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| Marine Drive |
Kochi - our entry point to the Land of Gods, was the beginning of an extended vacation in Kerala. We planed to reach Kochi early in the morning, giving us the entire day to roam around the city but an unanticipated cancellation of our Air Asia's flight (Air Asia is becoming very good at cancelling flight - I have a conspiracy theory which will be the subject of another post) resulting in a delayed arrival to Vasco Da Gama's gateway to India.
We took the prepaid taxi from Kochi Airport to Hotel Travencore Court - By Spree, our humble abode for the day. Situated at MG Road, a decent hotel which extremely suited our stay in Kochi due to its location, its affordable pricing its vicinity to various tourist spots and accessibility to the city by various means of transport. This hotel is at 5 minutes drive to Marine Drive, 5 minutes drive to Maharaja College metro station, 5 minutes drive to Ernakulam South railway station and some 4 km to Fort Kochi. We took auto rickshaw from our hotel to various places mentioned above costing us ₹30 to ₹40. The ₹3000 (including GST) per day AC room with TV included free wi-fi connection, access to roof top swimming pool and gym, complimentary buffet breakfast for two. The hotel also boasts of a herbal spa which we didn't get time to try.
Being the peak summer month of April we decided to spend the hot afternoon at the famous Lulu Mall. When constructed in 2013 it was the largest shopping mall of India. We took the ₹30 per person metro train from Maharaja College metro station to Edapally metro station which is internally connected to Lulu Mall. We spent close to 2 hours exploring various outlets in the mall. After having snacks at the mall we took the metro back to the Maharaja college station so as to visit Marine Drive.
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Sunset @Arabian Sea
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The sheer vastness of the Arabian Sea was enough to had us awestruck, add the orange sunset and chirpings of the birds returning to their nest on the trees at the Marine Drive and you can imagine the scenic effect it had on us. We spent some time absorbing the beautiful scenery painted in front of us and also clicking some memories. We walk along the shore for some more time and decided to take a ferry ride. Marine Drive has a lot of offering for such rides. You can opt for a ferry to Fort Kochi or a speed boat ride of the Arabian Sea but we opted for the slow double decker boat. The 1 hour ride and the priceless experience costed us just ₹100 per head. We got the chance to see the cruising Holland America Line , Amsterdam Rotterdam and the evening Kochi skyline.₹;
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| Amsterdam Rotterdam - The Holland America Line |
Since it was past 7 PM we dropped our plan to take the ferry to Fort Kochi, keeping Fort Kochi and the Santa Cruz Basilica visit for next trip to Kochi. In case you have time , do visit these places too.
We had a South Indian dinner at a small restaurant and went back to our hotel to prepare for our trip to Munnar next day. After a sound sleep we got ready and enjoyed the good spread of the complimentary buffet and checked out.
