Hello everyone, after a long gap, today I am back to my Kerala series with my concluding post. In our 04 days trip to Kerala one day we spent at Munnar, another day at Athirapally and Vazahal waterfall. Other two days we reserved for Cochin. The day we arrived at Cochin we spend half a day (Afternoon) for cochin sightseeing and the day we left we spent another half day (Morning) at Cherai Beach, Cochin.
So, on our first day we decided to take Cochin sightseeing. As it was our second visit to Cochin, we decided to take Sightseeing tour by cruise. After doing lots of Google search we decided to take this tour operated by Kerala tourism (KTDC).KTDC offers two types of tours, first one is Cochin sightseeing by cruise and another one is halfday backwater canal tour. In our plan we thought of taking backwater tour, but our local friend suggested not to waste time and money on Backwater tour. As per them it is a good experience but not worth to spent half a day only for backwater tour. They also promised us to take us to a place where we can see backwater canal. So we dropped the idea of backwater tour.If anyone interested to take this tour they can contact KTDC.
Tourist Reception Centre, KTDC Limited,
Shanmugham Road, Ernakulam,
Kochi – 682 011
Tel: +91-484-2353234
Fax: +91-484-2382199
E-mail: ktdccok@sancharnet.in
Website : www.ktdc.com
As per website information,second half day tour starts at 2:30 pm .All of us had heavy breakfast at friends house and then proceeded to KTDC office for second tour. Before coming to Cochin, I even enquired with KTDC regarding reservation and they said it can be done at the spot on the same day, one hour before departure timing. At 1330 hrs we reached KTDC office. When we enquired we were informed by KTDC staff that tour is cancelled as number of passengers required for operating is not available. We were very much upset, so we asked what alternatives they can suggest us. They had suggested us to take independent cruise tour which will cost around 1300/-.If we would have opted for regular tour we would have paid Rs.800/- for 4 adults as all three kids with us were below 5 years, which means we have to pay Rs 500/- extra for this. We were not very much sure whether it is safe as well as economical to take independent tour. Somehow at the end we convinced ourselves and fixed on independent cruise tour.
As weather was hot, this ride was giving us good relief from heat. For first 15-20 minutes it was just like a normal cruise experience similar to Mumbai Gateway of India cruise ride or cruise ride at Rameswaram. But we were happy as kids were enjoying this ride with lots of space to sit as well as to run inside the boat and to see sparkling water.On our way we got to see many boats like country type, Russian yacht etc.
The tour conducted by KTDC covers Dutch Palace (Friday Holiday) , Synagogue (Friday and Saturday Holiday) , St.Francis Church (Sunday Holiday) , Chinese fishing nets with spectacular view of Willingdon Island,Kochi Harbour and Bolgatty Island.
For us, we had seen these places in our previous visit so it was ok for us to just enjoy cruise.Although he didn’t take us to any particular points just showed few important buildings like Indian Coast Guard building, Dutch Palace, Kochi International Marina , Bolgatty palace resorts , Kochi Harbour and Willingdon Island.
Although, it was a pleasant journey but I didn’t find it worth or it’s not value for money. Boat sailor but surely took us at the midst of sea and we saw numbers of Dolphin fish. Watching Kochi Harbour, Bolgatty island resort and Dolphin were good experience. Chinese Fishing net is an icon for Kochi but I didn’t find anything interesting watching that. The total time we spent here was 02 hours and we found it tiring. We came back to Marine Drive. Marine drive is a nice hangout place with many eatery joints.We had some light lunch and icecreams and came back to our friends place at 1730 hrs.
I would like to share little about above places.
Chinese Fishing nets – The Chinese fishing nets (Cheena vala) are fishing nets that are fixed land installations for an unusual form of fishing — shore operated lift nets. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets of 20 m or more across. Each structure is at least 10 m high and comprises a cantilever with an outstretched net suspended over the sea and large stones suspended from ropes as counterweights at the other end. Each installation is operated by a team of up to six fishermen. Chinese fishing nets, in use for the last 500 years and one of the tourist attractions in Kerala, are fast vanishing from the Kochi coastline as huge maintenance costs and poor catch is forcing fishermen to look for other alternatives.
