This was our last day in Kochi. After breakfast, we set out early to take the ferry to Fort Kochi. We took an auto rickshaw from our hotel to the Ernakulam boat jetty.
Our ride
Boats are frequent — and cheap
This is the Cochin Port Trust administration office building
Hostel By the Sea, by the state-run Kerala Tourism Development Corporation
This is my second visit to Fort Kochi. You can read about my 2009 visit here.
One of Fort Kochi’s most popular attractions are the Chinese fishing nets, called so because Chinese traders brought this fishing system to Cochin centuries ago. This is how it works:
We began walking around Fort Kochi.
Spotted some wild but interesting looking trees
This one was rather large
You have a bunch of boutique hotels in Fort Kochi. This is the Indy Old Court House.
This is Princess Street, which is lined with small hotels, shops and cafes
You also have options from Oyo too (download the app)
Fort Kochi was home to a large population of Malabar Jews… but this area is not Jew Town. That’s in Mattancherry (same island, different side).
We walked around Fort Kochi, which is honestly the best way to see the place
Bernard Bungalow is a luxury homestay
A lot of these old homes were built during Dutch colonial times. It’s good they have been converted into boutique guesthouses and hotels instead of being torn down.
Passage Malabar is a deli and artisanal cafe
Delight Homestay — one of the better looking homestays I saw in Fort Kochi
Fort Kochi is close to the sea shore… but I don’t know what happened here
Cochin is a major trade port and home to Kochi Refinery, the largest state owned oil refinery in India
Our walk brought us around to St. Francis Church, originally built in 1503 and is among the oldest European churches in India
But it’s most notable for being the initial burial place of famed Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama
This is where Vasco Da Gama was buried upon his death in 1524. His remains were later moved to Lisbon.
This asshole landed in Calicut and helped kickstart the fight for Kerala first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and eventually the British — mostly driven by the greed to profit off Kerala’s spices (most notably pepper)
I’m not going to publish many photos from inside the museum because that feels like taking away from their revenues. The historical collection is small but pretty impressive. The above painting depicts the Cochin Rajas meeting with the Dutch who colonized this part of Cochin.
A short walk from Mattancherry Palace is Jew Town
Now filled with more shops catered to tourists than Cochin/Malabari Jews (very, very few remain — most migrated to Israel, USA or have died). I saw more Kashmiris manning the shops here than Cochin Jews.
We walked towards the Jewish Synagogue
My 2009 post has some stories from this green house
Photography is not permitted inside the synagogue but it’s still worth the visit. It was built in 1567 and has wall paintings depicting the expulsion of Jews by the Romans, which is how Jews landed in Kerala centuries ago.
A short walk from the synagogue is the Kerala Police Museum
I just wanted to visit the Jewish cemetery or at least find out where it was located
This is the Jewish cemetery. I guess this will be all that remains of Malabari Jews in Cochin in a few years time.
Done with all the sightseeing, we headed back via the Mattancherry boat jetty
For all the initiatives the state tourism board gets in involved with, why can’t they at least fix the basics like this? Why can’t spot like this be revitalized? The private sector can transform areas like this to sea-facing quality restaurants and bars. It’s better than leaving it such an ugly state!
It was a short ferry ride back to Ernakulam
The skies were grey for much of the day, it started to clear up only now
Once back in Ernakulam, we took an auto rickshaw back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. After lunch, we headed to Ernakulam Town railway station (a.k.a Ernakulam North) to catch the Cannanore Express back home.
This is what the AC chair car compartments looks like in the Cannanore Express
I hate it when the weather gets better *after* you are done with sightseeing -_-
We passed by Cochin International Airport, which is famous for being the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar. [NOTE: Cochin airport is nowhere near Ernakulam city; nearest train station is Angamali]
And with that, our tour was done. My mother wanted to visit Munnar for a long time so I was happy I was able to treat my parents to this vacation. It was mostly for them as the sights I saw weren’t new to me. Next, I will begin my Cambodia series.
[NOTE: All the above photos were taken mostly on my phone, OnePlus 5, and some on an old Canon 450D]
