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It was a cold and misty morning in Southern part of Sri Lanka. The sky was still grey and I could feel an uneasy cold breeze taking control of the surrounding atmosphere. I could also hear the sound of the northerly wind that is blowing through the gap of the window frame in my room. I cuddle myself more and more to find warmth and comfort, I have been missing! I neither slept nor was sound well as I was suffering from a fever the night before my departure.
Larif came to pick up at 3.30am in the morning.
Mihin Air is scheduled to fly from Colombo to Trivandrum on 14th of August. It would be a wonderful flashback in my mind as I have been there twice before. After 45 minutes of flying over Indian Ocean, we touched the Indian soil with a bumpy landing which shook the entire aircraft.
As soon as I arrived at the immigration desk, I realised that it is going to be a nightmare to face immigration officers at the checking desk. It has always been an uninterestingly complicated subject for them to let me go through so easily without scanning through
my passport and then my face several times. I find this pathetic examination rather a matter of ill-mannered behaviour of authorities here, which had been irritated me a couple of times before. It always seemed incoherent & illogic point for them to understand how I can have a brown skin and such facial features which are similar to a South Asian, at the same time holding a British passport! It can also be a more serious matter than anything else today as they asked their colleagues to have a closer look at my face and the passport respectively.
Have not I experienced this before anywhere in this world? The answer is NO!
I began to speak Tamil with Mr. J. K. at the checking desk and made the matter clear before calling a catastrophic deportation back where I come from.
As soon as we got through to the main exit, we managed to get some Indian bank notes from an exchequer, who kept screaming at us earlier. I could see outside through the huge glass window, all those taxi drivers with their praying eyes and wide opened mouths are waiting to swallow us. We have no other
alternatives but to take a taxi from the pre-paid taxi park. We were greeted by a generous taxi driver by saying loudly Welcome to Kerala! I asked him to take us to a nearest hotel which was recommended by a famous guide book.
After a slow but breath taking drive, we stopped in front of a massive building. We needed a room for a couple of nights. How ever, the receptionist refused to give us a room because I was not a foreigner despite holding a British passport in my hand. Should I write to Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State, the disgrace, hindrance and discomfort I face in this country?
I walked back to the taxi with a great disgust. I also realised that it is pointless to explain to him whether I am foreigner or not as the midday sun began scotching over my head. I asked our taxi driver to take us to another place which is not far from the main railway station.
Nevertheless he was so keen to take us to somewhere he knew about a reasonable and good quality hotel. I know that it is all about the commission, which he
would be given by the hotel owner. I did not mind to see his eagerness. I thought that it was fair enough to agree with him as long as we have a decent place to rest for a couple of days. I have already become tired of being here and I kept myself silent all the way along to the next hotel.
Anyway, we were taken to a hotel behind the main railway station in Trivandrum. It was not far from the main bus stop either. Didn’t I ask him to take us here first place? I was asked to hand over two copies of passport and some money in advance for the room. During that time, our taxi driver said to the receptionist in Tamil not to give me any small changes, assuming that he would escape with some money from me. As soon as the initial registration was over, our taxi driver demanded extra 150Rs from me. I could hardly pretend that I did not understand what they were talking about now. I became furious to understand his dirty trick and I asked him to leave without a rupee. Nanu came behind me and started to bombard
on Taxi driver with her sharp but commanding voice. I was taken aback a lot at this time because I have never ever seen before that Nanu can be so aggressive. The taxi driver hardly said something back to me. Besides, it turned out to be a good way of approaching the taxi driver, who finally decided to leave us without a rupee!
It was the right time for us to rest in our tiny room to avoid the heat and to forget the ill incident of the day. In the afternoon, we had a walkabout after having our first Indian meals at Indian Coffee House which was located not far from the busy main road. The Indian Coffee House is a strange shaped building which instantly draws a shape of an icing cake in my mind! This red icing cake just stood next to the busy bus, three wheels and rickshaw parking.
I remember that I had a plate of tasty mutton buriyani last time and it might be a fair reason to come back to this place. I ordered a sticky cup of tea and a plate of mutton buriyani. Everyone was so curious and was
looking at us. I still don’t know the exact reason why.
There was a parade of a latest film which was called Ali-Baba and many roads were blocked. It was hard to move around because there was another rally which almost looked like a political rally.
We called end to our first day in Trivandrum after watching Chake-De India at a crowded cinema. Nevertheless it was a nice way to relax and to be far from everyone’s attention. We can at least imagine that nobody is looking at us in the dark in the cinema hall. I guessed that we deserved such a treat after facing too many odds of too many things.
The next morning we decided to take a train to Kollam which is supposed to be a better place than Trivandrum! I wonder what can be better in Kollam. We managed to get two second class tickets with two empty seats. It was the luck of the day and surely it is also very rare to obtain two empty seats in general compartments.
It was not a good start after having missed the boat on the backwaters but we still managed to stop
a boat by the canal. We had a nice time on the boat even though it was a slow journey. It was really pleasant to be far away from crowded places on the mainland. We stopped at a local place by the canal for the lunch break. It would have been much better meal but it was so obvious that they can serve anything to foreigners and still charge a ridiculous price. Can we refuse to pay for a bowl of rice and charcoaled fried fish?
We reached the end of the backwater trip when it was set for the sunset in Allepy. There were a lot of local guest house owners by the jetty fighting to get as many as foreigner to their place. We were lucky to have met a decent guy and he offered us a nice room by the canal.
We have already planned to leave Allepy next morning otherwise it would have been a nice place to relax. We are heading to Kochi.
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