We walked to the spice market in the morning, and then to Jew Town. This was a rather touristy area of the Cochin waterfront, but curious in the wealth of new and old antiques being peddled in what had probably been old shop/warehouses. One shop had managed to fit a full hundred seater racing canoe inside it, over fifty feet long.
Tuk-tuk back to Tissa's Inn who arranged a taxi to the Flora Airport Hotel for us at IR1400 ( GBP14.00) for the 25km journey. We needed to be near the airport because the flight to Colombo leaves at 09:45 tomorrow, although we were able to check in online today with no problem.
It proved a wise decision as Cochin was being visited today by the Indian President and most major roads were shut as a security precaution. Our taxi driver used a cunning route to avoid the chaos, by taking a ferry rather than driving to the mainland. This was a roro ferry with a difference, it was reverse on roll off. The queue for the ferry consisted of a row of vehicles all moving in reverse, quite surreal.
The journey still took quite a long time, and we didn't reach the Flora Airport Hotel until 16:00. It is a four star international quality establishment and very comfortable. We were upgraded to a room with a sun terrace, so after a few lengths of the rooftop pool we retired to our terrace with the remainder of yesterday's beer purchases.
Supper was strange. We were unable to order rice with our curries, and ended up with rotis instead but no explanation. Then an Indian folk band started playing right outside the restaurant so we were serenaded as we ate. I think it was part of the celebrations for the inauguration of a new terminal at the airport today.
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