A journey enjoyed...

I have often felt that I have wandered far off places, and my surroundings are yet to be explored. And so I along with my friends decided to discover the true colours of Kochi.
It was election in our college so soon after casting our valuable votes; we set off to our destination …FORT KOCHI! I have been there many times, but when it comes to traveling with your classmates its real fun! And the trip surely was one of the best I ever had in my life. After a lot of discussion and arguments we (8) came to a conclusion, that boat ride would make it all the more fun…moreover it was cheap and speedy. The thought of a boat ride for jus Rs.2/- was more than enough for us to say ‘WOW’. And as expected with happy and cheerful faces we boarded our small yet comfortable boat with a around another 50 – 60 passengers. We were the only students on the boat, and I must say we were a noisy lot…and so we got all the necessary and unnecessary attention!

Thirty minutes of ride, and we were done. But our actual destination was another 20 minutes walk away, but when you are with friends ‘no road is too long!’ Fort kochi is a hub for big hotels and restaurants, though our pockets didn’t allow us to have a sneak peek at the same…we managed to click a few pictures outside the royal hotels ;)

As we neared the beach, we could feel the cool breeze from the sea. A bunch of hawkers were ready to lure us with colorful pearls and sea shells. But we were more interested to see the Chinese nets catch fresh pray. Huge, ancient nets are still a part of fort Kochi, reminding us the past engineering marvel. Vivid varieties of fish were caught and sold afresh; gelly fish was a star among us and our cameras couldn’t stop blinking at them.

The fishes were pretty, but something prettier roared at us, with its enormous volume yet spectacularly beautiful profile …the Arabian Sea! I must tell you the view was spellbinding. Though the sun was at its peak, the sea pecked our cheeks with cool and refreshing breeze. We walked along the new concrete pavement, enjoying the blue ocean on our right and lush green trees on the left. Renovations have made our sea look even better; a few rest places have been constructed along the walkway…so that you can sit back and enjoy the lovely sea allowing all your senses to relax.

No matter how lovely the sea was, we couldn’t stop our snarling stomachs to grumble for food!
And so our next mission was to find a neat hotel which could fit in our budget, and after a lots of roaming we managed to get in a reasonable looking restaurant …the place was homely, yet we were not prepared our homely meals …so decided to keep it light and ordered for some chicken rolls, puffs, cutlets and cool drinks. Our ‘halky pet pooja’was quite delicious and we were charged again.

Fort kochi is adorned with antique and handicrafts shops…yet you’ll find a dwindling customer population for the same…the sole buyers being, foreigners. We were happy window shopping and clicking the antiques at our reach! A lovely cute little park awaited us with numerous kids playing happily along the see-saw and the swing. We helped ourselves with a scoop of ice cream each and enjoyed being kids riding the rides with our little friends.

After all the fun and frolic, it was time to bid our dear fort kochi goodbye , we didn’t have heavy hearts though …because we knew we would meet her soon !:)