What happened next...
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2004
1
11
Trip End
Dec 13, 2004
Mumbai,
India
Monday, December 13, 2004
For what it's worth I travelled from Ooty to Calicut by bus. As if the bus journey was long and bumpy enough, I then had to walk along the road for quite a while as every hotel i found was apparently booked out. Or maybe they just couldn't be bothered checking me in at that time of night (11pm).
Next to Kochi (Cochin) by train, I stayed at Ernakulam Junction at the Durbar Residency near Jos Junction. Very reasonably priced and with spotless rooms, hot water, cable TV etc I cannot recommend this place enough. Oh, and there's a Pizza Hut right acros the road!
Travelling south once again, I caught a train to Varkala. Arriving once again at night, I selected a hotel from the Lonely Planet - as you do - and caught a rickshaw there. This was the Blue Marine Guest House on the cliff tops. The room was very bare. Just a single bed, plus a second bed (which didn't have a mattress), a mirror in the cold-water-only bathroom, and not so much as a rubbish bin apart from that. Not feeling like wandering around in the pitch blackness to check other hotels I took the room. The mattress was hard and lumpy and the pillow may have actually been a sandbag. Having left behind such a great hotel in Kochi I was not very happy.
In the morning I took a look around the area. In the clifftop area there is nothing but very basic hotels with attached cafes. Only one hotel had TVs and it was expensive.
Feeling a bit grumpy and sorry for myself I decided to ditch Varkala altogether. If anyone reading this is interested I would recommend the hotel run by the French woman. I had a chat to her and whilst I didn't look at her rooms, it was cheaper and I suspect nicer than the Blue Marine so check it out.
I caught the first train out - although admittedly I should have perhaps looked for accommodation in the town and given the place a second chance. It wasn't until I after I'd left Varkala that I got an email from my friends Justin and Lyndzey saying they were in VARKALA. Goddammit. I'd have loved to have caught up with them again.
Next stop: Kollam. Went for a walk to see the beach. No sign of it on the map in LP... but "Beach Road" suggested the way to go. When I got there I was greeted by large signs saying the beach was very dangerous and that 14 people had drowned there. I could see why. It's a beach of very coarse golden sand, which drops off very sharply. It is littered with ice cream wrappers although the day I was there it was deserted. no wonder Kollam is not a beach resort.
From here I caught a backwater cruise to Alleppey. It was an eight hour trip, but to be honest it was very slow going. Was like a very slow, wide river with a million palm trees on either side. I liked the statue of Jesus atop one of tghe local churches as we left. He was holding a large cross with one hand and waving with the other. I wish I'd got a photo of "cheerful Jesus" as I dubbed him.
Another highlight was a group of Indian men on one bank who broke into song for out ferry as we passed. That was kinda cool.
I chatted to a few people on the ferry and when we arrived in Alleppey we were accosted by hotel touts vying for our custom. I chose one from the photos a guy showed me, and me and two of the women I'd met went along there. Upon arrival it turned out they only had two rooms available so I ended up sharing the night with one of them, an Australian whose name I'm afraid now escapes me.
There wasn't much to see in Alleppey so that one night was enough. I was also thinking that I didn't have a lot of time left so I returned to Kochi for a few days. Back to my "luxury" room. Comparatively, that is.
It was then that I started to have difficulties buying train tickets back north to Goa and Mumbai. Even though Indian Rail has some tourist quotas it often doesn't help. I ended up at the Internet cafe searching the IR website for departures. Some of them had huge waitlists, even for the more expensive AC classes. Eventually I found the most likely services and then went down to the station to buy my tickets.
I travelled back to Margao and out to Colva Beach where I'd stayed earlier. Hotels had, by now, ramped up their rates for the season. I was a bit surprised as I didn't think they would increase them until mid-December. So I just looked around at likely candidates and stayed at a hotel that I could afford. It was nice and I'd recommend it if only I could remember it's name. Sorry! Another reason I should have written this sooner.
I kept a pretty low profile as I really had to save what was left of my money for my shopping, which I was leaving for the last part of my journey. You don't really want to lug tonnes of souvenirs around for three months, do you?
So after a week or so it was back to Mumbai by train once again. Arriving at 6am, I thought maybe I should see if there was any accommodation in the area around the railway station, just for a change from Colaba. The places I tried were all full. It was pretty incredible to see the number of people asleep in the streets. Whilst I'd seen it many times before, it hadn't been at night (or this time of the morning) and the number in this area was quite incredible. Guys who have their roadside stalls slept on top of their stock, while others slept on the footpath as rats scurried around them. Quite an eye opener, there were hundreds of them (guys, not rats).
Failing to find a hotel, I caught a bus down to Colaba and returned to the Maria Lodge, this time staying on the second floor. A few days of shopping for gifts for my friends and my Indian experience came to an end.
Highlight of the trip was seeing the wild animals in the Nature Reserve on the bus ride up to Ooty. I regret not taking some day trips around the area (and there were plenty on offer) as it really was beautiful there.
Hope I haven't bored you silly.
Love to all,
Alex (Timmy)
