Trivandrum, Kerala

After a long wait at the train station and a rather uneventful 12 hour train ride we arrive in Trivandrum, Kerala in the far Southern tip of India. The train provided an ample nights accommodation if a little cold as the air con blasted us all night.

Train accomodation. Not bad. Window included.

We check into our hotel - it looks snazzy from the outside, glass panels, mirrors etc - tacky on the inside. Our sheets have holes in them, one has a bloodstain on it and we find hair in our breakfast.
But on the plus side we have a window.

Trivandrum is a pass thru town on route to the beach resorts in Kerala. We decide to stay a night as we cant handle the mission of travelling again just yet. Trivandrum sprawls across a strip of land between the hills and the sea. Its spine is Mahatma Gandhi Road running for several kilometres from north to south, it contains, or adjoins, almost everything of interest, but beyond that, orientation is not so easy. Some streets are unnamed, few buildings are numbered, pavements are uneven or absent, and zebra crossings and most red lights are ignored by the omnipresent traffic. It's safer to hail an auto-rickshaw than to walk. I walk past a traffic cop doing his job on a busy corner, stoppping traffic, letting other traffic go. SO excited to see me he ignores his job for 20 minutes as we have a conversation about the world cup. After a while, I leave him and he is off back to directing traffic - how the cars must have missed him!

Kerala Coffee house cum amusement park!

The highlight is going to the local market where everyone wants their photo taken. They are almost lining up as we walk around the various fresh fruits, spices and produce. We should be sending vanilla pods home as they are dirt cheap here and I could make a fortune in the UK.

The other highlight is a round building/tower which has been converted into a Indian coffee shop. As you walk in you are on a ramp with the tables on your left as you walk up and up and up. Its rather odd and quirky but will make do for a sit down even if the person on the other side of the table is a foot higher than you due to the elevation. We also meet a guy called Andres there who was on his own and he joins us. It turns out that he is taking a night away from his family who are in Varkala. We are off there next so we agree to meet up.

Market stalls.. every vegetable you can think of and enough bananas from every indian