Trivandrum

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Kerala - Trivandrum

23/02/11 - 24/02/11

After our original train got cancelled we managed to get on the next scheduled train from Varkala after much deliberation and a remittance stamp from the railway staff. They were actually really helpful, which must be a southern Indian railway thing!

Anyway we were picked up by the owner of our Homestay and as we arrived at night we just settled in at our cottage.

We stayed at Lake Woods Retreat Homestay run by a very accommodating chap called John (for 300Rs). It is about 7km from the city centre which takes about 20-30 minutes driving. It was 1200Rs for a standard room and 1500Rs for a superior. The rooms are separate from the owners house, next to each other (like semi detached chalets) which look out onto a lake. They have a nice verandah where you can sit in the afternoon and watch boats paddle by.
I booked the room through Mahindrahomestays.com.
John was really kind and bought us chai in the afternoon and even let us check out at 9pm as we had a late flight. Normally we would have to pay and expected to have to pay for a half day / another night.

Trivandrum is simply a busy city which seemed to contain many churches in addition to the ornate Hindu temples. There really isn't much to see or take pictures of but we did visit the Zoological Gardens (10Rs admission). The zoo sits within very nice gardens and contains reptiles, primates and birds in addition to the big cats, hippos and elephants. We enjoyed most of it as many of the animals had spacious, natural looking enclosures. However some of the animals such as the bigger birds and the big cats seemed to be in very small enclosures which made us sad. We think the cats at least might get to wonder out of these enclosures whilst the zoo is closed but seemed to be locked in these cages for the rest of the day to aid visibility.
There are also a couple of art gallery's and a natural history museum in the same grounds as the zoo but we didn't go ourselves.

We had a late flight from Trivandrum to Singapore and that's where our Indian adventure ended.

We felt quite sad to leave but I think we did it justice by making sure we did everything we could but at the same time leaving some time for spontaneity.

See the next blog for my India conclusions!

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