Romancing Cochin ...

I had been to cochin on a recent holiday trip. Instead of a hotel I chose to stay in a home stay, just to get a feel of the place.The home stay,Costa Gama, in which i stayed was a very nice place. It was in Fort Cochin around 13 kms from Ernakulam Station.The caretaker over there Mr.thomas was a very nice person and the owner Mr.Benson was also a nice man.
He charged us Rs.650/- for a A/C double bedroom(including taxes).
He also arranged for backwater sightseeing at a very reasonable rate of 550/- per head, which included pick up and drop at the place and lunch.The backwater where he took us was around 30 kms from the Costa Gama. On the way back we visited a spice garden where we saw spices like cinnamom, pepper, nutmeg etc being grown... It was a nice flavoured sight :) ...
He also arranged a Qualis at 900/- only for a full day (8 hrs) sight seeing in cochin city. We went to the Jewish Synagogue, which was a nice place and the spices market.
The homestay was very near to the beach, albeit a small one.Nearby the beach is the Dutch cementry and the St.Francis Church, where Vasco De Gama was first buried before being taken to Lisbon.It is probably the oldest church in India.It was not a tourist season but we could see some wandering souls !!
We also saw the Dutch Palace at matancherry, which was a dutch palace now a museum under the Archealogical Survey Of India's care. There you can see some rare paintings Raja Ravi Varma of the then Kings of Cochin.

We bought tickets for a evening Kathakali show which was Cochin Cultural Centre, again nearby, from costa Gama itself.Needless to say the show was excellent.
All in all it was a nice trip, made special by these guys and their hospitality.
Come to cochin and leave without having sea food is like blasphemy !!
we used to have our daily dose of sea food at the Fort Cochin restaurant,in front of Hotel Brunton Boat Yard.The waiter over there was a nice guy ... the best was they had a crooner who was from Sri Lanka and used to make our evenings really great by his meliflous renditions of of some classics by Eric Clapton and Phil Collins ...
One unique thing i saw in cochin is we can buy our fish from local market and take it to a restaurant to cook it for us for a fee !! many joints do the same thing ... we Coudnt try but worth a try :)

You can have a look at this place http://www.stayincochin.com/
Due to paucity of time we could not see the bolgatty palace and a few other places.May be next time... :) :)
Hope this writeup of mine helps you all.