After our wonderful stay over Christmas in Varkala we headed North by train to Cochi(n). We checked in at our homestay and were not really surprised to find that the room we had booked was not as advertised. The picture for the 'loft' room had shown a nice old wooden bed in a brightly painted room so when we were led up on to the flat roof we started to feel uneasy. And there was our bed, next to the water tanks with thin sheets pegged to the metal roofing frame for extra privacy.
This tree was enormous!!
As if this wasn't basic enough the security for this room was cause for even more concern. Someone could come in through the front gate walk up the stairs and straight into our 'room'. So after a chat with the owner we managed to secure a much more suitable room indoors. We have now revised our policy of finding accommodation. Yes, we will still use online agencies and booking sites for reference, but won't always book online. We will get to our destination and visit a small selection of rooms before committing. Yes, we may sometimes lose out on where we might really want to stay but at least we get to see the room beforehand.
The history of Cochin can be found here .
The Fort area has many clothes, spice and antique shops. Most of the antique shops are vast emporium with huge collections from around the local area and other parts of India.
At the moment the area is hosting India's first Biennale and more details can be found here. A lot of old derelict buildings are being used to host events or being re-claimed in their own right. We went to a lot of the larger buildings after this blog was finished and I may write about hat later.
This old typewriter had some of its keys changed so that when you typed the word 'justice' what was on the page was 'outrage'.
The town has it's usual proliferation of Christian churches and characters......oh, and lots of goats!
There are lots of old buildings such as this, which are now homestays or hotels.
The old parade grounds are now used for football and cricket.
I spotted an old derelict building and decided to walk in take a few pictures......
I moved carefully through the archway and as I rounded the corner at the end I started to hear a high pitched squeaking.
I looked through an opening in the wall and firstly saw the snake in the rocks surrounded by all the droppings from the bats above. The stench of ammonia was almost overbearing....
I heard the crunch of dried leaves behind me and nearly jumped through the window!! An Indian man had followed me in and told me to be careful because there were snakes in the area! I pointed out the one in front of us and he proceeded to pick up some small stones and starting throwing them at the reptile. The snake was not best pleased and started off around the edge of the room. The bats reacted immediately, the volume of their noise rising by double. At one point the snake raised itself as far as it could up the side wall and the bats doubled their output again. I would put it's length at about five foot. Alas my camera was between shots at that point and I missed a great picture.
The Indian man said it was a venomous snake and that was enough for me to beat a hasty but careful retreat out of the building!
One of the things Cochin is famous for is the Chinese style fishing nets. These large crane style devices have four arms that drop the net into the shallows. The fish will swim above the net and then it is hoisted up and the haul removed. This is a labour intensive method and there are only a few left......
No comments:
Post a Comment