Finding Kochi

IIndia feels like a lifetime ago. I've been in beautiful Thailand for a week already! And I've been trying to finish this post since I arrived. Okay, go!

After Varkala, I trained it to Kollam, the gateway to the backwaters.

From Kollam, I took a ten hour (it was supposed to be eight, but we had some engine problems) ferry on said backwaters to Alleppey.

Our mighty vessel.

Care for a dip?

Sexy lady of the backwaters. 

The backwaters are both gorgeous and, at least in parts, very polluted.

That white stuff is garbage. 

After ten hours, everything starts to look a wee bit similar.

Chinese fishing nets. 

Very pretty.

I arrived in Alleppey late and was picked up by a guy from my guest house. The guest house, Gowri Residence if you're ever in the neighbourhood, is full of guys: friendly guys very willing to book you a backwater tour but perhaps less enthusiastic about, say, getting you into a room without filth streaked curtains or a cigarette/sweaty-man-sock stench.

My second room. It looks cute from the outside. That's all.

I changed rooms to a less offensive space and decided that I really couldn't spend the two nights I'd planned in Alleppey, at least not without wasting time finding a new place to lay my head. So I headed off to Kochi in the morning.

Alleppey train station. It's a lot more chill than Mumbai.

Kochi is a dream. Or, at least, my dream. An Indian city on the water with long historical ties to China, Portugal, and the Netherlands. The island I stayed on, Fort Kochi, is crammed with disintegrating old buildings, antique shops, and canals. It was also playing host to India's first Biennale. 

One of many such bicycles around town 

I went in search of the bathroom at one shop in Jew Town and happened on this sleeping Jesus.

More of my favourite things. Yes, I really like wheels and doors.

One of the Biennale exhibits. 

My Slovenian friends joined me on my third day and we hung out, touring Jew Town and the synagogue, and eating at Dal Roti, a north Indian restaurant that served a lot of delicious carbs. 

At Loafter's cafe. 

A shop in Jew Town where I bought some...stuff.

Me and the Slovenians!

An interactive exhibit at Biennale.

The clock tower in Jew Town.

I was truly sad to leave both Kochi and India. I shed a few tears at the Bangalore airport. I'm already planning my next trip (don't tell C).

Keralan theatre. 

At Dal Roti. 

Street performance.