Ernakulam, Kochi, Cochin What Is It Called?!?

The Chinese fishing nets used in Fort Cochin

View more photos 

We arrived in Ernakulam quite late on a Sunday night via a packed train.  We'd been forced to pay an extra 150 rupees each so we could get a seat on the Taktal system.  Apparently this is a separate internet booking system but people at the train station can issue them too.  I found it all a bit strange but it got us on the train that night.  Because we were getting in so late we had to call ahead to make a booking at a guesthouse. 

We got to the place at about 9.45pm and all the doors were closed and locked.  I wasn't best pleased as I thought we were going to have to walk around this town and somewhere to stay for the night.  After a few knocks there was finally some life inside and an old man came wandering to the door.  Apparently he'd been eating his dinner in the back.  I felt pretty bad after that.  He told us to wait 20 minutes while he finished up and showed us our room.  The room itself was really cheap, I think it was 150 rupees a night and the book said it was a bit dingy.  When we got to the room I was a bit shocked, the room looked an absolute state.  There wasn't a separate room for the toilet, just a wall going about two thirds of the way up to the ceiling!  It was a hole but it was really cheap so we decided to brave it for the night and see what happened in the morning.  Morning came and we'd had a pretty good's night sleep.  We both thought that for the price it was ok and it wasn't really that bad.  On the plus side there were no mosquito's!!

Heather with the owner of the Ken Livingstone shop

View more photos 

On our first day we took a ferry over to Fort Cochin which was another district of Kochi.  I found out that Kochi (or Cochin as it was known) is the name of the whole area which covers Ernakulam, Fort Cochin, Vypeen Island and other little places and islands.  Anyway we took this ferry and had a nice day in Fort Cochin.  The Lonely Planet had said that most travelers stay on Fort Cochin and that thee was a better atmosphere there.  It seemed ok to us, but the accommodation didn't sound that inspiring (even compared to our place!) and the food was really expensive for India, even including Bangalore.

We found ourselves a nice little 'Art Cafe' that did a Breakfast and Lunch special everyday, nothing else.  We gave it a try and had a gorgeous omelette, just like at home, full of cheese and basically just really flavoursome.  We spent the afternoon looking around the place seeing the fishermen with their big Chinese fishing nets.  They didn't have much of a catch when we were there though.  They missed out on business which was a bit of a shame for us.  The fishermen sell the fish directly then you take it to a shack and pay about 50 rupees to have it cooked for you.  It sounded tempting, but no fish for us!

On the way back we really fancied an early evening chai so went to a stall selling it.  We then got into a conversation with the owner who started going on about Ken Livingstone.  He then pointed up to his sign and sure enough there was a huge picture of him.  His shop/shack was called Ken Livingstone.  We both thought it was pretty funny and he then showed us a photocopy of the Evening Standard showing an article about this shop with a huge picture of it with him smiling.  He then wanted a picture of us because we knew who he was and sent us on our way!  Bizarre!

On our final day we wanted to do a bit of shopping.  Heather has been after a short sleeved caftan all trip but can't find on anywhere.  We came across a big department store (incidentally, the was a Boots opposite, it only sold shoes though!) and thought we'd give it a try.  It was a complete nightmare, every 2 seconds an assistant would come over to Heather telling her what she should buy and all other sorts of rubbish.  Every time they offered their help Heather said she was just looking.  They kept offering her sari's and salwar's.  All she wanted was a Caftan!!  In the end we had to walk out.  Yet another day where Heather failed to get a top she wanted.  Maybe one day.