Day 8: The Land of Coconuts

Dear readers, welcome to the beautiful city of Cochin! We woke up this morning in our amazing hotel, surrounded by natural beauty and excellent service. Some of us enjoyed the rooftop pool, while others indulged in a delicious breakfast of dosa. In the mid-morning, we reunited with our tour guide to begin exploring the streets of Cochin. We learned that Kerala is known for its coconut-focused cuisine and heavy colonial influence, which makes it diverse and quite different from other places in India.

We began at Kumbalangi, an eco-tourism village dedicated to sharing cultural practices with tourists. We learned to dehusk coconuts, cut out coconut flesh, make ropes using coconut fibers, make coconut chutney, and more! Our tour guide is very knowledgeable about the flora of Kerala, so it was interesting to learn about different species! We also enjoyed a boat ride on the Kerala backwaters and had a traditional Malayali lunch!

Learning village practices at Kumbalangi!

Jade and Alice with coconut water!

After our visit to Kumbalangi, we headed to the Hill Palace, which was once owned by the Maharajahs (Kings) of Cochin. The beautiful palace has a lot of colonial influence as well as traditional Malayali designs. We saw beautiful gold jewelry, historical artifacts, and flooring tiles. We also learned about the history of the Cochin kings, which was interesting because they were a matriarchal society!

Anagha and the gardens at Hill Palace!

After we returned to our hotel, we took some time to relax and enjoy the amenities provided, like the spa, pool, gym, and lounge. Some of us also watched the sunset over Cochin from the rooftop! Our hotel is very well designed and it’s a very relaxing experience overall. We finished the night with dinner at a local restaurant and rode in auto rickshaws back to our hotel, which was an exhilarating ride!

Tomorrow we will continue to explore Cochin, so I hope you’ll tune in!

See you soon!

Sanjana (and the rest of SWIndia!)