Calicut to Kollam

---

We made the effort to get up early to again take advantage of the free breakfast before we had to catch the train! After breakfast we hopped onto a couple of rickshaws and made our way to the station! Unfortunately, we were unable to book a sleeper class carriage as all were full up and we had no idea which carriage we were supposed to get on! After asking the station master where we should be, he was adamant it was the fourth carriage from the front; begrudgingly we hiked the length of the platform with all our bags and eagerly awaited the arrival of the train..

When the train arrived we joined the mad rush of people trying to cram onto the carriage, at first glance we felt we may be in the wrong place but continued on to find out seat numbers. However, when we reached the seats, it was evident we were not in the right place. We struggled back towards to the door but it was too late and the train was already leaviong the platford, we were stuck! After what seemed like a sweaty eternity, the train came to a stop at the next station, we dashed from the door and quickly scurried along the platford towards the back of the train! With still no success in finding the carriage, the train began to pull away from the station! We quickly dashed onto the nearest carriage and questioned anyone we could on where we were supposed to be. Luckily, we had managed to get on a carriage which was adjoined to more at the rear of the train! We knew we could now walk through the carriages and eventually would hopefully find our seats! A frustrating squeeze through more carriages, still with all our bags, finally yielded a result! But wait, another problem, some people were in our seats! Another spot of luck resulted in us finding the ticket master who quickly removed the people from our seats and we settled in for the rest of the journey!

After a shaky start, the rest of the train ride had been fairly relaxing and we arrived in Kollam about 5.00pm. We had no problem checking into a hotel this time and enjoyed a very cheap dinner in a local restaurant.

---