Kochi is the place...

Great, I see my previous post published normally, sooooo, moving on to what happened the last two days, let me start with yesterday morning’s “inspiration” I had to get off the train at Kollam. I took the morning train from Trivandrum to Kochi, I sat on the open door’s steps enjoying the view on the left side, on the side of the lakes and the Arabian Sea, so, the moment we arrived at Kollam, I remembered something I had read in my guidebook, something about a boat that takes eight hours to take you from Kollam to Alappuzha, following the route through the famous Keralan Backwaters, so I told myself, “come on Dimitris, be spontaneous, go for it”, and jumped off the train (literally, as I made my mind up the moment the train started moving) and walked towards the starting point of this eight hours boat trip. On the way to the jetty, some kilometer and a half from the train station, it looked strange how few cars there were in the streets. I mean… if you have spent 13 days in India, in “the roads are always full of vehicles” India, the lack of them just… strikes you. Anyhow, the answer to my question came when I arrived at the jetty. How lucky was I?!!! Yesterday there was a pan-Indian strike, and among others, the people working in the mass transit system in Kerala, the State Kollam is, were on strike too. Still, the guy at the tourist office told me that if 15 people gathered by 10:30, asking to take the excursion to Alappuzha, the boat WOULD leave. Hm… We argued in a very civilized way about what kind of strike is this, when you say “I am on strike, but if 15 people come for the boat trip, I will work”, and after realizing that in India “being on strike” has a different meaning than… say… in my own country, Greece, I took my disappointed bones and walked back to the train station to catch the next train to Kochi. I had just missed my one and only, maybe, chance, to make this backwaters trip… What the heck?… Universe is supposed to conspire in favour of those who dare, no?! Oh well… Several hours later I was, finally, at Kochi, or, to be more exact, to Ernakulam, the mainland part of the city. Fought for about an hour to find a room (someone explained me that this is full-full season for Kerala), and after that I went for another loooooooong walk, despite the bubbles on my feet killing me… I didn’t want to miss this unique, really, chance, to see an Indian city’s streets empty, because of the lack of cars. No buses, no taxis, no auto rickshaws, only a handful of private cars, and some two wheelers, who, by the way, had a heck of a day, serving as unofficial taxis. I mean… they would pick up people from the street, and give them a ride to their destination… This is how I myself went from the northern train station to the southern, some two kilometers away. The guy was even kind enough to not ask for any money. He did ask me to go to his place for a couple of brandies though… Come to think of it, maybe I was rude rejecting his offer… I mean, he looked really… OK, so the least I could have done, was to ask him if he is married. I mean… after having dealt with a couple of… weirdos the previous days (read my previous post), I just felt that this one was the same case, but now that I think of it, maybe, just maybe, I misjudged him. Anyhow, around 6pm I felt exhausted. I mean… exhausted, I could hardly keep my eyes open, so, believe it or not, by 6:30 I was already making zzzzzzzs… Earlier I had seen a temperature board saying that it was 39.9 Celsius(!!!). I don’t know if it was right, but if it was, it kind of explains the fact that I sweat too much, lose kilos, and get tired after walking for… I don’t know how many hours… The good thing about falling asleep that early yesterday, was waking up equally early this morning. After a grrrrrreat breakfast at Indian Coffee House, a local chain which I prefer to Café Coffee Day and Barista, the other local chains (at Indian Coffee House the waiters are dressed in turbans, the atmosphere is much more… local, and the prices are ridiculously low), I walked to the jetty from where I caught a boat to Kochi, the peninsular part of the city. Ladies and gentlemen, I can easily say that the Fort Kochi area is the most… pleasant place in India I have been to up to now. No serious noise problem, houses that remind you of Holland, Portugal and England but with an… Indian touch (palm trees ALL over), the sound of the little waves hitting the shore, the sight of the fishermen working their magic to handle those famous Chinese fishing nets… quite alleys to walk… beautiful, just beautiful… It’s 11am, I am staying on this side of the city until late in the afternoon, but having walked already for more than three hours I felt like taking a break, so… there you have me.
Tomorrow early in the afternoon I am taking the train to Goa, where I will be spending four days. To be honest, I am already searching for ways to change my Goa-Mumbai train ticket, so as to spend extra days at Goan beaches and less days at Mumbai. After having been to every single huge city in South India, I just feel like spending extra days in cute, chill-out places/beaches, and less time in Mumbai.
Sending my warmest greetings to all of you!