27/09/2013

Could only barter 50 rupee off the taxi drives 350 initial offer, but every little counts I made the effort to stress trivandrum station not varkala and I was away. Not going to lie it was slightly nerve racking, not for the fact the driving was absolute MENTAL, kind of like ordered chaos where the horn is king, but the fact I was bricking it cause I seemed to be travelling further than I thought it would be. We went down smaller roads etc and I was worried in case he was gonna drop me off somewhere I didn't want to be and demand more money… but we got arrived shortly after so these must have been shortcuts. I went into the lodge to find 'we are fully booked' despite having reserved a room. This eventually got sorted and the rate was 435 a night, with a 500 per night deposit (I get the rest back later), cheaper than what I had been quoted on the email. Was shown to my room and was abit stunned, (as seen in the vid I guess). Clean, but very basic and small room. Guess the enormity of the task had dawned on me and everything seemed all at once. Having studied culture shock for my dissertation for the last 2 months I guess this was it lol! The real maccoy. Didn't dare go to sleep in the terminal in case I had missed my flight, so was dying to go to bed, but I thought it would be best to tell mam and dad I was safe so went for a quick shower then went to an internet café round the round. 30 mins 10 rupee!! Yeah! Was really good hearing the support messages on facebook and made me proud. Got a slap up meal for 90 rupee, rice with lots of sauces on a palm leaf lol!!! Came with a drink and poppadoms. Was mad to see the locals it with their hands. Bought some water for the room and hit the hay. The rooms got air con but is far too loud, and it's not too hot without it.

Just woke up, my mind is more cleared now and am feeling raring to go. Its 7:50pm now. I have sorted my room things/etc, played on the vita for a bit, and now am writing this blog on the laptop. Need to sort phone and trains tomorrow. The fun side like the local zoo can wait lol. For some reason the max stay here is 3 days so need to step to it. Overall its been a great insightful day and this is the start of something special. See you guys next time. Love Mark x

28/09/2013

Today was both frustrating and enjoyable. Chased endlessly for local sim card but to no avail. A guy in the hotel said it would be difficult for me to get one as I am not an Indian national, something to do with safety grounds, but I gave it a go. Walked to East Fort (next to big temple) where there are lots of phone shops. When asked if they sell sim cards all the people instantly dismissed me and said no. Hmmm, pretty strange for a phone shop not to sell simmys I thought! They would constantly point me to the next shop down the road, but would only find the same answer when I went. I eventually found one who was quite game to help, as long as I had passport, visa and photo ID as well as reference from an Indian. So mooched back home, got copy of passport and went to a shop to print the visa copy which I didn't have. Went to hotel can got a business card of the hotel. Went back to phone shop to find a different guy this time who didn't look as helpful. Shown him my stuff, he rang the hotel, everything seemed fine. Then he asked for passport picture. Damn! Left it in the hotel. He then sneakily claimed it only activate on Monday (the day I left) so I said in the morning, then he changed his tune to only on the afternoon. Couldn't decide if it would activate remotely or if I had to physically go to the shop. So what the heck… I went back, got the pics… was worth a 100rupee punt. Eventually did this to find the passport photos were 'too big'. But was a blatant excuse. I eventually had to cut all loses and decided to move on…. However tried one last time at a small shop that said come back at 6pm, where by now it was 5pm. He said 30 more mins. I said ok and went for a mooch just down the road where I found a strange temple. Whilst looking the first white guy I had seen walked past. Turns out he was Dutch and we had a really good craic on! Was mint talking to another European. He had been out here 3 weeks with his Indian missus. I asked lots of questions and he gave me lots of advice. We bought coconuts from the local stall, took our shoes off and entered the temple, where we did in Rome and smashed the coconuts off the wall for 'good luck'… apparently. There was a small sacred room at the back but Hindus and women could enter. I eventually left the Dutch guy and went to a massive temple down the road, was really nice but again only Hindus could enter. Which quite obviously I could have been for all the guards knew, but I guess it was my skin colour which said otherwise. By this time it was 5:30pm so mooched back to find I wasn't allowed a sim card YET again, this time because I did not know the names of the people in the hotel. That was definitely the last roll of the dice… no sim card for me, certainly not from Trivandrum anyway. Got some bait for 30rupee, listened to some tunes in the room and hit the vita once again.

29/09/2013

As usual I woke and got my slap up meal for 90rupee from next door then proceeded to the internet café. Had a gander at the online time reservation system, which doesn't look too difficult as long as you had an account with ITDC, a central site which all the other booking reservation sites go through. A site called cleartrip looked most clear. The difficulty however is that on sign-up you have to give an Indian mobile number to receive a verification code, however as cleartrip explains there is a way round this, as long as you send them a scan of your passport for their perusal they will send you this mobile code via email instead… was never going to be that easy was it!

Asked the fam for them to sort this, and received a call from them later. Although it would have been costing the arm I was holding the phone with, and the leg I was standing on, it was nice to hear their voices. I explained I was going to travel to Varkala tomorrow by train, and would book accommodation on arrival.

Later on went back to the internet gaff where I got chatting to a nice guy from New Delhi who was down on business. He was very concerned and shocked about my struggles with my sim card, and was somewhat furious with the local phone shops and hotel who were reluctant to help me. He said to go to the Kerala Tourism Development Cooperation office and ask for advice. He was a genuine guy and he gave me his email address, and said if I ever needed more advice to email him.

Went to the KTDC office but was met by some youngens who were seemingly paid to do nothing but sit in the nice air con room and look at their phones. Chocolate fireguard.

Anyways, bought a nice new bag which has two straps instead of the satchel which can ache the back, 400rupee, not too shabby I guess put could have had more off I reckon. Still working on it!

Got a nice masala dosa for 50rupee from the skran place, a sweet pankacke with a nice potato-y flavoured mush (I think) inside. Bargain!

Stripped out my satchel into the new one, and tried to shed some of its weight, from an unneeded pair of earphones to a secondary pair of trainers. Nothing but dead weight. Nice pressie for one of the tea boys tomorrow maybe. Trivandrum has been great, didn't get to go to the zoo but hey ho. Oh! And also seen a kid wearing a Sunderland top!!! The stripes went the wrong way and the badge was blue, but the kid had the right intensions! He'll go far.

Packed my bag ready for leaving early the next day.