26 January
Sunrise on the Ganges was a pleasant change from the fog of the last few days. Today we are flying south to Kerala via Mumbai. First we have the return 15 minute trek through the back streets to the closest point a taxi can come but this time we have porters to carry our luggage.

Back streets trek towards the taxi waiting for us on the main road

It was midnight by the time we stepped onto the tarmac at Cochin Airport and wow, this place injected an immediate uplift into our spirits after an eight hour delay in Mumbai.

27 January
We are staying for a few days in the harbour town of Fort Cochin which is a fusion of Portuguese and Dutch colonial architecture set in a palm fringed tropical landscape, our accommodation is a Heritage Homestay and it is incredibly beautiful. We were woken this morning to a cacophony of tropical sounds, a world apart from the dust, grime and noise of our journey to date.

Breakfast on the verandah, coffee approaching

Stepping out for the day we came across a game of Sunday cricket in full swing, the interesting twist to this game was instead of tea and cakes in the pavilion, these young gentlemen prefer something a little stronger from the tricycle rickshaw man. Look closely at the refreshments picture and you will see a bottle of bacardi and the cocktail shaker in action.

Sunday cricket

Refreshments

One of the star attractions of Fort Cochin are the Chinese Fishing nets, outside of the monsoon season the only thing they seem to catch are tourists taking photo’s.

Hauling up the Chinese fishing nets is a five man operation, it looks like another poor catch.  

Sunset and hundreds of crows have come home to roost in a tree outside our window kicking up quite a racket, the mozzies are also out to dinner, there’s always a dark side to tropical paradise.