Cherai beach is listed in the Lonely Planet as the best kept secret of Cochin, just 26km from Fort Cochin. With this in mind, Jaspreet and I booked ourselves into the Cherai Beach Resort which from their website looked like a paradise right on the beach.
The traditionally styled hut was beautifully built into the earth with a high roof, and well placed on the backwater lagoons so one could literally lean out of the bedroom window and feed the fish.
There was also a tree growing through the hut. It was fabulous!
The night brought on monsoon rains which kept all but two guests in the safety of their huts. Being the food motivated, courageous, people we are, Jaspreet and I braved it through the monsoon, fighting our way through 200 metres of thick and heavy rain, strong winds, lightning, and flooded walkways, to the resort restaurant in time for the buffet dinner.
Day at Cherai beach
The beach was not the protective cove envisioned, there was no time to rest and relax between shielding and defending ourselves verbally and visually from the local men who positioned themselves high on the rocks behind us, the ultimate predatory viewing position, and from the men who would deliberately walk past, slowing down to near stand still and gawk, and to the men who wanted to take pictures with us. As Jennie said ‘taking a photo with them means you’re their girlfriend’.
It was this day that I perfected my ‘stay away from me’ death stare.
Tiara in Transit 