Alleppey to Cochin

The hotel driver dropped us at Tissa's Inn in Cochin shortly after midday after quite a quick ride from Alleppey, some of it on dual carriageway. Immediately we entered the hotel we were pounced on by the chef who demanded to know what fish we wanted to eat for supper. Christine chose calamari and I chose mullet.

After a swim in the rooftop pool, we walked out to explore the town, quickly discovering the large Roman Catholic basilica and the Kathkali centre of which more later.

Then on to the seafront where we watched fishermen operate a set of old Chinese fishing nets. These are tall static A frame structures, counterbalanced so that a large net can be dipped in the sea and the catch landed with minimum effort. From what we could see, even minimum effort was not being rewarded by more than a few fish, but perhaps one would be my mullet.

After wandering around it was time for dancing. We went down a small alley to discover a theatre packed with people. Kathkali is a Kerulan dance form using exotic costumes together with intricate facial and hand gestures to communicate classical Indian stories. This is done to a chanted narration accompanied by drums and cymbals. It sounds challenging but after some explanation we watched it for an hour in fascination.

More challenging was getting a beer to go with supper. This involved hiring a tuk-tuk to take us to a seedy cabin with a large but happy crowd queuing outside. We passed money through a grill and were presented with a brown cardboard box which we secreted in the back of the tuk-tuk. Back at the hotel we were relieved to find the box did indeed contain bottles of beer, and the waiters scurried away to put it in a fridge.

The chef produced the finest meal of the trip. Both mullet and calamari were delicious, and a cool beer complemented them. As we were not allowed to drink alcohol in a public area, we couldn't eat at the restaurant, but tables had been set around the swimming pool for us and two other alcoholic English couples and we had a very enjoyable meal.