Welcome to Kerala

Yesterday afternoon I made my way through an almost empty terminal at Cochin International Airport, Kerala. I was last off the plane because, since Muscat, I’d been pinned into my window seat by perhaps the oldest man in the world. He really was quite a character with his long white beard that matched his long white robes and when, with both hands, he hoiked his bony old leg up dead straight so that his heel rested on the headrest in front, I nearly spat my tea.

Once we’d landed, his wheelchair took such a long time to appear that I seriously considered leap-frogging him. But I didn’t, it seemed disrespectful, and subsequently found myself coasting through immigration, baggage reclaim, and customs and out the other side. Rupees from the ATM and a SIM card from the SIM card kiosk and there was my taxi-driver waiting to take me to the SeaHut Homestay. It was a fairly hairy drive weaving between and around tuk-tuks and scooters and other wildly driven cars but he seemed to know what he was doing and was amused by my wide-eyed wonder at just about everything I saw. I wish I could remember his name because I saw him again later that evening when he stopped in the street to say hello. He had his daughter on the back of his scooter and was on his way to Grandma’s house and we chatted like we were old friends.

And that just seems to be how people are here. Like Antonio Benson. Antonio didn’t quite save my life, but he felt like a life-saver in the moment and definitely went quite some way to making my day. Antonio caught me standing at a roundabout looking at a badly drawn map and shouted over to me, ‘Hey! What’s wrong?!’ I looked up and he was grinning broadly. This 23 year old, marathon-running, Vin Diesel fan must have known I didn’t stand a chance and walked me the half an hour into town all the while chatting away and giving me the inside scoop on what to do and see. These are just two but in such a short space of time, I’ve met so many amazingly kind and friendly people. Just like you all said I would.

Tomorrow morning I take the train 180km south to Varkala. Everyone says that the beach there is beautiful. Everyone also says, ‘Oh, you’re taking the train. You’re brave.’