We had some friends move to Abu Dhabi last summer so this spring break we decided to plan an extended trip to visit them, including some travel across India! Our first stop was Kerala, in the south of India.
We departed on Friday night, March 24, at 10:40pm. We hoped the kids would sleep on the flight! Sarah managed to get some sleep but we fear Blaine stayed up almost the whole night…
He also had a greasy steak sandwich for breakfast on the flight, and as a result he was feeling a little queasy during our layover… and he “lost his breakfast” on the moving walkway at the Abu Dhabi airport. We were off to a great start! 😀
He took a shower in the fancy Etihad lounge and felt much better, and was ready for some pita and hummus.
We arrived in Kochi at 2am and met up with our driver, who took us straight to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, and we went to sleep. Phew! It was a long trip, plus a 9.5hr time change.
It was tough to wake up in the morning and drag ourselves to the hotel breakfast, but we were greeted with the local masala dosa for breakfast, and Blaine got the egg station to make him some chocolate chip pancakes! Yum.
Our first day in Kochi we went to see the Hill Palace which was built in 1865 by the Maharaja of Cochin. We had to take off our shoes to go inside! The Cochin royal family was notable for having a matrilineal inheritance system called Marumakkathayam which means inheritance by sisters’ children.
This was our first site in India, and the first place where Indian tourists asked to get a picture with the kids! Sarah is not a fan of photos, so we had to politely decline. This was the first of many times people wanted to take her picture, presumably because of her beautiful blond hair. She found it to be very annoying.
We spent the afternoon back at the hotel pool, which we shared with a large group of young men from the UK military. They told us that they were staying there to get acclimated to the heat before starting a 4 month deployment in the middle east. The kids were entertained by their pool antics– at one point they attempted a triple-decker chicken fight!
That night we had dinner at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, with beautiful views over Kochi.
The next morning, Sarah threw up! Uh oh. We think it might have been the “fresh lime” drink that she’d had the previous day, which is an Indian drink similar to lemonade made with fresh lime juice (the fruit they call lime is like a combo of our lime/lemon), simple syrup, and water. It’s possible the water was not bottled? But who knows. At any rate, she was feeling well enough to keep up with our sightseeing plans for the day.
After another delicious hotel buffet breakfast we met up with our driver and headed into the town of Fort Kochi to see the Mattancherry/Dutch Palace. It was built in the 1500s by the Portuguese and then later taken over by the Dutch. It’s most notable for its beautiful murals of Hindu scenes which you’re not allowed to photograph.
After the palace we walked through the area called Jew Town which has lots of antique shops and cafes and went to see the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568. It’s still in use though the Jewish community there is now very small.
Next we went to lunch at a place that Andrew and I had enjoyed on our previous trip in 2009, called Malabar Junction. I’ve always fondly remembered the chocolate samosas in mango sauce, and happily they were still on the dessert menu! Bliss.
I also liked this description of Heineken haha.
After lunch we stopped at the Catholic church, St. Francis, which is where Vasco da Gama was buried in 1524 until his remains were moved back to Portugal at some point.
From there we went to see the Chinese fishing nets and adjoining square, where we got the first (and best) souvenir of the trip, a wooden articulated cobra! It’s worth noting that I briefly thought it was a real cobra when the man selling it first approached us.
Then we drove to our next hotel, Amritara A Beach Symphony in Mararikulam. It was a small hotel with four small cottages. We had a covered porch and they’d prepare and bring all your meals. It was at this point in the trip when Blaine ate butter chicken and naan for what seemed like days. Sarah was still feeling unwell and was avoiding food.
The next day we decided Sarah should stay out of the heat to rest and hydrate, and by the afternoon she was eating pretzels and crackers and feeling a little better. Phew! In the meantime, Blaine and Andrew hit the hotel pool, drove into Alleppey, took a short boat trip, and climbed a lighthouse.
The next day Andrew stayed with Sarah for a little more rest in the morning, and Blaine and I went on a canal boat trip in Ernakulam.
Ernakulam is known for the vast network of canals through rice paddies and these elaborate houseboats which you can rent. Sarah is not fond of boats which is why we stayed in a regular non-boat hotel.
At one point we saw a huge number of ducks, probably a thousand or more, all swimming down the canal. Our driver explained they were after the rice and there was a man herding them away.
We also saw lots of other birds.
Back at the hotel, we had a late breakfast/brunch and then went to the pool. The hotel manager got a freshly hacked coconut for Sarah which she refused to try. Andrew and I enjoyed it!
Then in the afternoon we went to the beach.
The next morning we went to the pool one more time and packed up for the next leg of our trip. A drive back to the Kochi airport, then a flight to Chennai, then another flight to Jaipur.
I was impressed to learn the the Kochi airport is run entirely on solar energy!
We did run into some trouble with security in Kochi… Sarah had decided to carry on her cobra to make sure it wouldn’t break, but when we went through security they were prepared to confiscate it! Apparently it is a “replica snake” and is not allowed as a carryon for a flight. Something about potentially being used as a weapon or to scare other passengers? It conjured images of Samuel L. Jackson and Snakes on a Plane. At any rate the story has a happy ending because Andrew was able to take it back to checkin and check through another bag so Sarah did not lose her beloved snake. Lesson learned!
Next stop, Jaipur!
