Two days in Kochi that are not just a stopover
Most itineraries treat Fort Kochi as an airport with a beach. It is worth a proper 48 hours — here is how to spend them.
Stay in Fort Kochi, not Ernakulam
Kochi is really two places. Ernakulam is the mainland business city where the trains and most hotels are. Fort Kochi is the old peninsula across the water, and it is the one you came for — Portuguese, Dutch and British layers stacked on a few walkable square kilometres.
The ferry between them takes ten minutes and costs almost nothing. Stay on the Fort Kochi side and you can walk everywhere; stay in Ernakulam and you will spend the trip crossing back.
Day one: the peninsula on foot
Start early at the Chinese fishing nets, which are best before the crowd and before the light goes flat. St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was originally buried, is a five-minute walk. Then Mattancherry: the Dutch Palace with its Ramayana murals, and Paradesi Synagogue in the Jewish quarter, both closed on different days, so check before you go.
Jew Town's spice warehouses still smell of cardamom and pepper, and the antique shops between them are a pleasant hour whether or not you buy anything.
Kathakali, done properly
Several venues in Fort Kochi run daily performances. Go to one that starts an hour early with the make-up and the explanation of the mudras, because the form is close to unreadable without it — the entire vocabulary is in the eyes and hands.
An hour of context turns the performance from a photo opportunity into something you actually follow.
Day two: eat, and take the backwater ferry
Breakfast is puttu and kadala, or appam and stew. Lunch is a sadya on a banana leaf if you can find one being served. Dinner is at the seafood places near the nets, where you pick the fish and pay by weight — agree the price before it is cooked.
With the afternoon, take the public ferry to Vypin or Vallarpadam. It is a working commuter boat, it costs a few rupees, and it is the cheapest backwater trip in Kerala.
