After working continuously for months, we were looking for a refreshing trip, preferably a beach holiday. There were many options Goa, Andaman Nicobar, Mumbai, etc. but we finalized Kerala , a perfect beach holiday destination for our trip and 5th wedding anniversary celebration. So, flight tickets to Kochi were booked in advance, did research for a Kerala holiday package providers and finalized one of them. It was a three days trip only to Kochi (also known as Cochin), Munnar and Alleppey.
On 3rd October, 2014 we boarded our Indigo flight to Kochi at 6:30 am from Indira Gandhi International Airport New Delhi and reached Kochi at around 9:30 am. We were looking for our taxi driver from the travel company, holding our name plate but no one was there. Weather in Kochi was burning hot and Mr. Driver arrived after half and hour and cherry on the cake was neither he could speak English nor Hindi, only Malyalam. God know s how we managed to communicate with him. It is a long 2-3 hours journey from Kochi airport to city. It was green and green everywhere. Coconut trees, water bodies, boats, beautiful houses welcome you to God’ own country Kerala.
On way to Kochi
Can you see small boats
We reached our hotel Millenium Continental at 12:30 pm and after getting fresh headed towards Marine Drive, Fort Kochi and Cherai Beach. Due to Dussehra holidays and ongoing metro site construction, the city was jam packed with tourists and there was lot of traffic even during mid hours of day. There was no space for parking at Marine Drive so Mr. Driver suggested to visit Fort Kochi first and visit Marne Drive on way back. But situation was not too much good there also. We had to wait for one hour in long queue for our turn to get into ferry to reach Fort Kochi beach. Fort Kochi or Old Kochi is situated across the other side of the city and one has to cross Arabian Sea to reach there whether on foot or on vehicles. Yes, even vehicles cars, mini buses, small trcuks, cycles, bikes etc all are ferried through boats to reach Fort Kochi. We were amazed to see our car riding on a boat.
Car and bikes on boat…
Fishermen at Kochi port
Arabian sea
Fort Kochi is famous for its Shipping Port, Spice Town, Sea Food and Chinese Fishing Nets. You can enjoy Keralan snacks at road side vendors. do try spicey pineapple and egg pakoda. The beach was not quite clean and water was dirty, oily and black in color due to sailing of ships. I was thinking about the ill-fate of sea creatures who had to survive under polluted water. Poor things!!! Not so happy with the beach we returned to the spice market, enjoyed biryani at road side shacks.
Fort Kochi Beach
One thing I loved about Kochi was there are many small and big cathedrals and churches. I clicked this cute cathedral on our way.
Cathedral
It was already too late for us and we rushed to Cherai Beach which was another 25 kms away from the city. The surroundings till Cherai were more beautiful and lush green. It is a custom in Kerala not take your footwear inside homes, you need to remove your shoes outside, an example of culture and cleanliness. I really loved designs of houses with slopy roofs, big courtyards and banana trees and wish I had one dream home in Kerala. By the time we reached Cherai beach, the sun had started dipping in the ocean. It was so beautiful, I don’t have words to explain. Big waves roaring every now and then. Thank God water was clean here. Cool wind blows through your hair and a wave of happy shiver runs across your body. We were screaming, playing, running and clicking photos in waves. we stayed there till it got dark and as it started raining we started our journey back to the hotel at Kochi.
Cherai Beach
Cherai Beach Walkway
See the clouds
Sunset at Cherai Beach
Kerala is a paradise for sea food lovers and non vegetarians. Fish and rice is staple food of the state but if you are a vegetarian, it may be little difficult for you find variety of veg food. Same was the case with me. With only one vegetarian dish in dinner menu at hotel, we decided to look around for some other options and only ended at the Food Court of a nearby Mall. The initial idea was to roam around after dinner but since we had to leave early next morning for Munnar and it was already late we went back to hotel and retired to bed.
In my recent trip to Kochi, I stayed and explored Fort Kochi, but I missed the Cherai Beach. You have refreshed my memories of Kochi tour with your this beautifully written log. Nice pics of Cherai Beach. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Shefali
The pictures of Cherai Beach are awesome.
Kerala houses built amidst coconut trees are really worth a treat.
Thanks for sharing..
Nice post
Thanks Anupam, Uday and Pamela
@Anupam..next time you vist Kochi make sure to visit Cherai beach.
Thank you for touring us down south Shefali. Kerala is like Manali.. popular as a honeymoon destination. And for your 5th yr anniversary, i must say it is a good choice!
Cheers.
Archana
Thanks Archana.
We probably share our anniversary week at least. Mine is on Oct 4th. :-)
Never been to Kerala. Please also share the hotel tariff, taxi tariff etc so that it is further helpful for fellow Ghumakkars when they plan a trip.
Good to know that Nandan :)
regarding hotel traffic, fares etc., we had booked a package for hotel, taxi and houseboat for Rs 18000/ but the travel agent came out to be a total jerk and cheat and spoiled the trip. I will share the whole story in coming posts.
Ya one thing…we had booked our Indigo flight tickets much in advance through goibibo and it was INR 27000 for three persons for round trip.
Dear Shefali,
Nicely written and pics are very good. I am going to visit Kerala beginning 7th Sep. This post is indeed very useful for me.
Abhishek
Just recently, saw a beach snap of a beach, captioned as “NO MIAMI, NO BRAZIL, THIS IS KERALA”. you can imagine how the snap looks like. and I was really surprised. I think my next trip should be somewhere within Kerala. :)
Natural beauty is in abundance irrespective of where you visit in Kerala. I have visited Kochi for a stopover but would like to explore the city some day.