As someone knew a place to stay in Fort Cochin, and as we couldn’t get a train straight to Mumbai from Alleppey, we chose this little town to break up the journey (as well as Mangalore). The guesthouse (Dream Home 600Rs per night with WIFI) was awesome – someone came to pick us up from Ernakulam Junction Train Station, for free and after 45 minutes, we arrived in our jungle-themed room (even the lightbulb was green). The shower was incredible and the bathroom was huge and clean!

Getting there in the afternoon meant we had time to go for a walk, and we ended up eating the BEST seafood of our entire lives!!!! For 800Rs, we had a huge fish, marinated in some awesome Keralan sauce, and a tiger prawn each! SO GOOD! The fish just fell off the bone – not once did I have to fish one out of my mouth (excuse the pun).

The following day, we had a look round some of the shops, the beach, and the Chinese fishing nets. It’s incredible that these rickety looking pieces of equipment are still in use! I was also pretty surprised at the little amount of time they keep the nets in the water before they pull them up again – they would catch so much more fish if they left them in the water longer! Anyway, what do I know? I do know though that the fish they do catch, is sold right next to the waterfront, and you can choose any of the seafood, of which there is a great selection, and take it to any restaurant where it can be cooked to your liking! As we had the best fish in the entire world last night, we decided against seafood again tonight.

All the clothes shops along the port were really cheap – I got the impression this was because it’s the end of the season and some businesses are starting to close. Long skirts, and trousers were only 150 Rs each. I of course, bought an elephant-smothered long skirt to go with my other two which I had bought in Varkala for 500 each! DAMMIT!

Everything else in Fort Cochin, however, is expensive! All indoor shops are higher priced, and food certainly is pricey! We went to a pizza place for lunch and the cheapest one was 400 Rs, though granted the ingredients were all imported from Italy. And it was really good. For dinner, we went to this incredible Tibetan restaurant (I have come to discover that I LOVE Tibetan food). We shared a plate of steamed veg momos and a large soup with veg momos, and I loved it so much I ordered another soup!

It’s a good job we’re leaving tonight though because our money has run down very quickly.

We enjoyed a drink by the fishing nets, while watching the sun set and watching the ferries come and go and finally we have come back to the hotel, to kill time while we wait for our rickshaw to take us to the station. I’ve loved what I’ve seen of Fort Cochin – we didn’t go anywhere else in Cochin though, so I can’t wait to come back some day. It’s really pretty with old Colonial architecture, and the people here are really friendly =)