Few cities on the Indian subcontinent could boast such a heady mix of cultures, peoples and creeds as Kochi; a sprawling port-town whose 1,000-year story of spice trading and foreign settlement includes chapters dedicated to Chinese explorers, Arabian traders, Portuguese imperialists, regal Indian dynasties and the British Raj alike.
The town’s cosmopolitanism is impossible to miss. It’s evident in the oriental fishing nets that silhouette themselves on the waters of the Malabar Coast every evening, clear between the tight-knit spice emporiums of Jew Town, ticking over to the aromas of clove and cumin. It oozes from the crevices of the Dutch palaces on Mattancherry, and sits with a stiff-upper-lip behind the Raj facades of Princess Street and Fort Cochin.
What’s more, as any Kochi tourist guide will tell you, there’s rarely a dull a moment in the calendar here, with the Kerala locals coming forth en masse to celebrate the Shiva Temple Festival with elephant shows in January, the ritualistic return of the old dynastic kings at the Onam Festival in late summer, the turn of the New Year at the iconic city carnival, or the breath-taking splendour of pyrotechnic displays at the Fireworks Festival in spring.