. This allowed us to get up close and personal to some Chinese fishing nets. The boat was basic, no hot water, a bucket to wash with. But it had so much charm, and I cannot think of a more relaxing day than this. Just don't forget bug spray as you'd expect, the is a lot of bugs on a lake.
We booked our trip to the Kerala backwaters with Stanley Wilson tours. We didn't go to Allepy as it is very expensive and very touristy. We also read a lot about the damage the masses of motorised boats are doing to the beautiful backwaters and its wildlife. So we picked an eco-friendly boat that was based in a little village called thurovor, (half way from Kochi to Allepy- easily accessible by bus). It cost us 4000 INR for an air conditioned (at night) one bedroom houseboat tour, this includes all food and the day relaxing on the boat whilst the boat owner punts the boat or walks pulling it. This was very relaxing, sitting on the porch of the boat drinking tea\coffee, getting fed good food, and sitting on a still lake. In the evening the boat owner takes you to his guesthouse and parks up for the night, he then got his wooden 2 man kayak out and let Abi and I row around the lake. This allowed us to get up close and personal to some Chinese fishing nets. The boat was basic, no hot water, a bucket to wash with. But it had so much charm, and I cannot think of a more relaxing day than this. Just don't forget bug spray as you'd expect, the is a lot of bugs on a lake.
The next day we woke up on the boat, were given breakfast which was also tasty, then got a rickshaw back to the bus stop to get the bus back to Kochi to collect our bags from Allan's inn (They kindly stored them for us overnight whilst we were on the houseboat).
It was very hot so we ended up sheltering from the sun and killing a bit of time, by going to a restaurant on princess street to use there WiFi and get some masala chai. They agreed to store our bags if we had dinner there. We were trying to kill a bit of time as that night we were getting our first sleeper bus to take us from Ernakulam (the KSRTC bus stand - which is different to the main bus stand in Ernakulam).
We took the ferry from Fort Kochi to Ernakulam (8 Rupees for us both) and then took a rickshaw to the bus stop.
Opposite was a bar (where they sold actual beer!) where we had a drink whilst waiting for the bus, which wasn't until 23.50! But it was fun chatting to locals passing the time!
It was very hot so we ended up sheltering from the sun and killing a bit of time, by going to a restaurant on princess street to use there WiFi and get some masala chai. They agreed to store our bags if we had dinner there. We were trying to kill a bit of time as that night we were getting our first sleeper bus to take us from Ernakulam (the KSRTC bus stand - which is different to the main bus stand in Ernakulam).
We took the ferry from Fort Kochi to Ernakulam (8 Rupees for us both) and then took a rickshaw to the bus stop.
Opposite was a bar (where they sold actual beer!) where we had a drink whilst waiting for the bus, which wasn't until 23.50! But it was fun chatting to locals passing the time!
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