Travelogue: The Kochi Chapter

The much-hyped tourist places usually fall short of what they have been crowned with. I expected the same with Kerala, and I’m glad to be proven wrong.

Kerala was part of my Travel-bucket-list for like, forever. I was spoilt for choice as to where this trip should actually begin from. With a travel time of around 10+ hours, finally, after much deliberations, we planned for Kochi and Alleppey. And included another location to the trip.

First Halt: Ernakulam junction.

We reached in the early hours of a Friday morning only to notice everything outside the station was literally Green! We had booked a place at Fort Kochi via Airbnb. Those oblivious to this cool service, I’ll request you to check it out, instead of booking hotels. You stay with locals at reasonably good prices and with tips from the locals are something that goes a long way in helping explore the place.

From Ernakulam, we boarded a ferry towards Fort Kochi for just Rs. 8 for the two of us!! We were surprised to get something this cheap. After a slow and yet comforting ride, we reached the lovely Airbnb.

After our host offered us coffee, a quick bath, and a 30-minute nap, we headed out for breakfast.

Kashi art café was our breakfast point, we had to walk around a little around the neighborhood to reach the cafe.

The décor was artsy, and even though both of us weren’t the type, it still gave a good vibe. We treated ourselves to some good breakfast after a 10-hour journey in the general compartment, the previous night. YES, that was part of our adventure to travel as well as save on cost.

We explored a little more of the neighborhood before we reached the Chinese fishing nets and subsequently the Fort Kochi beach.

Meanwhile, it was time for the Friday prayers. It wasn’t difficult to find a mosque, although it was a new experience to listen the Takrir and Khutba in Malayalam. Something we weren’t used to. In our non-south-Indian heads, the perception of Urdu being a ‘Muslim’ language is falsely fed in, anyway.

The streets in Fort Kochi has a vintage feel to it. The buildings, street arts & Graffiti (there’s a lot of it) gives it a strikingly cool image.

The Travel guide picked up at the home-stay, suggested us to try out another café, for its amazing pizzas. Housed in a Veranda with trees for company, the locale felt perfect for us to drop by. The vegetarian pizza was ordered, as it just didn’t felt like the meat would be halal as they appeared quite hesitant to our question.

Pizza, with spinach and basil, tasted real good. Bit different for our taste, yet we loved it. Although the drinks felt a little overpriced.

Post the Pizzas, we also treated ourselves to some Gelato in a vintage house turned ice-cream parlor.

Post lunch, we spent a little more time around the Fort Kochi Beach and fishing-net area. Wish it was a little cleaner, but most beaches in India are like this.

Our plan was to head to Allepey, the next day. But Ernakulam was yet to be explored.

We boarded the Jetty, again, for the city. Roamed around, offered prayers and with Easter eve, found most of the places closed. With a little help from Zomato, ended up at the food court of a mall. Who wants to end up in the Food court? Although our plan was to go to a proper restaurant for our Dinner. Luckily, the food wasn’t bad. A very differently cooked dry chicken meal along with rice was what we had.

We had to rush to catch the Ferry as we were about to miss the last one. A friend suggested viewing Fort Kochi beach at night. So, before heading back to the homestay, we did spend a few minutes there.