December 7, 2009 – Day 347 – Fort Kochi, Kerala, India

A full day of “sightseeing” in Fort Kochi is really all it takes. It is a pleasant little town and would be a wonderful, quiet place to spend 2 or 3 days. We are running a bit short on time and decided to do a day-tour.

Chinese fishing nets

Walking down by the water, we passed through the fish market of the early morning catches. You can buy a fish at this market and take it to one of the few small places in town who will cook it for you. Depending on the kind of fish, it might cost you anywhere from Rs.30 upward for the fish and usually only Rs.40-50 for some place to cook it and provided you with a small salad and chips (sometimes even a chai as well).

Bringing in the catch

Along the water are rows of small fishing boats and plenty of colorful characters who like to chat with foreigners and often ask for photos (and a tip, too!). The Chinese nets are along the waterfront and in the mornings, the workers drop and raise the nets hoping to catch something good. Each net has a captain and crew who manually work the weighted ropes (rocks tied to the ends) that raise and lower the nets.

Pulling up the nets

After watching some fishing, we walked out to the end of the bay where the ocean waves spill noisily against rock. Honestly, it is not very nice, just a bit run down and littered thanks to careless inhabitants and domestic tourists who come to Kochi in droves. Heading back toward town, we just kept walking and eventually made it to Jewtown. We passed the former Dutch Palace, the shop fronts and the synagogue before turning back.

The Synagogue

For us, there was little of interest but we did enjoy taking a walk. For Kochi is not a lively place and the volume of tourist attractions is pretty low compared to many other Indian destinations. However, it is still a very enjoyable place to visit! It’s a pretty, peaceful and relaxing place to escape the bustle of north India.

Travel Tip:

Some things to know about Kochi. It’s old name is Cochin and many people still call it so. As with most places in Kerala, it has multiple names (just look at the capital city’s names!) Kochi is a pretty big city and Fort Kochi is an island, the place that tourists really enjoy the best. Fort Kochi is a small town itself but has plenty of guest houses and hotels, many restaurants, internet cafes and supermarkets, travel agencies, and a large children’s park in the center of town. It’s a busy place for people of all ages as it is literally across the street from the water where the famous Chinese nets are.

The restaurants in town are nearly all tourist places and have prices that are unbelievably expensive compared to most places in India. There were only 2-3 places we could find all over town that were cheaper. One of those was the “Talk of the Town” and is NOT recommended. We were served a lassi that was literally covered in ants and when our meal arrived, it was actually dripping with oil (it was simple vegetable thali, nothing too complicated). On top of that, the service was bad and definitely not worth the cost savings that attracted us in the first place. We did find a place just down the road from this restaurant called “Fish O’ Chips” with a cheery red and white sign. It’s a nice little cafe style restaurant with decent prices and good food.

If you were to walk left out of Kochi’s jetty, you would eventually come into Jewtown (yes, it’s really called that), which is where the Mattancherry ferry dock is located. It’s maybe a 15-20 minute walk from Kochi, quite easy and flat, through town with lots of local shops for things like hardware, onions or garlic, large sacks of flour, etc. (Of course you can also take the ferry from Kochi straight to Mattancherry if you don’t want to visit Fort Kochi.)

Jewtown is the area where many Jews settled during the Dutch reign in India. Today Jewtown is a characterized by its one synagogue and the market street with street stalls and many shops selling rugs, bed covers, pashminas, metalwares, and so on. The synagogue is open to visitors who are asked to remove shoes, cover shoulders and knees before entering. If we recall correctly, it opens at 3pm but we didn’t take note of the hours for the whole week (we visited on a Monday, just fyi). It’s a fairly small neighborhood and will easily be enjoyed on foot in maybe an hour or so, depending on how much/if you want to do any shopping.