Fort Cochin (Kochi) - 12/17

Fish and baby shark for sale.

Quiet Kochi streets.

Sari lesson.

Ancient Chinese fishing nets.

We arrived late at night and took an auto rickshaw to our budget hotel in Ernakulam. There was no AC and the beds were super hard, also noticed a few roaches in the bathroom. The next day we were to move to Fort Cochin which is accessible by “Boat Jetty” just a short walk from where we were staying. But, during his morning exercises Peter hurt his back....of course! Can't take that guy anywhere. I didn't want him to have to carry his backpack and so we booked another night at the same place. Thankfully, he did not get hurt too bad, so we still managed to make it to Fort Cochin for the day.

Kochi is an island off of Ernakulam made up of the Fort and Mattencherry areas. In the fort area there are old Chinese fishing nets, narrow Anglo-Dutch buildings along narrow streets and antique shops. It is also full of quaint homestays, which are guest houses or B&B's tucked into the old colonial area, and goats running around everywhere. Mattencherry is more of a trading area where you can get spices and they have Jew town. The island is an ancient port city big for trading spices with the Arabs, Dutch, Phoenicians, Portuguese, and Chinese and is over 600 years old. They say that the colonization of India started there. The ancient Chinese fishing nets are also still in use, although it seems that they are mainly a gimic for tourists. They are used to catch fish which are then sold to tourists right next to the nets. You can get fresh crabs, fish, lobster and even baby shark. They will cook it for you right on the spot.

Tourism here is relentless! You cannot move more than a couple of feet before you are approached to buy something...a hat, a tour, a scarf, a postcard. All sorts of stuff you don't need or want. It can get pretty frustrating. The auto rickshaws were the worst. So, in order to ward off all the touts, we rented another scooter. This worked like magic. Although there was one very determined rickshaw driver that tried to get us into his rickshaw even though we were on our scooter. We rode around the island, visited all the historic sites, found a delicious fruit market, visited Jew town, strolled through antique galleries and scoped out tea and coffee shops. Also, I finally found a tailor to “stitch” my sari! This town was full of them. It looks great and the seamstress showed me how to wear it, but it was so complicated I doubt I will be able to get it on again myself!