Callamity bus journey to Kumily

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So on 6th of Jan I checked out of the ashram, with some happy memories, great friends and a good toned healthy body in tow. I thought I would just head down to meet my girlfriends in Varkala for a few days before we all went our separate ways. We had such a laugh together on the beach at sunset.

The following morning though - Gail - one of the girls and I headed north for our mission to the spice fields and a large wildlife park in the Western Ghats. Its a chance to escape the heat and see some mountains for a few weeks. The lonely planet route certainly seems to be down the west coast and its all a bit tiring talking to people on the same well worn path every day..... think outside the box people ... its a big country!

Anyway so we are on route to an earthship I found in Kodaikonal in Tamil Nadu. But adventures as always begin only 1 hour into the trip.

Fresh and fruity we board the train in Varkala bound for a town called Kottayam where we can get a bus to Kumily. Or so we thought! An hour and a half into the journey the train pulls into Kollam. As most of the people get off the train Gail and I spread out - wonderful this carraige all to ourselves. Until a nice Indian comes up to the window and promptly informs us the train terminates here!

So off we get, the connection isn't for another 2 hours, so we figured it would be much quicker to get a bus to the town in question???? Or so we thought. It soon becomes clear that the very intricate language of Malayalam - a Kerelan native tongue is a little more tricky than we had anticipated. We are asking for a bus to Kottayam repeatedly. A bus rolls up and I shout into the door... Kottayam - a man nods and the ticket inspector confirms this... so on we get... 15mins later when paying for the tickets we realise that Kottayam and Kottiyam are in 2 completely different places and we are heading south ... Oh NO!
The bus grinds to an immediate halt - we are slung off and told to get the bus across the street which is heading where we want to go! So on we get.... 5mins later we discover to our alarm - we are still not going where we need to go... but the station we just got off at is in sight - so we decide to wait for the train for which we have a ticket for another hour in the midday sun.... It seemed far simpler than this merry-go-round of train bus roulette we are playing! My hot tip.... write the destination down - so people can read it and not rely on my rather poor Malayalam accent!

So after safe arrival in the infamous Kottayam - we had a quick lunch at the Kerelan Coffee house - a fantastic little cafe from the time of the raj from what I could tell. Lunch and a drink for 30 rupee.... Bargain busters!

Now for the next leg.... Oh and what a ride. On the front of the bus was the words "SUPER FAST" and that it was. Doing 60km round bends on a mountain pass seemed like a good idea to him. Gail and I have abs of steal from the experience and knuckles whiter than white.... It was too comical for words. All the indians just took it in their stride... this is perfectly the thing to do... We were traumatized! The magnificent views out of the window were truly spectacular with steep cliffs, green forests and plantations of spices and small villages and churches dotted on the hillside.

Just when we thought the trauma couldn't get worse - we looked out of the window to find a man with this lungi off completely a semi boner squatting down having a dump - just on the side of the road.... for all the world to see. By this time I was crying I was laughing so hard at the sheer wonder of our day.

As they say - anything can happen in India and usually does!! But the man with the semi errect penis having the dump in full view still takes the biscuit for me.... Blumpy anyone?

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Photos

chai on the beach
loving your work lady

me and the yoga babes
Varkala beach