Willingdon Island – The Willington Island contains the modern port serving Cochin city of Kerala. The island is an artificial man-made island created from the sand dug out while deepening Kochi port
Bolgatty palace Island – The splendid Bolghatty Palace is located on the Bolghatty Islands, Cochin.The appeal of the palace lies in the fact that it is among the oldest existing palaces built by the Dutch in India, during the pre-British times.
Overall it was a good experience . But my advice to future travelers to take a road tour rather than taking cruise tour. Road tour will give you more opportunity to explore beautiful Kochi. St.Francis church and Jewish Synagogue are beautiful structure and one should not miss .
On our last day we went to Cherai Beach. Cherai beach is located near Vypeen Island .It took us around 01 hr to reach Cherai beach. Both side of road has backwater and it was very scenic to watch this. The lovely beach bordering the Vypeen Island is ideal for swimming. The sea on the Western side and the backwaters on the East give this upcoming tourist destination a uniqueness which can be found only in Kerala. Thick coconut groves and Chinese fishing nets on the waterfront are added attractions.
Cherai beach is a beautiful beach. But the sea here is keep on capturing land day by day , thus no sea shore width left at this beach to enjoy at sand.
This finishes our Kerala tour and we promised ourselves that we will surely return to Kerala, God’s own country to explore few more destinations like Alleppy (Houseboat) , Kovalam , Kumarakom and Thekady.
At the end my greening tip below :
Print/photocopy on both sides of paper,even you have to pay for 2 prints/2 copies.
Sweet post with sweeter photos.. tks abhiruchi
Thanks SS ji
Thanks, Abhee, for the quick tour of Kochi. The pics look good too. However, it didn’t seem like there is much to do see or do in the city itself.
Regarding your green tip, I agree that usage of paper should be minimised. I would like to add a couple of points to what you have said
(1) Never print unless absolutely necessary (Railways allow you to travel on the basis of an SMS, hope airlines will follow suit)
(2) When copying/photocopying, use an A5 sheet instead of an A4 sheet if the matter doesn’t fill up the entire sheet (A5 is about half the size of A4).
Hello DL sir,
Thanks for comments. There are places to see but not much to see in cruise tour.
Thanks for A5 paper tip.
Thanks again
DL .. in many countries the airlines are accepting mobile SMS as tickets.. Iceland is one of them
Thanks, SS/Nandan for the info. This is the norm in many countries, not sure about India. I remember shelling out Rs, 100 for a printout at an airline counter in Chennai airport by giving them my PNR when I could not locate my ticket. Besides a lot of investment needs to be made for providing security personnel with SMS scanners.
Thanks for sharing this experience. It reminds me of my visit to Cochin and I visited all these places. Sorry to know about vanishing beach. In USA, billions of tons of sands are spread on the beaches each year to maintain the beaches.
Thanks Praveen ji
A Cochin cruise trip in mid-afternoon hot weather will not enthuse too many grown-ups but I am sure the kids must have loved it. Nice detailed post and pics, Abhee.
Thanks for liking the post.
Time constraint led us to take afternoon cruise trip.
Thanks for refreshing our memories of cochin trip.
Your welcome Mahesh Ji
Beautiful post… Cochin is very high on my wish list…. ( Travel gods I hope you are listening :) )
Thanks.
Yes, God is listening but you are in queue :)
Abhee Ji,
Kerala’s greenery is amazing and the pics you have shared are beautiful. It looks like you didn’t get to see much of backwaters though. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for liking the post.
For Backwater I have alleppy in my list, hope to go there soon
A beautiful post nevertheless, Abhee K , could you please throw light on other places of Kerala besides this beautiful city.
Rakesh ji ,
Thanks for liking the post.
My other posts in this series may be useful to you.
Hi Abhee,
Still waiting for the day to visit Kerala. I hope Travel Gods listen to me too!
Nice post about a beautiful city in a beautiful state.
Thanks for liking the post.
Yes, GOD is listening and you can club your trip with Desi Traveller :)
Thanks again
Good one Abhee. Same comment as Venkat. In a good weather it can be a deal changer though.
@ DL -There are quite a few other places. I guess Mahesh Semwal wrote a series on this. And now Airlines allow the soft proof on a phone/tab. Railways (ir-respective of being the old warhorse) has definitely led here. Kudos.
Thanks Nandan ji.
Infact we went in Best monsoon weather , but still we found hot weather :(
Yes in a good weather it must be an ultimate experience
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