Friday, October 28, 2005

Slight Change of Plans

It seems that Indian busses, and British airways have the same people designing their seat configurations. No matter how I positioned myself, I still found that my knees weer somewhere near my chin.

I took a 2.5 hour bus ride south from Alappuzha, arriving in Kollam at about 7-ish. After figuring out that it was another -two- busses to get to Varkala (the nice beach town, and my intended destintion for the evening), I decided to stay here... Arriving in a big city at night isn't too bad, but arriving in a tiny town is a pain in the ass.

I took a rickshaw the 3km north of town to the "Government Guest House" (owned and ran by the Kerala state tourism board). Wow. What a place.

It was straight from the Raj (the British run India period), and was the mansion that the Viceroy lived in. My room had absolutely massive ceilings, probably close to 15ft high, and the bathroom was larger than some of the crappy bedrooms I've had here. Thats not to say it was 5 star, because it wasn't. My window had a huge hole in the shutter (filled with a pair of my boxer shorts), the hot water heater was broken, and the walls were less than clean.. However, for 6 bucks a night, it was a steal. Oh, how I loved those high ceilings.

I bought a Mosquito net a few days back, but had yet to use it, because it had been too cold (and high up) everywhere. However, the little bastards were out en force here, and so using carefully tied string, I pitched the net above my bed. In the end, it looks more like the tents that little kids setup in their living rooms (made of a blanket and a few chairs). However, it did the job, and so I had a wonderful night bug free.

In the morning (or well, afternoon), I took a speed-boat across the river to the bus-stand, and from there, onwards to Varkala!

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