Adventures...

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Ok... so the planned elephant viewing never happened. Found the perfect train to get us back from Mysore to Mumbai in time for the test, so had a mad dash over to the mainland to have a go at booking tickets. Delayed only by a 20 minute wait to make sure that my slightly dodgy stomach wasn't the start of something else. I know I'm going to get food poisoning at some point, but I really didn't want it to hit ten minutes into a 40 minute ferry journey...

Got to Ernakulam, and hired ourselves an auto rickshaw. Having got used to them on the more sedate island of Fort Kochi, to be thrown into the rush hour traffic of a proper big town was quite dramatic. Totally insane situation. Hundreds of these autos careering around the streets, filling every possible inch of space, and cutting up lorries, cars, vans - whatever they fancied, totally ignoring the fact that they are pretty much an eggshell on wheels with a lawnmower engine strapped to the front... And not only have you got to deal with thousands of miniature Arton Sennas, but you've got to fight your way through the traffic fumes - so thick that you could scoop them up with a tablespoon and take them home with you.

Train booking was a breeze compared to that. Love the rules and regulations. Did anyone realise that non-contagious lepers are eligible for a 25% discount on rail travel in second class carriages?

Finding the restaurant we planned to track down was a bit more difficult. We're grown ups, and we don't want to get rickshaws everywhere. We can read a map, and we've got legs. Let's just walk. So, straight out of the station, then take a right. And keep walking for a bit.

A bit turned into a bit longer, and the road went from tarmac to dust. Thank christ we got caught in a thunderstorm. If we hadn't, we'd never have given up and gone for the rickshaw. And we've never have realised that we'd been walking in exactly the wrong directions, heading straight for the middle of nowhere, for the last half hour or so.

After a good 15 minutes in the rickshaw we got to Fry's Village Kitchen. And suddenly it was all worth it. The smell of sick was maybe a bit off putting, but the food was amazing. And responsible for my first ever "How much?" india moment. 135rp... about one pound sixty... for two of us, with seconds.

Could get used to this.

As I could get used to spending evenings on the porch of our cabin, drinking hot ginger and lemon drinks, reading my book, and picking at the keralan pancake that the staff brought out for us. Head to india and become an old married couple at bargain basement rates...

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Photos

A pineapple
Actually growing. In the ground. Not on a supermarket shelf...

Comments

[Chris M]

Trains
By far the best way to travel for all the reasons you've listed! People come round selling meals too (railway thalis mmmmmmmm) and Chai (in the nth). Best way to not get sick - don't eat meat!