Down to Kochi

Never thought I would come here, the world sure works in mysterious ways! The jungles of south India! There is quite a lot of history in this place. The dutch, the brits, the spanish and some other european countries all came here. There are plenty of churches, forts, synagogues, old european buildings etc. Vasco Da Gama was even buried here few hundred years ago for about a decade before his body was shipped back to Portugal. Had no idea about it.

There is also a massive lake here which is called the "backwater". Thousands of houseboats take our tourists on daily trips with the boats. You can buy lobsters from the local farmers for something like 5 USD / piece. The guys in the boat will then cook it for you.

 So the first crossing I see if covered with trash. Or more looks like a junkyard....India! 

 Nice pool at the hotel, they even used this picture for the hotels social media page 

The old Portugese church. Vasco Da Gama was once buried here, had no idea....

 

Yepp, it was here, it's made very clear with the sign

 Kochi Fort 

Have to come all the way to India to see the tourist attraction called "Chinese Fishing Nets"

Oh piggy...

 And as a tourist catchphrase, smile your in God's Own Country

 The old synagogue 

 Stopped for a chilling coffee

 Smiles everyone 

Houses are preserved, they look like back in the days 

Rows and rows of shops for tourists...Was very low season because I visited the Dewali holiday, everyone were in bigger cities like Mumbai or Delhi celebrating it.

 The evening that rain came late was beautiful...But most evenings it started raining before 6 pm already so no sunsets...

 Thank god it's weekend 

 God is an artist, not an engineer. We learn something new everyday. Super sketchy looking dude, I doubt it's his graffiti

 Stop by the road and buy some local fresh coconut as snack. It's just 20 rupees which is just a few cents

 Fills you up for a few hours

On the way out for a river cruise. This is the little "hotel" and shop they make Toddy in.

 There are thousands of house boats here, and all garbage is thrown into the sea. And toilets work the same way. This river cannot be feeling well

Some of the boats are huge and have many bedrooms

Kamala! 

 The boat also had a room if you get tired 

 Biggest river I ever been on

Tried something new again, TODDY. It's made out of fermented palm tree flowers. It's the local "beer" and taste really good. The taste however is only good for about 1 hour after it is taken down from the tree. After that it start tasting like vinegar. I can only imagine what happens to the stuff in your stomach. Gets you buzzed quite fast with about 6 % of alcohol. The longer you wait the faster the percentage goes up. I took a zip of it about 4 hours alter. Bad taste but was probably up in 20-25% already. Palm trees are amazing! This would be so cool to have home but quite impossible to get since it needs to be consumed straight from the tree. Here you take a random empty bottle and the local guy refills 1 liter for 300 rupees (about 5USD)

 Buying crabs, lobsters and some refreshing coconuts from some river fishermen 

Food is ready, remember it's India. We use hands to eat. 

 Rice fields 

 Palm trees & sunshine. It was a perfect day 

 Steamboat willy! 

 Just look at the amount of trash everywhere. Horrible, people here has no sense of how to preserve the nature...

 Heading back, wonderful sunset 

So in the morning before going to the airport you find this on the breakfast table...Great, terrorist threat on Kochi - Mumbai with Air India. Exactly what I'm flying. Let's see if they blow me up to bits and pieces.