After six weeks of beach life in Goa it was time for us to start our four week trip across Kerala, our first stop bing Kochi/Cochin in north Kerala.

Kochi is on a island or sorts, connected to the mainland via a number of bridges, some built by the British back in the 1940’s. Kochi itself is a relatively small place, or at least the areas of interest to a traveller are fairly limited to the Fort Kochi and Jew town areas.

Fort Kochi itself seems to be a misnomer, there is no fort! But you will find some nice shops and good restaurants/bars in this area along with the famous Chinese fishing nets with the associated fish stalls. The nets are mostly for show now but the fishermen will demonstrate the clever mechanism for you.

There is a small beach but not for swimming as it’s backdrop is a shipping lane feeding into Kochi’s mainstream commercial function as a port. However, watching the fisherman cast their nets from the sea is quite a spectacle and they have some success too!

We were lucky to also see a major art exhibition at the Aspinwall building, a place worth a walk around in its own right. A highly engaging display of installation art pieces along with photography and modern art pieces kept us engaged for a couple of hours, they also have a nice cafe by the waterside that’s nice to sit in.

If you want to explore further you can catch the local ferry services very cheaply and they will take you to the other ‘islands’ in the area and also provide good opportunity for interesting photographs too.

In Jewtown you can visit the Dutch Palace with its displays of local artefacts and also see an old synagogue showing the heritage of its varied cultural history.