Cochin

A spice warehouse where they were drying ginger.
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Cochin has a ton of culture and history packed into it's tight streets.  It is very touristy with tons of great places to stay in all price ranges.  We only had a day and a half here and I think it would have been fun to have more time to wander and explore all of the many houses of worship as well as the amazing 400-500+ year old Portuguese buildings that are now used as warehouses for spices, teas and essential oils.  Our auto-rickshaw driver was commissioned by the tourist shops to stop in front of their stores and encourage us to walk in with the hopes that we would part with our rupees.  We went along for the ride but everything was overpriced (a relative statement of course) so we just walked through, smiled and went on to our next stop.  Our driver was very nice so we indulged him.

A 500 year old Portuguese building used to store tea.
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Across the water is the bigger metropolis known as Ernakulam.  We spent the afternoon there doing last minute shopping.  There was a store that had a whole floor dedicated to cheap bangles in every color imaginable and varying designs and styles.  It was so much fun to shop there.  Other than that, Ernakulam is a big dirty, loud chaotic city so when it came time for lunch we opted to take the ferry back to the much more quaint Cochin side.