and so it begins......

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I arrived in Trivandrum without any delays, but unfortunately I arrived at 4am. That is not a good time to arrive anywhere. I had hoped to see a bit of Trivandrum, but everything was still closed and that meant that I would have to wait 3 – 4 hours for things to open, so I ditched that plan and headed straight for Varkala. I arrived there at 7 am and went to Mummy’s Bamboo Guesthouse. They took good care of me. I was soon nicely ensconced in my little abode. Spotless, attractive and quiet, but relatively expensive at $18/night, considering that there is no a/c and no hot water. I slept for 24 hours with a few breaks in which I drug my ass down to the beachfront strip in an attempted to see things, but I didn’t have the energy to explore much. Today I awoke at 9:30 am and went for breakfast, where I met a neat woman from Florida. She had been in McCloud Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives, for 6 months and stopped off in Varkala for chill out before she returns to the states in a week or so. We made tentative plans to travel together to the backwaters and then to Cochin. We are meeting for dinner tonight to discuss it further.
Varkala is okay. The town sits on a cliff above the ocean. The area is heaviliy forested by palm trees. There are many small hotels, bamboo cottages and guesthouses. Some of the places are fancier than others, but they are not big resorts. The people are very friendly and the hassle factor is low. But it’s very quiet, there are not many tourists here at the moment, so the shops are working hard to get your money. Since I like to support the local economy I did my share and bought a few things. The problem I have is that the people are so nice and I want them to be happy, so I may have bought things I may not have really wanted. I bought two shirts, the long indian kind with the embroidery for $10 each, which is very expensive for India. I bought two t-shirts that I didn’t really want, for $6 each (outrageous!) and three shoulder bags for $20. They are always trying to get you to buy more, so I’m going to have to be more firm in my negotiating. But there is a lot of stuff to buy and I would like to explore further, but I don’t want to be harangued to buy.
So far I haven’t eaten much. I’m still afraid, but I had eggs and “hash browns” with toast and coffee for breakfast and so far so good. As for the hash browns, they were more roasted potatoes, with big chunks of bell peppers, corriander and onions. There are a lot of nice restaurants that serve fresh seafood, so I will be trying that one of these days.
People always talk about the smells of India, and I can confirm that it has a distinct smell, which is the smell of coriander. I have never used before this, but I’m not a big fan and it’s pretty much in everything. In a few days I won’t notice the smell as much, so maybe I’ll adjust to the taste also.
I was able to call my sister with Skype last night, although the video part wasn’t working. All the restaurants offer free Wifi, which is great. I wasn’t able to use my gadgets because I forgot to bring an adapter plug, so today I headed for the town and picked one up. So from now on I should be able to make my posts fairly regularly.
So that’s it for now. Stay tuned for more..

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Comments

[Gregory]

Good Start
Hey Rube, Sounds like things are off to a good start! Enjoyed reading your comments in the blog. Mickey is keeping us up to date on all your movements and the blog is a good way to keep in touch. Enjoyed your comments on Indian cooking. Corriander is a spice that takes getting used to! Tastes a little \"soapy\". Anyway, enjoy and be careful, also when crossing the street, they drive on the other side of the road!