Time in Cochin... no, Alleppey instead

A few days prior Jennifer and I had discussed and discussed and decided on flying down to Kerala. It was a very early morning flight with a 30 minute stop in Hyderabad. We flew with IndiGo.

We arrived at the airport in Cochin and literally had no idea what to do. We went to the tourist counter, and of course it was an off day and there was no one there. But there was another airport employee who was kind enough to help us out. He gave us a map of the city center, along with some suggestions on places to stay. This information was nice and all, but we still had no idea what we wanted to do. So I called up Ari who had been to Kerala a few months back. He had a few ideas, and then suggested I contact Monalita, a couchsurfer in Cochin. She was also helpful and gave us some suggestions as to where to go and where not to go. Per her suggestion, which was also a suggestion of the airport employee, we chose a hotel. So we finally got in a taxi and asked the driver to take us to the hotel. I really don't even think he fully understood us or the map we showed him.

But that didn't really matter. Because once we started driving through the active part of the city, we decided we didn't want to want to stay in Cochin. We wanted to be in a more laid back place. So we had the driver take us to the bus station so we could catch a bus to Alleppey.

So we got to the bus station, and I went to the ticket counter to ask about the bus to Alleppey. He said it would be coming shortly and told us to stay put. We kept seeing buses arrive (and depart) continuously, and I kept going up to the ticket counter asking if it was our bus (paranoia?) But that was really the only way to figure it out! Eventually came a time in which I went up to the counter and he told us the bus to Alleppey had arrived. So we got on the bus and had a sometimes bumpy two hour ride to Alleppey.