Kanyakumari-Ernakulam
Thursday, November 17
It was lovely waking up at 6:30 am to the sounds of the waves lapping on the shores and the sun rising outside my window. (see photo).The fishermen were setting out to the sea in their boats and the sermons from a local church was blaring through the loud speakers in Tamil.
We were at the southern most tip of India where the Bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean join. We managed to get down by 8 am and took a couple of pics. by the edge with our bikes. (see photo)
Felt much lighter this morning. somehow felt that the hard parts were behind us and we set off to Ernaculam which was about 350 km away. Joe had organised a traditional kerala breakfast (see photo) of Idiappam with mutton stew and poories with potato curry in Trivandrum. So we got going, leaving the evergreen Kanyakumari for even more greener pastures of Kerala. The Kerala state border was about 80 km away and Trivandrum was only 20 km from there. We comfortably reached the Trivandrum tennis club by 10 am for breakfast. Joe’s friend Dilip had organised everything and it was a very yummy breakfast. Eager Joe had also arranged for lunch in Allipi which was only another 200 km away.
The road there was fine but the traffic was fairly aggressive on that 2 lane highway. It felt like Kerala was one big town, with no breaks in between. We reached Allipi by around 4 pm and were led to a toddy shack about 10 km away from the main highway. Toddy is the local drink which is the sap from the coconuts in the mornings and in the evenings in clay pots. If left out in the sun, it ferments and the alcohol content goes up. I had wanted to try the fresh kind. The food was all kinds of seafood (see photo) which to my dismay was way too spicy. So i barely had much. besides, i was still quite full from breakfast.
I was just eager to get to Cochin which was still 60 kms away, before dark. I have been to Cochin before many times and have stayed in the fort Cochin area which is quite quaint and interesting. We were staying the night instead in Ernaculam which is about 10 km from Cochin. The sun set as we got going and the highway opened up in to a 4 lane highway. But there was so much smoke and pollution that the visibility was very poor with the headlights. Was relieved to reach our accomodations that were set up in some service apartments by 7 pm. They were clean rooms and bathrooms with hot water and that was fine with us. The food service was pathetically slow and was frustrating.
Got to sleep by midnight.
