Kochi

 

Sunshades and prescription glasses in stylish frames are much cheaper in India as compared to the western world. Across the city, one can find numerous optician stores. Most of them have computerized testing services and many have optical clinics within with the store.

Indian Opticals

Vithayathil Opticians

Ernakulam Public Library

The Ernakulam Public Library is one of the oldest public library in India started in 1839. Books could be rented for 2 weeks for various rental options ranging from Rs 60 for four books to Rs 15 for single book. A refundable caution deposit is required ranging between Rs 1,000-250 depending upon membership class. There is a free reading room with good collection of all national and international newspapers and magazines. Try here if you like read some of the treasured archives or original historical manuscripts.

Eloor Lending Library

Eloor Lending Library has mainly two membership options. Unlike other libraries, this library has a different way of lending books. Here when you take membership by paying Rs. 1, 200 you can access books worth Rs. 1,800. When you pay Rs. 600 you can access books worth Rs. 900. Here you have to pay an additional 10% of the price of the books you take, as the reading charge.

 

For any emergency support of Police, ☎ 100 for Flying Squad or ☎ 1090 for Crime Stopper. The city has around 16 Police Station zones.

Kochi Central Police Station

This is the main police station and it houses the offices of the Asst. City Commissioner as well as Ernakulam City Circle officer.

Kochi Tourist Police Station

This is the country's first and only tourist police station. Assistance for tourists including visa and immigration information can be provided. There is a small police museum here. Check for the difference of police uniform here. The Tourist Police wear a blue shirt and khaki pants.

Foreigners Registration Office-FRO

The city commissioner is the FRO, who has powers and authorization for any immigration issues. For any visa conversion, loss/theft of foreign passports, extension of visa, overstay of visa, immigration clearance, reporting a missing foreigners then report at this office.

Sailors & Seaport Users Registration Office

For sailors or ship crew, their registration and embarkation/disembarkation order has to be issued for this office. The DySP has authorization to issue landing permits for yachts, private boats as well as foreign ships and allow its passengers to board down for 72 hours without visa. Travellers arriving on cruisers and yachts should report at this office for any transit visa or short term visa required.

 

Along with Trivandrum, Kochi stands out as one of south Asia's best medical hubs and it's not at all difficult to get medical attention. Many hospitals operate in the city, with 12 specialist hospitals and Centers of Medical Excellence. For accident cases, only hospitals marked with accident care are authorized to admit such cases. The toll free emergency number from all telephones is ☎ 102 and ☎ 1298

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS)

One of the top 10 leading specialist hospitals in South Asia. AIMS is reputed for its cost effective complex treatments and latest medical care facilities. Reputed for its cost-effective surgeries, the hospital offers several specialized over-all general check-ups

Lakeshore Hospital

One of the most high tech hospital in South India famous for its innovative, modern medical treatment. Has various specialized departments including cancer care treatment and bone/neuro treatment. The cardiac division is an awarding winning center with the latest facilities and highly qualified dcotors. There are 8 other specialist clinics. The hospital is well-equipped with all emergency services. Also offers comprehensive medical check-up services.

Medical Trust Hospital

One of the oldest Super Specialty hospital located in heart of the city, this hospital is one of the most important referral hospital in Kerala. Famous for its organ transplant operations. Has the largest number of intensive care facilities in the state. Its a very crowded hospital but is well organised. This hospital is part of Rapid Medical Action Force and they have an accident care.

 

Other important hospitals are

City Hospital

A good hospital, with accident care facilities. It is famous for its orthopedics and paediatrics department.

Cochin Port Hospital

General medicine and has a large in-patient ward. Located near to Kochi Port area, its regularly used by sailors. All certifications required for mariners and sailors are available from this hospital.

electricity

Kochi uses the British UK three-pin and two-pin circular socket that follows British standard 546 230V/50Hz. Plug adapters are available at any hardware store. Use care if you need a transformer to convert 230v to a lower voltage for equipment from countries where the normal power supply is 110v.

internet

Kochi was one of the first places in India to be connected to the Internet. Being the landing site of 3 major international submarine network cables FLAG, SEA-ME, SAFE as well as focal point for most of the fiber-optic networks in South India. The city has good bandwidth at low rates.

There are plenty of internet centres which charge around Rs 10 per hour. Some cafes in Convent Road as well as near Cochin University offer high speed net connectivity at Rs 5 per hour. If you have laptop with wifi connection, you can roam anywhere with BSNL WiMax USB connection speed around 40 Mbps to 512 Mbps, as Kochi has 4th generation Wimax. In addition to this, Kochi is also a network city with services provided by the 3rd Gen-EVDO BSNL network as well as 3G services of BSNL, Docomo and Reliance Mobile.

