I'm curently in Trivandrum killing a little time on the internet before catching a night train to Goa. Once there I'll seek out a quiet place and hopefully relax for three days before heading up north to Mumbai (Bomaby) for my final two days of India. From there I'll fly to Bangkok to start the S.E. Asia segment of this journey.
Yesterday I took a boat cruise through the backwaters of Kerala from Alleppey to Kollam. From there I took a taxi with 4 other travelers to the sea cliff resort village of Varkala. Kerala is known for an extensive network of channels that form inland and extend to the coast. Along the channels you can see a much different way of Indian life. One of the more popular ways to experience the channels is to rent a rice barge that has been converted to a houseboat. You can rent for one or several nights but it's quite expensive as a single person. As a group it's very affordable. I debated stopping in Alleppey but the backwaters interested me and I thought it would be ashame to at least not try to find a way to explore some waterways.
I decided to see what I could find so I checked into a funky place for the night and had a look around. the best option I was able to come up with is a government run tourist boat, run by DTPC, that takes 8 hours to travel south to the town of Kollom. The cost was 400 rupess ($8 USD. From what I could tell it would be very scenic. The office that I inquired at just told me to show up at 10 am the next day if I was interested. That evening I met a French woman by the name of Angela that was staying at the same place as I was. She had inquired about the same trip and thought it would be good. I decided to go for it.
When Angela and I arrived at the boat there were only 4 other passengers for a total a six plus a host, boat captain, and helper. We all got on the boat and were ready to go when they asked us for a 100 more rupees because there were only 6 people. Three of the passengers were German and refused to pay extra. The host threatened to cancel the trip because he claimed they needed to have at least 10 people. I was ready to pay the extra 100 but I let the Germans handle it. I could tell they were very experienced with dealing with these kind of things. The host made another call or two and came back saying, "Ok, 400 rupees". That's India. Always trying to get a little more out of you. Often they do.
The trip proved to be great. The boat was a really nice old fashioned wood variety. It was perfect for our small group. I really got to see a lot and we stopped at two places along the way. We passed homes, small villages, and people transporting items on boats not much different than they did a 100 years ago. Some of the waterways were wide but we passed through many narrower channels lined with palms. The company was good as well. The two 50 something Germans and their 16 year old son were very well traveled. The woman had some wild stories of driving trucks from Europe to Nepal when she was younger. The day was really going well. It was nice and relaxing until I began to loose my vision.
I've been covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. It all kind of caught up with me as I came down with one of the worst visual migraines I've had in a long time. I don't get them often but they seem to come out of nowhere. Fortunately I don't have painful migraines. Just visual migraines. It starts with a flash then all of a sudden I can't see very well. My vision is obstructed by squiggling flashing images. This time it was to the point where I could hardly see. Fortunately it was at the end of the ride as the sun was setting and I was in good company. We were all heading to Varkala and the Germans had already arranged a taxi for all of us. It was nice to not have to think as we piled into the large sized vehicle. After about an hour my vision began to clear but I was left with a heigtened sense of smell. As we rode with the taxi I was bombared by the scents of India. Burning garbage, exhaust fumes, dust, incense, etc. along with the hectic pace of rush hour. Being back in the madness of India helped relieve my migraine. Go figure. By time we made it to Varkala my vision was fine but I was kind of out of it. No worries. The Germans had reccomended a place for me to stay and knew where to go for dinner.
India has been a wild ride and today I feel like I've had my fill but that doesn't mean tomorrow I won't be thinking I could easily stay longer. With less than a week left I plan to take it as easy as India will allow. However, I have to admit that I'm looking forward to getting back to Bangkok. Ironically, I know I can really relax there. India can be a challenging place to fully relax.
Well, In three hours I'll be riding the rails again. This time on an especailly nice train. The Rajdhani Express. I've chosen 2AC and all meals are included. Looking forward to falling asleep on to the rhythm of a train rocking back and forth. On to Goa.....
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