[ Zoom Map ]

Cochin, India
9° 58' N 76° 13' E
Jan 23, 2005 19:46
Distance 168km

Choose another map, showing:

• India (south)
• Maldives
• India (east)
• India
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Cochin

Baby it's Hot outside!!

Text written in: English

Greetings from Fort Cochi, in Kerala. Finally we made it. I (Allan), have been wanting to come here for years. I guess it is one of the main reasons for coming to India. To go cruising on the backwaters, which we will be doing in a couple of days. After an all nighter and half the previous day travelling we finally arrived at 6am. Then we caught a ferry across the bay to Fort Cochi. On the first ferry of the day when the harbour is still quiet, the sun has just come up and there is that calm feeling. It felt good to be here. We are staying at a nice guest house called Delight (600 R per night). It's basic and clean, but a few too many mossies for our liking. A coil put paid to them! First up time to sleep. Then we met up with an English couple and went to breakkie at a cool place called Kashmir Art Cafe. We have arrived on the last day of Ulsavam, a religious festival at the Siva temple. There are elephant processions, music, folk dancing and fireworks. We all went, and the locals took great delight in telling us how 'tonight there is a wonderful program.' It went on until 4am as far as we could tell. We went back at 10pm. Just excited out I guess. but little did we know the excitement was about to start... In the form of a mossie infested, pre war (WWII war), NO LIGHTS!! car. Driven by the oldest man in the....World. Still he was happy for the fare 200 R, so off we went. Never again will sentiment get the better of our judgement.
After a good nights sleep (no mossies), we explored Fort Cochi. in the old part it is very quiet, with nice cafes, a few shops and Dutch and Portugese churches. There is even a Synagogue. The shops are different from the rest of India as they are antique shops, book stores and art galleries. Its a funky place and we continue to chill out. Peace Dudes, Chill.