Cochin

Known as the Queen of the Arabian Sea, Kochi’s charms are manifold. Charming Fort Cochin and its twin town Mattancherry is an island of slowly disintegrating stone walls, crumbling shopfronts and well-tended churches, where every turn takes you down some new gloriously picturesque, narrow winding street. The iconic batwing Chinese fishing nets stand on the shores of the North Fort area, silhouetted against the lapping waters of one of the world’s finest natural harbours, a wide bay interrupted by narrow spits of land and coconut-covered islands. The southern quarter of Mattancherry is just as romantically fossilised: row upon row of wood-fronted doors give glimpses of rice and spice merchants sitting sifting their produce into small ‘tasting’ bowls. A ferry journey east across the Vembanad Lake will land you in cosmopolitan atmosphere of Ernakulam, buzzing with hotels, cinema halls, shops and restaurants, the city combines the finest in tradition and modernity.