best things to do in fort kochi

Things to do in Fort Kochi

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We’re spending our first 10 days in Incredible India resting up in Fort Kochi.  We have to figure out a route for the next 6 months, find an Indian SIM card, and try and get a camera fixed. After two nights of waking up in the mosquito-filled kitchen at the Francis Homestay. Seriously it was that. Our “bedroom” was a bed in an old kitchen. Sometimes you can go “too budget” and this was one of those times. So we moved on to much better things at the fabulously friendly Das Homestay.   After that, our Indian experience started to improve immensely.

EASIEST WAY TO VISIT

Indian Tuk tuk driver

Take a Tuk Tuk Tour of Fort Kochi

This is the quintessential and best way to see Cochin. In the back of a tuk-tuk. Get to see the highlights of Fort Kochi, explore the spice markets, see the historic buildings. It’s a fabulous way to explore.

Not only did we have a much better room.  It even came complete with its own natural alarm clock with the next-door rooster, but the owner also had THIS!  Seriously  A lovely, gorgeous Royal Enfield.

Royal Enfield Motorbike

Fort Kochi was an easy into India for us. The town is used to Western tourists and caters to them, well, in a way that India can. We’d chosen Kochi for this reason, that, and of course, because it was a cheap flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Anyhow. Here’s our guide to the things to do in Fort Kochi.

Things to do in Fort Kochi

The town of Fort Kochi has a long history of trade, although our hoped-for Portuguese influence was long gone, and this was the first thing that we explored here. Apart from a few restaurants claiming Portuguese heritage the house on Vasco da Gama corner, where the legendary explorer allegedly stayed, and of course the Indo-Portuguese Museum.

Vasco de Gama Corner Fort Kochi

The Indo-Portuguese Museum, Fort Kochi

The Indo-Portuguese museum promised details of the historic trading links between India and Portugal but delivered little more than a few religious artifacts with poor signage, a few dates, and not much more than a friendly manager with a lot of postcards to sell, plus some semi-submerged stones in the basement from the original fort.  There are no photos allowed inside.

Indo-Portuguese Museum Fort Kochi

Fort Kochi Beach

The beach here in Kochi isn’t one you’ll want to sit on, or possibly even walk on.  There was a lot of garbage and you had to watch where you stepped unless you wanted to be cleaning your shoes for some time afterwards.  This was in a lot of ways a rude but honest introduction to India.

Fort Kochi Beach

The Chinese Fishing Nets of Fort Kochi

Check out the historic Chinese nets – that make a great foreground for a sunset, but aren’t much used anymore here.  However, you’ll find them in use if you head off into the backwaters of Kerala.

The Chinese Fishing Nets of Fort Kochi

Taking a Tour of Fort Kochi

“Tour of Kochi?” came the refrain as we wandered the streets. After a day or so, we capitulated and took a 140 INR (GBP 1.40/ USD 2.18 ) tour in a tuk-tuk.  We quickly came to realize, they’re called auto-rickshaws here in India.

A quick detour took us past the Indo-Portuguese museum before he realized we’d been there.  Then we quickly headed to the Maritime Museum.  They wouldn’t allow us to take bags in so we ditched that (as we had passports, wallets, laptops, and just about everything in them!).

The Maritime Museum of Fort Kochi

The temple was next, first the temple pond and then, moving on.

Temple Pond Fort Kochi

Temple elephants and baksheesh

A dilapidated-looking building that strangely our driver took us round the back of.

“They’re washing the elephant,” he said, do you want to see?

Washing the Temple Elephant in Fort Kochi

And so we were introduced to our first Baksheesh. For 200 rupees we ‘bribed’ the men washing the elephant to let us in.  We watched them cut the elephant’s nails and took photos.

Cutting Elephants Toenails in fort Kochi

Another 500 rupees and they would have let us sit on his back. We declined and moved on to another type of cleaning, this time the famous Dhobi Khana laundry.

The Dhobi Khana Washing Collective in Fort Kochi

It’s here that it seems that all the laundry is done in Kochi. When you hand over your socks and knickers to your hotel or homestay, it’s highly likely that they’ll farm it out here. It’s busiest in the morning, and unfortunately we were there in the afternoon.

Washers can rent a “station ” – essentially a huge concrete washing area – where all your dirty stuff goes in, is churned around, and rinsed out.

Washing Station at Dhobi Khana Washing Collective in Fort Kochi

It’s then dried out in the open, on huge twine lines. No pegs. just gripped by twisted twine and dried by the sun.

Dhobi Khana Washing Collective in Fort Kochi

The dried clothes then come into the ironing area and while some irons are now electric, they’re massively heavy.

Ironing at the Dhobi Khana Washing Collective in Fort Kochi

Others are still heated by hot coals.

Coal heated irons at the Dhobi Khana Washing Collective in Fort Kochi

We’ve been managing to wash our own clothes with our Scrubba bag and now the buckets in the bathroom that we have here in India, so we’ll stick with that.

Cochin Spice Market

Everyone who comes to India has to visit a spice market. Every tourist – apart from those of us with a small backpack and limited space – wants to take some home.  And so it was on to the spice market, where we watched women sorting ginger.  We, of course, paid them a little baksheesh for their photo posing.  We, then, headed upstairs to the women’s cooperative where we sniffed spices appreciatively and declined the bargains that we could apparently resist.

Women sorting Ginger in Kort Kochi

Jew Town, Fort Kochi

On, next to Jewtown – where the Jewish traders set up shop in previous centuries and now, where, here and in Mattancherry you’ll find endless clothing, cloth, and souvenir shops.

At this point, our driver started to get agitated when we wouldn’t go into the shop.  He didn’t understand that there was no point, as we wouldn’t be buying anything at all.  So, to keep the peace,  we visited one shop.  We looked at shirts that cost the equivalent of 80 GBP (US$130) and decided enough was enough and asked to be dropped at the ferry.

Ferry Fort Kochi to Ernakulam

It’s here where men and ladies stand in separate lines for tickets (but each person can buy 3 tickets, and the ladies’ queue is always shorter…).

Buying ferry tickets kochi to ernakulam

Tickets to go to the mainland – to Ernakulam are 4 INR each. That’s 4 UK pennies, or about 7 US cents.

Ferry from Kochi to Ernakulam

The trip takes about 20 minutes on a ferry that would be condemned anywhere in Europe but it wasn’t overcrowded any time we took it.  I suspect if the worst were to happen, I wouldn’t have made it out of a window.  I could see life jackets stuffed in a slot above my head, but couldn’t reach them.

The ferry takes you to Ernakulam.  Here you have to navigate a rubbish-strewn wasteland to get to the noisy and busy streets. It’s here we walked to pick up an Indian SIM card.

Ferry Back to Fort Kochi

Not feeling the love for Ernakulam we took the ferry back past Dufferin Point to Kochi. 

Dufferin Point Fort Kochi

We drowned our sorrows in the Fort Cochin Hotel.   At the time of our visit it’s one of the remaining places where you can drink beer in Kochi, which had announced a state-wide ban on alcohol (this ban was subsequently largely rolled back).  Find out here how and where to drink beer in Kochi.

Kochi was a good week’s introduction to India for us.  We had good food, a relaxing time, and a lot of planning for the first 6 weeks of our time in India. Our next stop would be more relaxation time, visiting the backwaters of Kerala. Eventually, we’d do this on three different types of boats, just to ensure we covered all the bases!

Here’s our no-engine trip through the Kerala Backwaters, then there’s the ferry from Allepey to Kottayam, and also our trip from Allepey to Kollam.

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