Fort Cochin, Kerala

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The journey from the airport to Fort Cochin was quite an interesting one. Found a lonely traveller at the airport so we decided to share a taxi to Fort Cochin and save on the cost. Prepaid taxi was 635 rupees (9 euro), outside the airport at the taxi rank was a barrage of men in skirts, some long , some short, and some waving theirs in the air, I guess in order to cool down. The taxi was a funky white Ambassador, inside was carpeted all over. It took over 2 hours to get from the airport to our destination, having to cross 2 bridges and pay the toll fare (20 at one, 10 at the other). The main ojective of drivers in India is to overtake, regardless of how dangerous it is, at one point our driver was overtaking another car that was also overtaking???
Passing through Ernakulam, it seemed really upmarket, lots of buildings, neon lights, traffic and smog. Fort Cochin on the otherhand is completely different. So far it has been the friendliest place I've been to. Random people stop to chat with you, and others wave and greet you. They all want to know want you think of the place, for me that alone is enough to give it the thumbs up.
Princess street is where all the budget hotels, restaurants, shops and tourist centres are located. I'm staying in the Avenue Park Hotel (250 rupees for a double room), it offers Ayurveda massage and has a nice rooftop restaurant, although the rooftop restaurant in the Elite Hotel looks much nicer.
One thing you have to do in Kerala is to see a Kathakali show. It translates as story dance and is quite amazing to watch. You can usually arrive about an hour before the performance to watch the actors put on their make-up, they use all natural materials, mixing coconut oil to different coloured stones to create the paint, they even put seeds under their eyelids to make them turn red. The story is usually explained to you beforehand and an introduction about Kathakali is given. It takes 6 years training to perfect the art, and it primarily involves using your face to convey emotions and your hands to denote what they are saying. Also they dont blink!!!!my eyes were watering just looking at them. If you are in Fort Cochin then I'd definately recommend seeing a show.
Kashi art Cafe, is probably the trendiest place I've ever been, its crammed with tourists, the chocolate cake is amazing as is the coffee, but it feels more like Berlin than India, but its a good place to meet fellow travellers.
St Francis Church, is a lovely place to visit also. The priest who worked there during the early 1900s decided not to use marbel or tiles when creating this church. He painted/decorated the entire church himself, creating marble effect pillars and enclaves. It has to be seen to be appreciated.
There are lots of tourist centres offering backwater tours, I'd advise shopping around before you book as the price does vary. we decided to book with Intimate Escapes on princess street, the guy here is sound. He talked about his friends from Ireland, and how not to get ripped off by taxi drivers, he also gave us some special herbs that help to settle your stomach. And by booking with him we managed to save 500 rupees on our backwater tour. Many places also offer elephant tours, and show pictures of tourists feeding the elephants, however some weirdo tried to poison an elephant about 2 years ago so sadly most places dont allow feeding of the elephants, some tour operators dont mention this so it's best to double check.
The backwater tour was amazing and so relaxing I could have fallen asleep. We stopped off for about 15 minutes in a village, and were shown how they make rope from coconuts and how they grow different spices etc. Our tour lasted 5 hours, 2 hours getting there and back and 3 hours on the water. You can choose when booking, how long you would like to spend on the backwaters, as some places offer 7 hour tours.
Back in Fort Cochin, we decided to have dinner in the Monte Carlo Garden restaurant. The garden is very small and run from the owners home. While eating it started to rain heavily and the owner kindly offered to take us ustairs to his living room. We meet his wife, who also runs cookery classes. When we told her we were Irish she told us about the time last year when Darina Allen (the Irish version of Nigella lol) came for cookery lessons, she even showed us newspaper clippings with photos of her and Darina, from an Irish national newsaper. She is a fantastic cook and her vegetable pancakes are delicious. Her husband chatted with us about India's history and about the book the he's writing, he took our email address and promised to let us know when he'd finished.
Kerala, has been the highlight of my trip to India so far, but unfortunately I'm on the move again. I had intended on taking the 10 hour bus journey to Mysore, then onto Bangalore, then Hyderabad to visit friends. But I just found out that my friends are only in Hyderabad for the next few days so I have decided to cut out Mysore (at least it gives me an excuse to come back and visit India again) and catch a flight direct to Hyderabad (for 50 euros).

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