The rickshaw ride from the train station was harrowing, with the driver more focused on us instead of the road, for most of the journey, while he tried to sell us a tour with him on the following day. Halfway to the hotel we unexpectedly stopped outside his home, with his wife and kids waiting on the side of the street. He then proceeded to invite us in so we could see how he lived and how badly he needed our business. With us still saying no and once again requesting to be taken straight to our hotel we continued on, arriving at our destination in Fort Kochi at around 7pm. We would learn over the coming days that this hard sell by the local rickshaw drivers was common and constant.

Having finally arrived from a long day of travel, we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the small hotel was and even more so by the offer of a complimentary upgrade to a bigger room. Exhausted, we ate at the local restaurant, which was pricey by Indian standards but the food was very nice, before retiring to our air-conditioned room, looking forward to our first night in a comfortable bed in over a month.

We were up at 5:30am to do a yoga workout in the small confines of our room, in the hopes that the hard work we had put in over the previous four weeks wouldn’t be for nothing. Our first day of freedom was spent relaxing in our room, catching up on email and planning where we were going after Kochi, now that we had Internet after weeks without it. We walked the streets a little, said no to the hard selling rickshaw drivers a lot, and generally took it easy.

After the previous days lounging we decided to take in some of the local sites and walked along the outskirts of the island, past the Chinese fishing nets and the many spice stores, until we arrived at Jew Town. Here we paid to visit the small synagogue before continuing back to the hotel for the evening.

We had decided to head back to Ernakulum on the main land for our third day. So we made our way to the ferry port, paid the 2-rupee fare and squeezed onto the ferry alongside rickshaws and motorbikes. Soon after we arrived at the other side where we began to explore the shop filled streets. After several hours and with the weather becoming wetter we decided to head back to Fort Kochi. After freshening up we headed to the Greenix village for a night of kathakali. Before the performance started we were able to see how the dancers prepared themselves, their faces concealed in heavy make-up. The venue also contained a small museum, which gave more of an insight into this Keralan performance style, as well as a local art gallery. The show started with a short demonstration of the eye, facial and hand expressions used in a typical performance, as well as their meaning. This followed on into the main event, which was amazing and intricate. The evening ended with us having dinner at the attached restaurant before walking back to our room for the night.

Over the previous few days we had attempted to catch up with a friend, Jane from the UK, who we had met at the ashram. This had been more difficult than expected with us communicating via email in an area where power outages often meant communication was delayed. That morning we were advised by the hotel staff that someone had dropped by looking for us, which they were telling us after they had left… We walked the short distance to Jane’s homestay only to discover that she was currently out, so we decided to go for a wander before heading to a local café we had told her (in an email) we were having lunch at, in the hope that she may meet us. Lunch came and went but still there was no Jane, so with it being our last day in Kochi we wandered a little more, went sari shopping and then headed back to the hotel. We sent off a final email to Jane, stating that we would be having lunch at the Dal Roti at 6:30pm, if she would like to join us. As we arrived we were happy to find that she had received the invitation and we enjoyed a fantastic dinner, reminiscing together about our time in Kochi and the ashram before.

We had organised with Jane the night before to catch a taxi with her to the airport, so after getting up at 5am and walking down to her homestay, we all bundled into the car for the drive to the airport. After checking in we spent the hour before the flight to Mumbai chatting before saying our goodbyes.