Exploring South India - Part 2: Kochi Day 1

Kochi or Cochin, whichever you may hear, is one of the major cities in the state of Kerala, God's Own Country, famous for Ayurvedic treatments, yoga, and backwaters. Kochi is famous because of its ports and the western influence by Portuguese, Dutch, and British. In fact, it has one of the largest Christian populations in India.

I had heard so much about Kochi but didn't quite know what to expect, to be honest. Kerala has been promoting itself (they even have their own commercials on TV!), and I was mixing the image of the commercials of Kochi along with other information I get from the guidebooks. So, I was expecting something between a luxurious Hawaii resort, historic New Orleans, and swampy Florida town (wherever it would be).

Again it took us much longer to drive down to Kochi from Tirupur than Google Maps told us. And, in conjunction with the confused Nokia Drive application that was running on my hubby's new gadget, we got lost again. We entered Kochi area from the northeast near where our hotel was supposed to be. So, we didn't have to drive all the way down to the center of Kochi or to Fort Cochin for that matter, but when we noticed we realized we were in Fort Cochin.

The Kochi area consists of small islands (see the map below), and once we figured out we were in Fort Cochin, we needed to somehow figure out how to get to another island called Vypeen Island (north of Fort Cochin). Luckily there was a ferry going back and forth every 20 mins or so between the two islands. And, yes, it would take our car on the ferry as well. The boat was big enough to carry at least 50 people, 30 bikes, and 12 cars!! All packed onto one ferry. The ride was very smooth, and in a matter of 5 mins or so, we were on the Vypeen Island side.


View Larger Map

Our hotel, Les 3 Elephants, which was very recently opened (in fact, we were the FIRST! guests in the hotel), was on Cherai Beach, approx. 20 km north of the southern tip of Vypeen Island. The hotel was located not right on the ocean but on the backwater facing east, which was nice, as you get to enjoy the beautiful morning sun glittering on the backwater. A French couple who fell in love with the place bought a piece of land there and started to build a wonderfully nice resort to relax and enjoy the nature.

Each hut had different design and structure (and in fact most of them were still under construction), and the one we stayed in was facing the backwater and a roof made out of banana leaves. The ambiance was just so soothing, and all of us including gG loved it immediately.

Instead of going out to the beach area, which looked rather crowded (just like any other part of India), we decided to stay in the resort and relax. The hotel also offered a nice dinner course, so we both had a very wonderfully prepared dinner at the resort.

Next day, instead of getting up early and heading down to Fort Cochin for sightseeing, we slept in, had a late breakfast, and just enjoyed time passing by (which we hardly ever can do in a daily life) until noon. gG was also very calm and happy surrounded by nature.  [...to be continued]