Fish and Ships - A Visit to God's Own Country

Anyone who follows me on instagram knows that I spent four lavish, jam-packed days in Kerala where I ticked everything off my list of things to see and did lots and lots more than I ever imagined possible during my brief stay. Back in Banglur I still feel like a contented Boa digesting a large ingested animal and while I am trying to sort through the abundance of vibrant memories to make into coherent blog posts, I was unable to answer my host’s question on the second day of my return.

Where is the blog post?

Well, here is one finally, the first of many Kerala blogs, all dedicated to my superb host Whizzkid, who the moment I mentioned the words Fort Kochi enthusiastically hustled me over and gave me the time of my life. A wise traveller once said that if you do not have the right local host to show you the place, then you merely skim the surface without experiencing its true delights. In this I was utterly fortunate to find the host with whom I shared not only a similar wavelength but sense of humour as well. We like a bit of edge to our jokes here.

The first thing that struck me on my drive from the airport was how utterly lush and green Kerala is, and in the fading evening light, dotted amid the dense greenery one cannot help but notice the tiny, tiny fish stalls the selling freshly caught catch of the evening which is a must for the last meal of the day for Malayalees. No self-respecting Mallu from Kerala will eat the fish in Bangluru. It is not fresh enough for these ultra-fastidious fish eaters. (Which of course is how I behaved towards the vegetables in another country, but we won’t go there...).

When we made our way towards Fort Kochi by ferry, my host pointed out the classic Fort Kochi shoreline which I have tried to capture in this picture. I thought the colorful boat was a tourist thing, but they are actual fisherman’s boats.

Here is a selection of the photographs that I took. Some of the memorable things we did were exploring gorgeous old buildings converted into boutique hotels, visiting artists’ spaces at Pepper House, gasping at the textures of crumbling old buildings, trying out raw mangoes soaked in brine...

And another day we explored Jew Town. Here below a picture of Jew Street.

While the synagogue was closed there were plenty of other delights to occupy us. Below, a Museum boutique hotel we stumbled into somewhere along the intriguing narrow streets –

Above, booty from a Spice shop to fill up my Spice jar.

More beautiful old buildings and a visit to the very interesting Dutch museum.

I’ll save the rest for subsequent posts, but to end this one, here is a picture of dusk on the sea.

More coming up as soon as possible!