Most of the 3 Star hotels provide wifi connectivity. You require pre-paid connection cards of Tata Indicom or Reliance. The majority of hotels have Tata. Some hotels provide complementary wifi for the use of their guests.

hairdressers

Kochinites are particular about their hair styles and adopt almost all latest fashion. Thus there is no shortage of various hair salons charging from Rs 50 up for the latest trends. Most of the budget saloons are found almost every part of the city, normally calling as Barber shops or Saloons. The middle range hair salons located mainly in MG Road, Palarivattom, Marine Drive and Edappally areas, offer haircuts with hair wash as well as other frills. For splurge, most of the premium beauty palours and skin clinics are located Panampally Nagar, GCDA Nagar, Girinagar, SA Road and MG Road that offers various skin and hair treatment, all costing above Rs 1,000.

mail

India Post has offices throughout the city, generally open 8:30AM-5PM weekdays, 8:30AM-1PM Saturdays, closed Sundays. The Kochi Airport post office located in Departure side of International Area is open 6 AM-8:30 PM on all weekdays and Saturdays. The General Post Office GPO is located in MG Road Opp. Avenue Regent and in Edappally near High School. The Head Post Office HPO is located at Postal Complex, Hospital Road. The express EMS Service is available at the HPO and Edappally GPO, which is open 24 hrs on all days except the 5 state holidays. Service through EMS Postal service is very fast and reliable. Post boxes are available all over the city and daily clearance is at 10AM and 4:30 PM. A postcard to anywhere in the world costs Rs 5.

There are numerous of private courier companies operating in Kerala. Fedex, DHL, First Flight, UPS, DTDC and Aramex are some of leading private services.

holidays

Kochi has 15-20 public listed state holidays as else where in Kerala, when almost all government and a few private offices are closed. However, few holidays involve total closure of all commercial establishments. Please be aware that on these days most of the public transport options like bus, cabs and autos take a break. For the few holidays listed below, restaurants and food corners other than those operating inside hotels also close. Its always better to avoid these days, while planning holidays. The major holidays that Kochinites love to spend indoors are

Good Friday and Easter

April

Vishu

the Malayalam New Year April 14th or 15th

Thiruonam

the main day for Onam celebrations between August-Sept

Christmas

Dec 25th

A few religious holidays listed below marks closure of all commercial establishments owned by members of that communities. However public transport works as usual.

Cheriya Perunal Eid al-Fitr, Valiya Perunal Eid al-Adha and Muharram marks full closure of all Muslim owned establishments. All these firms take break for 3 hours from noon for Friday Juma Prayers.

Saturdays, Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah

marks total closure of all Jewish establishments, particularly in Fort Kochi

Diwali, Holi and Navarathri

marks private holiday season for almost all North Indian establishments, particularly in Mattancherry.

Apart from these holidays, the Sunday laziness can make most of the establishments do not to function in the morning time, though many open by afternoon. The city bus services on Sundays are also limited, though other public transport like autos and taxis function normally.

telecom

The Area code for Cochin is 0484. If calling from outside India the format is +91 484 xxxxxxx. Almost all national telecommunication operators, operate in Kochi.

Mobile Services. If you require an Indian phone number it is strongly recommended that you get a pre-paid mobile connection. To do this you need a photocopy of your passport including the visa and the ID pages, a color photo, and officially proof of local address in Kochi. Most star hotels allow you to use their address for this. In the event of not having address you can still get a pre-paid connection using your visa number, finger prints and in some cases providing passport size photographs.

Most of the mobile operators in India operate in Kochi, GSM as well as CDMA. Popular GSM service providers are BSNL Mobile, Vodafone, Idea Mobile, Aircel, MTS, Airtel, Tata DOCOMO, Uninor, Virgin Mobile GSM and Reliance GSM. Popular CDMA service providers are Tata Indicom, Reliance India Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

Public Telephony :- PCOs Public Call Offices are a good option. You will find them almost every 100m. These are public pay-phones post-pay and there will be a person on the shop to take the payments. Check your bill generated from the billing machine and make the payment accordingly. Payments are always in Indian rupees. Coin boxes are available everywhere where you can make local calls within a radius of 10km from the phone.

BSNL Calling cards are available in all stores, which is a prepaid calling card, that could be used in any phone, without charging the phone user. Vodafone World Cards and Airtel Globe cards are also another good option.

General & business telephone directory can be accessed by calling ☎ +91 484 4444444.

Toll Free directory enquiry from BSNL landphones & BSNL Mobile is ☎ 197.

newspapers

Almost all the national newspapers have editions for Kochi. The major English language dailies are The Hindu has a detailed city tabloid called Metroplus, The New Indian Express The local City express along with this paper provides good insights of city happenings, The Times of India, The Pioneer, Hindustan Times and many popular Malayalam and Tamil newspapers. Being seat of Cochin Stock Exchange and the principal financial hub of Kerala, lots of financial dailies in English are available in Kochi, like The Economic Times, The Business Standard, Businessline, The Financial Express.

Lots of popular English Magazines are available. Many American and British magazines like Forbes, Mirror etc is available in many supermarkets and bookstalls. Popular Indian English Magazines are India Today, The Week and The Frontline.

24 hour pharmacies

Gautham Pharmacy, Panayapally, ☎ +91 484 2210514, +91 484 3096020

Amritha Pharmacy, AIMS, Edappally, ☎ +91 484 4001055

There are many pharmacies located near Medical Trust Hospital in Pallimukku, all 24 hr pharmcies.