Random train, hello Kochin

View from the train

I finished packing my bags by 8am and after grabbing my last meal in Varkala I headed off to the train station via rickshaw for 60rs ($1.50). I got a ticket for the first train leaving from the station; there was only one track so it made the decision that much easier. The station master found it amusing that I didn’t know where I was going and simply wanted the first and cheapest train ride out [the train only cost me 88rs (around $2), that’s less than a beer costs in most restaurants].

Just over three hours later we passed through Kochin, I decided to jump off as it is one of the larger cities in Kerala. Four people I had met back in Goa, two from Bolton uk and two from the prairies back home in Canada, had told me about the city a couple weeks ago so I thought it was worth a shot.

After scanning my guidebook for a brief second I decided to grab another rickshaw to Fort Cochin, the furthest part of the city which hosts most the historical sites.


Touts get a bad name: A tout is someone in India who makes money off tourists, usually by directing them to hotels, shops, restaurants, etc. After I arrived in Fort Cochin there was a tout waiting for me before I even got out of my rickshaw. He told me all the hotels on the street where full, which turned out to be true, and that he owned a home stay I could stay at instead. Thankfully I agreed to see it as it turned out to be an amazing place for only 350rs ($7) per night (a clean double bedroom, attached bath, common room with HBO... I hadn’t even see TV for over a month now!)