Keep Smiling...............: Fort Kochi, with Monu

A happening month I guess.....just realized that I hadn't completed the Kerala Chronicles.

While the trip had on agenda the wedding in Thrissur and reception at Cochin, plus a three days at Munnar, somewhere in between Diksha was like " we're in kerala and not doing the beach ma?". And that's all I needed.

Monu was sweet enough to offer, and plan was to hit the beach early morning to avoid the heat.

In fact an interesting thing was that Beena was totally sceptical, she said "I can't imagine Monu getting up early, so it's best you have alternative arrangements". I had the cab numbers ready and all. But Monu totally surprised everyone, he was ready even before we were :)

And he did such a brilliant job of it. In the few hours we had, he took us to the beach, and then the ferry from Ernakulam to Fort Kochi, the one which takes the car itself, and then some quaint shopping and a cute little cafe at Fort Kochi.

Here's that morning in pictures.

The backwaters before we reached the beach. It was just so pretty, with so many birds and fishermen, that we got off for a bit

Another side of the backwaters

That black line in between....it's all birds

Monu and Diksha by the car, on this road which had water both sides

Early morning, actually not so early, by the sea

Deech, lost in that gaze into the horizon

Fish drying, and monu moving out of there

Well, us and some doggies too

So many falcons on those trees, or maybe kites, I can never tell the difference

No surprise ...Diksha had to get to know those random dogs on the beach

After some nice time at the beach, our next target was to hit Fort Kochi, and Monu came up with this idea of doing the ferry by car.....this was the car queue waiting to get on the ferry

The ferry which takes the cars, amazing how many cars and bikes it can take at one go, and there's one every ten or twenty minutes....unique experience

From within the car on the ferry, we had the best possible vantage, as we drove in first

A cargo ship, on the way

Also from aboard the car, on the ferry...it really was a unique experience

Fort Kochi's marine drive, and it's choppy seas

This one I had to take. Katari Bagh, named after my grandfather, Admiral Katari, India's first Naval Chief

The quaint streets of Fort Kochi, which yet have a distinctive Portuguese feel. Not that I know how Portugal feels, but the European influence is yet so evident, and considering it was a Portuguese colony...Lilly street and Peter House and the like