Our auto driver was pretty patient and after our first choice of homestay (a term that is also seemingly loosely used for guesthouses as not all provide food) in the guidebook was full he drove around for a little while longer in order to help us find a room in our price range. It seemed that the guesthouses in Fort Cochin were at least twice what we would want to pay. The village did seem like a smart area, it has a colonial past resulting in a blend of Portugal, Holland and England, and sits on the Malabar Coast. The driver kept saying that this area was very expensive so seeing as we were tired, hot, thirsty and hungry and we needed to think about Plan B we paid him, got out and walked to a cafe. Yet again, as we have found in Kerala so far, the village of Fort Cochin was quite civilised and clean. We stopped in a trendy art cafe for some tomato soup and a cheese toastie followed by a tasty chocolate thing with some coffee. Nice. Whilst pondering what to do next, Matt and I talked to a couple of people about where to stay and found that there were a few places to stay that were well within our budget and were within walking distance. While I waited with our bags in the first possibility, Matt went for a wander in the afternoon heat and found a much better one well within our price range. Great.
We checked in, had showers, and went for dinner at a place nearby for some Italian food which was pretty tasty and made a change. The next morning after breakfast in a cafe (which was expensive and crap) we set off to the tip of Fort Cochin which was lined with stalls selling fresh fish and shellfish of all kinds, and beyond them, a sting of giant cantilevered Chinese fishing nets.
These spiderlike mechanisms were created by traders from the court of Kubla Khan in the 1400’s and require at least four men to operate the counterweights. We watched on as an organised group of tourists were shown how to use them and to be honest, they seem like more hassle than they are worth for the amount and size of fish they catch with them in the depleted waters these days!
They are obviously using more profitable modern fishing techniques these days for the sizeable ones, but it seemed like the locals were still using the Chinese nets to catch small fish for their own consumption while the big expensive fish were on sale for foreigners. It seemed strange that they were trying to sell fish to tourists, the majority of which are evidently staying in hotels and didn’t have a kitchen, but it turned out that you could buy your fish in the morning and then go to one of the associated cafes and have it cooked and served for a cost in the evening. This seemed like a good idea and we did contemplate it for a while, but after seeing the seemingly unclean state of the cafes we decided against it.
We went for a walk along the water’s edge to see what more there was. Fort Cochin is on the tip of the southern peninsula that makes up a part of the group of islands and peninsulas that is Kochi. Ernaukulam, where we got off the train, is on the mainland and modes of transport here include small and frequent ferries across the water to places such as Fort Cochin. On our walk we spotted some Dolphins really close in which was a nice surprise, and I met some friendly Indian girls from the Convent (it’s a Catholic area) that were out for the day.
Looking at this picture, I am not sure if the one is pink is actually a girl.... but I like the little one with glasses (I have a soft spot for fellow four-eyes of the miniature variety).
We got the obligatory sunset photos of the fishing nets...
We took more but we won’t bore you with all the different angles and light that we (or namely I) thought the nets looked good in as it is really a bit dull. The beauty and curse of digital cameras.
As well as the ritual art of Theyyam that we saw in Kannur, Kerala has some traditional arts which it likes to boast about. Kalarippayat is an ancient tradition of martial training and discipline, some saying that it is the predecessor of all martial arts and can be traced back to the 12th century. The low key performance in the arts centre we went to started by short explanations in English (with a rolling Kerala accent which we found hard to understand) followed by the display of the basic movements used.
The show seemed a bit slow at first but it was really impressive when they put them together for a ‘fight’, especially seeing as it was all done on a bare concrete floor. The boys on stage were young and very skilled. They even used sticks (which they spun at an incredible speed), swords (that sparked loudly and brightly every time the steel of the swords touched, from pure force) and a dangerous looking metal whip. It had two 3 inch wide lengths of metal edged with razor teeth that looked horrific and actually ended up caused some damage, during the performance, to their feet! Hazard of the business I guess.
The stars of the show
It was interesting and good to see something other than dance and music. Those boys would make really good fire throwers, we have yet to see anyone who can handle a stick like they could!
As we weren’t too interested in visiting churches or cemeteries, and the backwater tours organised from Fort Cochin were more expensive than further south, there wasn’t much else for us to do here. Before we left however, we took the 4 rupee ferry across to mainland Ernaukulam and bought some gifts for Matt’s nieces from this mother and daughter.
They two may not look like a hard bargain, but buying these bracelets from them involved the usual sign language and pigeon-English, and contribution from passers-by, including a comment from a disgruntled Indian who claimed that we shouldn’t be bargaining with these poor homeless people even though we all knew they were asking for way more than they were worth!
Whilst Matt was bargaining, the daughter had taken my hand and stamped it all over with some patterned blocks covered in henna-type ink (that turned out to be quite permanent and took over a week to scrub off) and tried to charge me 100 rupees for the pleasure.
She was obviously unhappy with the 10 rupees that I offered and even had the cheek to return it to me. She took it in the end though, and our little exchange ended with smiles, but these two were not quite the little cherubs we first thought they might be!
We headed back to the ferry and had a chai and a few very cheap 5 rupee nimbu panis (a refreshing lemon juice, traditionally with some sugar and a little salt to replace lost minerals in sweat and a drink that we have come to love and drink a lot) at the stalls near the jetty.
Before leaving Fort Cochin, I decided to treat myself to a long awaited traditional Keralan Ayurvedic massage (all the oils used in Ayurveda are grown in and fill the fields of Kerala) followed by a Sirodhara (the pouring of ?litres of ayurvedic oil of the forehead to release tension?). After a bit of exploring I found a little place called Evergreen that charged half the price of the fancier place and had a lovely calm atmosphere. I made an appointment with the female owner and it turned out to be the best massage I have had in a long time. I was already so relaxed by the time the massage was over but I was then to have oil poured on my head for 45 minutes. The initial sensation was strange. It made my whole head itchy as it stimulated the nerve endings in my scalp, but once that decreased it was most soothing and turned my body to jelly. I felt like I was plastered to the bed! It took me a while to recover myself, get off the bed and slowly wobble over to the shower where I was instructed to wash myself clean. Highly recommended.
On the whole, we thought Fort Cochin was quiet and pretty but maybe lacking in life and character. I think it is geared mostly towards package holiday makers as there are some beautiful heritage hotels and restaurants around and the area was generally a bit pricey. It was very difficult to find any proper local places to eat nearby (the main village is small), and even getting a cheap breakfast was tricky. We mainly ended up in the hotels or cafes for some relatively costly, but decent grub and that was ok. We did find their alcohol rules a bit odd though – there were very few places that sold beer legally, and places that didn’t have a licence sold it in teapots, sometimes, and definitely not on the first Saturday of the month for some reason or the other.
Next on the agenda was Alleppey. This was for the much talked about boat trip, in the backwaters of Kerala, and a highlight not to be missed apparently.
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