Sandwich Day

Due to the early rise the day before I woke up early again. Although check out time was only at noon I had packed up my belongings a lot earlier and soon got to work with making changes to my trip in the North: I had talked to people and found out that Delhi would be worse than Mumbai and thus best to be avoided. A randomly met Delhi-native tourist guide recommended to run to Jaipur as soon as I get to the capital, and travel from there on to Agra, eventually having no more than one day in Delhi when getting back for the flight out of there.

Best first I would go see Trivandrum further South in Kerala. My flight was at 17:50, so there was still some time to kill. After taking care of my bookings and visiting "Salt & Pepper" once more for lunch I went to have another Ayurveda massage, but this time just for my foot. It was still a bit swollen and although the range of motion was getting a lot better there were still some constraints. To be honest: I'm not too fond of the Ayurvedic way, there was simply nothing else available. It's like softening the surface of a dried up clay statuette with water; it will blur the shapes and doesn't really work the structure of the body. - A guy in his 20s rubbed the ankle wherever I told him it hurt, and wouldn't let me go until I told him it was better... And when I walked away, I noticed that it was!

Then finally I paid a visit to the St. Francis church that was just next door from my homestay. It was more roomy than I thought, but not too big. I liked the plain white walls and the very simple design of the stained glass windows. In any case a lot less pretentious than the neighboring basilica that I had visited already two days ago.

And again I needed another bag. The one I had bought in Mumbai only about a week ago already lost zippers and couldn't keep his seams together. Going round in a shop on the way to the airport I found one with the same functionality albeit a bit bigger. But after all it's a product of Kerala. If it only lasts!

We drove through Ernakulam, the city on the mainland. - Nothing like the village of Fort Cochin. It screamed with capitalism. There were vast billboards of people with Indian features but very white complexion advertising silk, jewelery, food. Not just along the highway, but also in the town center, sometimes just too big too see. And stores with the entire front side of the building working as a shopping window: The street had become a sidewalk.

I was an hour ahead of time and used it for dinner. Uh, I was hungry! At that point I didn't know they were gonna serve a snack pack on the 40 minutes flight, so I gorged myself on the sandwiches of the snack bar at the gate. I wasn't able to get an earlier flight, so takeoff was at sunset. The plane rose to a level where it lined with a bank of clouds on the horizon, making the grayish blue land of dusk beneath look like a deep see landscape. Eventually dots of lights appeared in the deep. We sank and approached Trivandrum: The dots made the sea off the coast look like a starry sky. Fishermen.

Again I had arranged a pickup. I was surprised to find myself in an 8seater Opel with just 40000 kilometers. There were a lot of modern cars around, undented cars. And they didn't behave as pushy, either. Unlike I had guessed things were more accommodating down South!

The hotel featured a fancy marbel staircase (with a carved railing) and a giant room, its bathroom being big enough for an entire Basketball team to shower. However, the space was badly used, the sink and a tiny wooden cabinet being pushed into a corner. I unpacked the soap and wanted to dispose of the wrap. I found the garbage can in the corner at my feet, but with its pedal pointing away, so I bent down and banged my head against the corner of the cabinet. I was furious, mainly because this was so unnecessary given all this space! The cabinet didn't really hit my head, rather than scraping off a junk of my sunburned skin that had started peeling during the day. - I continued on to the shower and opened the tabs, but there was no hot water. I picked up the phone to call reception, but it didn't work. Rats! After a hefty complaint in person (take into consideration I didn't sleep a lot), the appliances soon did their job, and the tan of my face washed off like crusty makeup. - Tomorrow I would have another chance.

The area of the hotel (a mansion with only six rooms) was rather noble, a bazaar of advocats and doctors. No odors from the water drain along the alley that usually smelled of sewage and decay. But regardless, even here I saw a the shape of a jumbo sized rat run across the street and squeeze under a gate. - On my nightly stroll I noticed two things about the map I had: I had underestimated the scale, and there were streets missing on paper. I have a sound confidence in my sense of direction, but these bendy alleys that ran for hundreds of meters before the next junction appeared had me all mixed up. - I was happy to finally get back.