Time log of the trip. As events are unfolding. Mostly for us, but if you find it interesting dig in.[08:50] Woke up. We really didn't sleep well. AC was to strong. If it was off it was too hot. Cocoons paid off.[09:00] Breakfast. OK a bit of their special pancakes but nothing special. I guess the price of our first hotel wasn't that bad. The terase is really nice though.[09:30] Chatting with the hotel boss on which train to take. Where to exchange cash. We signed up for the backwaters tour for tomorrow.The Princess street where his friend with travel agency is. They are experts. They can help you get INR for $ and help you book a train.[09:45] Nap time. To get some more rest. Yeah we only woke up for the breakfast 😅[12:30] Woke up. Woke up once more in between a bit stoned, so had to turn the AC back on.[13:06] Writing the blog. Mobile internet is snail slow 27 kb/s even in Gorje in the middle of nowhere we have several Mb/s.[13:40] Shower and packing.[14:45] To the hotel rooftop to plan the days ahead and write a bit of the blog. Uploading photos is super slow 😭[15:35] Wrapped up writing the blog for the first day.See 2024-01-03 . All I need now is a good internet connection.[15:40] Got the hotel Wi-Fi password. Nice 5.6 Mb/s. Photos uploaded. Owner: "This is the doctor sir." To her son. 🤦 Well not yet ... [15:44] Off we go.[15:59] Got water for 40 INR. Lady was super nice. She's open till 09:30 in the evening. Maybe we get back early enough to fetch the water.[16:12] Jerca found a cheep nice clothing store, OK not so cheap for indian market but really nice local designer clothes.[16:28] Exchanged 250$ for 20,5k rupees. He's open 11 - 20. Maybe we come back. "No, I don't do train tickets, expert for that is around the corer." [16:31] At another info center.[16:44] Got the train to Kerala capital, formerly known as Trivandrum and now know as Thiruvananthauram. For 400 INR for both of us with 100 INR commission. "Take the bus at 8:30 to train station for 40 INR per person. Rickshaw is too much. You'll get there on time." [16:55] At the restaurant Fusion Bay, recommended by Lonely Planet:=> Yes this trip there are also photos of me. Can you belive that.[17:17] Got the food:[17:39] Lunch was good. Little too much. For me it was little bit un-spicy. We ordered the black tea and one guy took the order told it to the boss and boss told it to the cashier.Booked the hotel for Trivandrum in the meantime:Have the cash now since we are taking a train for 5 bucks to get there 😅[17:50] Got black tea.[18:04] Got back from a toilet. Outside of restaurant, first floor, 2nd door, there was a flood in the toilet. Not dirty, just a pool.[18:15] Off we go. Trying to walk to the ferry. Found 300 inr on the street.In Fort Kochi two or three streets besides Princess street are nicely pawed, the rest still in the making.[18:25] Picked by a rickshaw to get us to the ferry station for 50 INR.[18:30] At station. "100 INR to show you the spice market. Its open sir. The. Get you back to ferry." Hm I thought our host told us that the spice market is already closed. [18:48] OK so we saw one shop on the market the rest of it was closed. He took us to two shops. Of his buddies I guess. We got “out” of it by saying yes we come back. Got business cards. Again an experience. In the shops we were not the only europeans that they tried to haggle for. They had nice stuff but with inflated prices. But yeah basically a tourist scam. As our host said. Market is closed in the afternoon. On What's App the driver has the photo of his wife. He's hoping to give us a tour on Monday. But we are leaving already, but we forgot to mention that 🙈[18:52] Ferry station. Waiting to get tickets but nothing is happening. We wait. No problem.[19:10] On the boat. 12 INR for two people for one way bot ticket. Jerca had a haggling experience. People bypassed her. The ticket officer didn't want to take 500 INR. Barely took 100 INR. But they are effective. In about 5 minutes they got 100+ people to pay for the ticket.In retrospect, it makes sense they were annoyed by 500 INR if ticket was 6 INR per person 😅[19:20] Ok lights off on the boat.[19:32] At the end station. OK we go out through two boats.[19:40] Got water 2L 40 INR. Managed to change 500 banknote into smaller bills. I'll keep repeating this cause it took us way to long to figure out how to get cheep, OK water and small bills.[20:00] Tried going into the temple Ernakulam Shiva temple. One guy told us to go in barefoot and showed us where the water is to shower your feet. He told us that to the good it doesn't matter who you are. He has a point.Then a lady that stood by the door told us no, no. Only for Hindus. Since we weren't sure we rather stayed outside, barefoot.[20:06] Circle around the city center.[20:11] At a concert:Indian rock music.[20:20] On our way back to the boat: [20:29] Jerca just found a shop for her. I tried finding trousers for me without luck, either they were to thick or too short (yes I've got long legs) or they were a bit worn out.When we came to the women floor a male shopkeeper started following us and pressuring us to get sth, wasn't really fun soo we escaped out.[21:00] OK, the exit was here 10 minutes ago? Out through an elevator that was stuck in the ground floor. They were closing the shop apparently so the only way to get out was through a service elevator open on both ends 😅[21:07] Buying water for 80 INR. Being offered a rickshaw ride in the process.[21:09] Getting the ticket in the line. Gave 50 INR got back 37 INR. Cheep as hell.[21:12] Off we go back:[21:30] At Fort Kochi.[21:34] Got some chips for 40 INR yes for two packs.[21:35] Walking home. Got two rickshaw offers for 100. We said no 70 INR or we walk. We walked. We passed and then got another one in like a minute.[21:40] A rickshaw for 80 INR.[21:50] At hotel. Chat with the owner. Tomorrow you’ll be back around 16:00 from Backwaters. We were curious on our haggeling skills. "They usually ask for 60 - 70 INR from fort Kochi ferry for main city." The host told us.For the nord station in Erakulam it should cost 300 -400 INR to get there with Rickshaw. So the same as our train ticket to Trivandrum 🤦.[21:55] In the room making notes.[22:00] Shower, unpacking, snack.[22:45] OK so we realized that today the “travel agency” guy gave us the wrong tickets. Since 2S is the cheapest train seat. No AC, crowded and bunk benches.So we got exactly the opposite of what we requested, ... Should have read the lonely planet train section guide 🤦[23:50] We just wasted 1,5h on trying to figure out how to rebook the tickets. And because we don’t have an indian phone number the whole process is a nightmare.[23:55] I was really rattled. We then formed a plan:
Book a new train with VB service since we had no clue what we wanted.
Ask our current hosts what they advise us to do, how to book.
Go to the agency guy to get the ticket we actually want.
Try to set up the apps for train service booking once they come back online. There's an option for it if you are a foreigner.
[00:30] Writing the blog notes.[01:00] OK IRCTC web page again online. Manage to verify email, pay some sort of international registration fee, but can’t verify the OTP via mobile. Very frustrating.[01:30] Finishing the blog post from 2024-01-03.[01:50] To sleep. Way to late again. Need to get bit more effective with this blog post writing on the road. But if I compare it to the USA 2019 trip . I'm already way more effective. The note-taking process on the phone through out the day is very helpful. Jerca's not to happy with it, but she likes the blog posts 😅
