Category: Kochi (Cochin), Kerala

Kochi is Kerala’s most cosmopolitan city — a port that has absorbed Phoenicians, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders over two thousand years and emerged with a culture uniquely its own. The Chinese fishing nets of Fort Kochi, the Paradesi Synagogue of Jew Town, the spice warehouses of Mattancherry, and the contemporary art of the Kochi Biennale inhabit the same few square kilometres with the easy coexistence of a city that has always been a meeting place. Stay in Fort Kochi for the heritage, come to Panampilly Nagar for the city’s quieter, more residential heart, and take a ferry out to the backwaters to remember that Kerala begins where Kochi ends.