My India Trip to Kochi a.k.a Cochin, Part I

Hey hey~ I just got back from India, and what the heck! 6 Days and 5 nights of staying there was a pretty much fun experience! And now, I have to stay home as I was admitted to the hospital due to my gastric problems. WTH!

Anyway, back to my trip.. it was so much heat and fun! I went to South India btw where you see how the real Indian culture is! Gosh! Talk about their culture, I was so terrified by the way these people drive.. hilarious and also drop-dead-dangerous!!!

I'll seggregate this trip into three(3) parts since I got too many photos to cramp it in one post. Hm..

Let's start with my first day experience at LCCT. I went to India (Kochi, or they called it Cochin) by AirAsia (AA). We were trying to get our luggage checked in, so my mom went to the "Kochi" counter and guess what, before my mom opened her mouth to speak, the AA lady there told my mom "Madam, I think you are at the wrong counter, this counter is to India". hahahaha. It's obviously to India because all of the passangers trying to check in were Indians, and we (my family and I -- 4 people) were the only Chinese standing right in front of the check in counter. Geez.

Before we board the plane (at the platform area), the AA people again asked us if we really were going to India... I'm not sure why but this sure sounds like they are giving us an option to "jump" or "re-think" our journey to India.. which is a little freaky to us... LOL! Anyway, the whole plane really packed with Indian passangers and it is realllllyyyy obvious that the four of us are the "unique" ones.

The journey took us almost 4 hours before reaching Kochi a.k.a Cochin. Also, as a side note, please bring small money if you are planning to go there.. 500 rupees is a lot to them.. we had a hard time paying these people money as they doesn't have small change.


We didn't do much on the first day since we reached there in the evening. So I'll proceed with the pictures of what we did on the 2nd day there.

We were picked up by our driver named Bijou and because it was still early (9am India time), we went around looking for food.

In India, most of the man wear "sarung".. I don't really see much people wear pants there... weird.


Also, the shops there are quite weird as well, normally our coffee shops in Malaysia operates as early as 7am but in India, they only started to open their shops at 10 or 11am!! -_-"


*still searching for food*

Finally we found one vegetarian restaurant! Crazy I tell ya!

However, I was pretty amazed by the quality of the food there!!

Below are some Indian food that you'll normally get in their menu..

*I don't know what this is called. -_-"


* this taste a little sour.. some sort of rice cake...*

And this is the best! something that we also had in Malaysia.. Puree! (not sure if it is spelled like this.. )


I super love their tea! BTW, they have a habit of forgetting people's drink.. and they served them real slow (almost at the end of our meal!!)

*some thing like our teh tarik but the amount that we get is so much smaller!!*



BTW, there's a small bakery shop beside this restaurant as well that sells colorful delicacies. :)



Next, we walked around the streets to get our car and spotted these books around the roads...


and see what my brother found!!

Harry potter books! LOL! Don't asked me if it's from the real publisher or not since it is about RM7 ringgit per book. -_-

We went on to Jew Town around Fort Cochin and there's a few streets that sells stuff to the tourist..


There are even post cards of Kochi that is sold for about RM1 each (quite expensive IMO...)


We wanted to see the museum at Jew Town which shows how the Jews people lived in India many many years ago but too bad it was closed during the weekends!! Should be open to the tourist instead. Argh!


The clock outside the museum.

We were also greeted by some locals in Japanese "Konichiwa" when we walked around the streets as well! -_-" So funny!

BTW, India is very famous with crazily harvested coconuts!


I loved their coconuts as most of the ones that I drank were so sweet! And cheap which cost about 70-80cents! In Penang, they sold for RM2.20 each! I was told by Bijou that an average of 2 coconuts daily were eaten/used by each family which were part of their culture. No wonder their hair are so black and shiny (must be the coconut oil!) :D

There are also some souvenirs around Jew Town@ Fort Kochi but they weren't cheap and it was really tough to bargain with these sellers!! -_-


On our way to the next destination, we also visited their famous Santa Cruz Basilica Church. Really pretty building and well maintained too!


Next up, the place where I was bombarded twice with "lucky" shits from the crow on my head!! (*@&*^&%^%^#R$ :(

The Chinese fishing nets!


IMPORTANT: PLEASE do not stand under the tree near this place!! There were lots of stupid crows doing their "business" there!

You can also see fisherman selling and bargain for fishes here..


and also this...


After all these photos... time for some food now!! Here I present you our best lunch that we ever had on this trip!!


I don't remember the name of the restaurant though, sorry! -_-"

We were served with papadam masala here... (FYI, everything about masala is really "masalah" (problem in Malay)!!) :P

*papadam with a hint of spice + pepper*




*not sure if they are stingy or what, only 8 prawns for the four of us, so ngam ngam one!*


In India, it's all about the Appam.. quite nice if you dip it with masala gravy..

here comes my "problem" -- masala :P

ladies fingers is called Bhendi there.. and they mashed it with the gravy in here... so yummy I tell you!!

And our dessert.. not sure what this is called already.. the black colored round thing tasted some sort of like a pancake.. dipped with vanilla ice cream + syrup!


The whole lunch cost us about RM80 which is quite okay for us since this restaurant is situated inside a 5-star hotel! Imagine the room rates per night is RM1K!! -_-"

Anyway, that's all for now.. *phew*!! Time for some sleep!