It’s my blog debut! Rowan has passed me the baton so here goes…

Day 9 continued – the journey to Kochi

Sad to be leaving beautiful, tranquil Munroe we ate a final delicious breakfast and jumped in a rickshaw to the station. We bought our tickets for the 8:15 train to Kochi and were pointed to platform 2 over the tracks. We crossed over and sat in the already hot sunshine. Platform 1 in full shade and with cute dogs parading up and down was teasing us.

Time ticked along but the train did not appear. At half past we asked our fellow platform dwellers who shrugged but didn’t seem concerned. We realised we were being overly British about the train schedule and tried to relax. Not wanting to cross back over the tracks in case the train did appear, we stuck it out and the train eventually pulled in at 9am. Pretty hot by now we lugged our bags onto the train and walked down the carriages to find a spot. The women only carriage looked cool and inviting and I was tempted to bid Rowan farewell for a few hours but we carried on down and eventually found a couple of free seats opposite each other. We read our books and looked out of the windows as we passed through lush green Kerala, passing along pristine beaches from time to time. We bought coffee from the coffee wala (?) and relaxed apart from the occasional wincing at children running up and down the carriage past the open train doors.

Just before 1pm we pulled into baking hot Kochi and wrestled ourselves and our bags onto the busy platform. Kochi is a port city with a population of 3.5 million and is seen as the capital of Kerala. It has a colonial history with the Portuguese, Dutch and British trading, raiding and influencing the architecture over the years.

We jumped into a taxi to our homestay in the Fort Kochi region where most tourists base themselves. After dumping our bags at our homestay we ventured out to find ice coffees and some lunch in a shady courtyard and to hatch a plan for our next few days. After the last few days in sleepy calm Munroe, Kochi was a bit of a shock to the senses for us (me particularly!). The rickshaws and buses hurtling down the roads blasting their horns and narrowly missing pedestrians, dogs crossing and sleeping (often in the middle of the road!) and the herds of goats that randomly appear at street junctions. Across the four days I had to tell off quite a few dogs for sleeping in dangerous places, trying to tempt them off busy roads and instead to shady spots on the pavement.

Looking at google maps, I decided a walk down the beach front would be the cure for my slightly frazzled state, so off we headed. Kochi is famous for its Chinese Fishing nets, huge contraptions about 10m high made of nets and bamboo which have become a tourist site. Unfortunately, the level of plastic pollution on the beaches was completely shocking and sad. Its effects on the health of humans and animals is extremely worrying with a study showing fish in the area being seriously polluted with microplastics. A scheme in nearby Kollam which pays fishermen to collect plastic from the sea which is then used to rebuild roads is showing promising results and will hopefully be funded elsewhere! We were both quite surprised this is still listed as one of the top things to see as a tourist in Kochi. Knackered from our journey and city life, we had some dinner and had an early night.

Pics of rubbish may not be what you came for, but we feel duty-bound to show you the truth

Day 10 – Kochi

After breakfast at our homestay, we jumped into a rickshaw to the ‘Jew Town’ district. Named after the first Jewish groups in India dating back to the 12^th century, Jew Town is home to Paradesi Synagogue and scores of antique and craft shops. We arrived early so everything was still shut but we joined in the groups doing photoshoots outside the picturesque buildings.

Along Bazzar Road we eventually came to Mattancherry Palace and the eager beavers we are, we were the first ones to enter when the guards opened up at 9am.

We had the place to ourselves apart from the many security guards who followed us about, pointing things out enthusiastically. Built in the 16^th century by the Portuguese as a bit of a hush present to King Veera of the Kochi Dynasty, we wandered through the cool rooms examining the intricate murals of Hindu gods and goddesses.

We then visited the Paradesi Synagogue which was built just a decade after the Mattancherry Palace and had a great colour scheme and light fixtures.

Afterwards we wondered around the antique and craft shops taking it in turns to talk the other down from impulsive purchases that would not survive being stuffed into backpacks for six months or blowing the budget two weeks in by shipping back a giant wooden horse sculpture to Catford. We managed to leave with just two cushion covers and schemes of a rug further along our trip…

A delicious cashew curry later we headed to the Kathakali Centre to catch a Kathakali performance. The performance started at 6pm but you could get there at 5pm to watch the performers put on their makeup and costumes. Ever the keen beans we did just that and the transformation was pretty spectacular to witness from three normal looking guys to a king, bird and ‘feminine character’. The performance is a mixture of dance, theatre and music and originates from Kerala. The performers don’t speak but express themselves through face, hand and eyes movements as well as the colour of their makeup. Afterwards we hunted down some kingfishers (the beer not the bird this time) in a fancy hotel courtyard and headed back to our less fancy but perfectly comfy homestay for some shut eye.

Day 11 – Kochi

This was a pretty chill day for us. We typed in ‘gallery’ into google and worked out a route to see as many as we could in one morning. It was a bit hit and miss but there was a particularly good show at Gallery OED which was based in one of the warehouses left over from the Dutch which are dotted around Kochi and were built to store pepper, rubber or coir (coconut husk).

We also visited a few more of the antique shops. On in particular was labyrinthine, going further and further away from the street with rooms containing weirder and larger things as they went on including breast armour plates, huge parts of old boats and a room full of quite spooky figurines which people used to put outside their homes.

In the evening we headed to a pizzeria, my stomach needed a break from curries three times a day. They were good pizzas but maybe not the best look being surrounded by all other white older couples… Back to curry tomorrow!

Day 12 – Kochi

We headed back to the Kathakali Centre for 8am, this time to do a meditation session which was led by two musicians who played sitar, percussion and sung for the hour. The music is known as ‘Morning ragas’ and we both came out feeling extremely relaxed! We had a coffee and then headed to a cooking class we had booked onto run by Maria. We were greeted by Maria’s husband and very cute one year old granddaughter. Her husband teaches English so we chatted to some of his pupils before the cooking class begun. The one we chatted to most was learning English so he could join the Indian Merchant Navy. Also in the class were four Australians and an Italian woman who lives in Ladywell! The class started with an hour of theory of South Indian cooking including ingredient order, spice amounts etc; a lot of information but Maria had written out some cheat sheets to take away with us. We went on to cook aloo dum, coconut chutney, okra stir fry, chickpea masala and lemon rice.

Unfortunately Rowan managed to eat the very hot chilli in the stir fry that was there for flavouring but not meant to be eaten so his eyes streamed until Maria gave him some white chocolate to take the pain away, what a hullabaloo just to get some chocolate! It was completely delicious and I would love to invite you all round for us to recreate it but unfortunately I highly doubt we would manage to do it justice without the oversight of Maria and the fresh ingredients and spices that may not be so readily available in the Catford Lidl….

We are off to the hill station in Wayanad tomorrow, we have both missed the green of Munroe Island so are looking forward to  being back in a more rural location. Catch you then!

Pics that didn’t make it:

Mattancherry Palace

Impressive trees and canopies of Kochi