Fishing nets and that
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
5
158
Trip End
Jul 21, 2007
Fort Cochin is on a peninsula just off the mainland. You either take a taxi or get a ferry. We took one of the many Ambassadors available and tottled off with our 2 danish friends. It's basically a chilled out fishing port and has quite a nice vibe to it. The only problem is the incessant hassle from the locals trying to get you to buy something from them. It's quite tiring after a while and you feel as if you would like to give them a slap. But anyway we enjoyed our breakfast in the Kashi Art Cafe which had a really relaxed atmosphere and nice paintings. The fishing nets are probably the most interesting thing here. The Chinese brought them when Kublai Khan was around and they have remained unchanged since. They work by using a cantilever system and are obviously quite effective although they were drawing a total blank when we saw them, completely empty. We also splashed out a bit and had some quality food at the Brunton Boat Yard which is an impressive British colonial hotel (thankyou once again Lonely Planet). The toilets were bloody spotless. It's amazing how much you appreciate this sort of thing when you are in a country full of shitty smelling toilets. Oh how could I forget! On the first night we sat down outside a small restaurant and ordered some food and 2 Kingfishers. A few minutes later the waiter came and plonked 2 teapots down. I said "whats that?!" and he advised that it indeed contained said Kingfisher. He explained that they did not have a license so had to use such clandestine methods to hock the ale. Amusing. We didn't do much else apart from planning our move on to Alleppey and took a trip onto the mainland to Ernakulam to get a universal adapter but I won't bore you with that. Horribly busy place compared to Fort Cochin. Don't touch that dial.
