Welcome To India

We made our way from Trivandrum airport right in the tip of Kerala up to Varkala, a small town 60km away. We decided it was best to get a train, even though we were offered the pleasure of a road trip with a crazy taxi driver the 1 journey. We were hoping we would get used to Indian style train travel in preparation for our many journeys to come. We felt we had the energy.

To get to the train station from the airport you drive through the arse end of town, then I realised, it wasn't the arse end of town, it was actually what the town was like. A visual feast of people washing; carrying large items on their head; taxis and mopeds fighting it out on the roads; and everyone just everywhere. Hundreds of people - all wafting their sarongs to cool down from the humid heat.

As we arrived at the train station, we were greeted by about 20 men in red nappies (shortened sarongs - but look very nappy like), all wanting to carry our luggage. Unfortunately for them, we surrended to none and carried our own luggage into the ticket office where we tried to work out which train we needed.

We queued in line and discovered that sharp elbows and a wide stance were needed to prevent the locals pushing in - a standard custom, only allowed by women, who get priviledges over men. Unfortunately, if you're not clearly stood right behind the person in front, it is assumed you're not queuing at all. There goes personal space for the rest of our trip.

The train to Varkala was a standard passenger train. Wooden seats with all the locals and with stops at every stops. Ideally we would have gone tourist class, but there's nothing like getting stuck into travelling with the locals. The 1.5 hour trip was painless. The only difficulty was knowing where we were and when to get off. It nice to say, we didn't really care. What if we missed the stop? No problem, we'd just jump in a taxi and pay about 15 pence to get back to our destination. It's good we both have this attitude - it allows you to deal with everything India has to throw at you.