Time log of the trip. As events are unfolding. Mostly for us, but if you find it interesting dig in.[07:50] Woke up and started packing.[08:16] Paying the hotel.[08:20] Breakfast. Couldn't get more down the troth than two plain toasts. Went to bed way too late.[08:38] Got a rickshaw to Ernakulam town train station called Erakulum town. He said 40 minutes. Maybe we miss the train, but that's on us since we showed up late. Let's see.[08:43] Prices for the rickshaw. Whatever they mean.[08:53] Morning traffic:[09:00] India's new aircraft carrier. They are building them here. Kochi is one of the largest ports in India as drivers says. Everything is largest here 😂[09:15] At the train station:Station is rather small.[09:18] Ok we tried to upgrade. Not possible. Tried the get the tickets for the Vande Baharat (VB) express train. Those trains are faster and part of Modi's (India's prime minister) initiative to modernise and speed up the Indian railways. But was already booked. We do have a seat though on our train.[09:24] We got tissues for 15 INR. They reminded me of the handkerchiefs we got for lunch at school.[09:32] On platform. We got the almost last cart of the train.One friendly guy helped us out. He told us the wrong info, first. Then ran after us and showed us the Ixigo trains app, another India train app. He's going on the same train. Found our cart. Quite a lot of people, yes I know that train station looks empty:Train seat plan:[09:38] 15 INR for water.[09:41] On the platform. We’re both sweating already. And in the shade.[09:43] Train here. Cart was a bit more back:[09:54] On the train. Haha shit. We are like fish in a can. OK 4,5 h of this. One sir was kind enough to switch seats 💺 with us. Cause the train expert got us the ail seats of course. So not next to each other. Train isn’t completely full though:[10:05] Conductor came. He actually had out names in the system. Nice. OK it does smell of pee occasionally though 😅[10:56] Alright 1h and 15 minutes passed. I quit like it. Its nicely windy. Jerca isn’t to happy, but I quit like the experience. And yeah rickshaw to the train station had cost us the same as the train Kochi - Trivandrum. 400 INR.View from the train:We are traveling yes, the doors are open yes.[11:29] We need to get the tickets for three more train trips:
Thiruvananthapuram/Trivandrum Madurai
Madurai Tiruchirappalli/Trichy
Trichy Chennai
=> We are so happy with the pleasant experience that we couldn't wait to book more. Not kidding.[11:47] We checked the trains for the rest of the trip Trivandrum - Madurai - Tiruchirappalli - Chennai.[11:48] Snack time.[12:10] Since train emptied out a bit we have more space. Time to do some blog writing.We’ve got about 1h of travel time ahead of us. Believe it or not we might be at the final destination 30 minutes prior to what was planned. I thought this was India. Even in Slovenia trains are slower.[13:00] Took some photos. The train has doors but they are open.[13:30] Wrapped up blog writing. Was too hot for writing, but I managed to convert the day logs for all days and insert all the photos. So only polishing is left.[13:17] Our driver from two days ago:The one with 19:00 spice market experience that dragged us to the shops of his friends. They do follow up on customer interests. Some online stors should take note 😬[13:40] In Trivandrum. Not bad for 3,5 EUR's. Can’t feel my ass though.[13:45] Trying to get train tickets.OK so this was brutal:BTW Jerca looked fresh before that. I'm not sure how to describe this one. First we had to get a form at ticket counter 8, fill it out for each journey and then fill it out. OK we got that pretty quickly.Then we had to go in line. But the problem was that the counter was also for the bulk orders, and there were few folks in front of us that needed to book trains for 30+ people and came there with bags of cash. Again not kidding.OK so the line is moving. Slowly, and Indians are trying to bypass us. They do it really gracefully, sir I just look sth, sir I just ask, sir it's my friend. Aka, I'm skipping the line and you can wait. So at some point we made a wall with our backpacks and didn't give a shit when people tried to squeeze through. At some point we realised that the guy in front of us was buying 85 tickets, he had 4 pages of passenger names and the lady at the counter was logging them to PC one by one 🤦 And he had a slightly larger bag of cash.At some point locals realised that the line next to us was moving faster, so Jerca went there and I stayed in our line, after 5 minutes, the guy put up the sign:Lunch break 14:30 - 15:30.And left. Now our line was the only one left and squeezing and snooping intensified. One more guy managed to pass us. But then we decided to hold the line like spartans in 300.So those guys booked 30 tickets, with small pile of cash. Then was our turn. Then it turned out we didn't fill the forms properly so had to correct them on the fly. Address, which class for train, no food, ... The issue was that the ticket lady had a fairly destroyed voice so we didn't here much, luckily the locals that tried to bypass us helped. [14:55] Got all train ticket for 3580 INR. Yes it felt like a market, but was a pretty good experience.When finally left the line, totally destroyed two guys that "skiped the line" cause they had "a friend" in front of us came and said: "Have a nice trip." And shook our hands 😅 OK.Now to hotel.[14:57] Got rickshaw at the train station to the hotel for 42 INR. 2 INR for the commission to the dude in the ticket box, 40 to the driver, then at the end the driver wanted those two extra rupees since they were on the ticket, so we gave him 45 since we didn't have any change. It kind of felt wrong not to.[15:05] At hotel. WTF where's the entrance to the hotel. Ok found it. Yes I'm a bit irritated due to the train ticket experience.[15:10] At the reception. They have a really nice garden. Checked in.[15:20] Payed the first day for 8800 INR and booked the second day. They told us that the rickshaws here in Trivandrum, have to use the taxi meter. Great.[15:30] In the room unpacking. Ordered a snack. Palak Paneer and one Chapati. For around 1022 INR.[15:40] Shower.[15:50] Chilling.[16:00] Snack time.[16:33] Nap. Our trip really drained us.[18:30] Trying to wake up. Could easily sleep till morning, but we forced ourselves to get up.[18:40] Booking rooms for Madurai and Tiruchirappalli. We have now rooms for the whole trip. Ironically rooms on booking are disappearing really quickly. Which makes last minute planning really tricky. What was available was either cheap or higher but normal European hotel price range.[19:40] At reception. Sim. Laundry. Paying. Where to eat.[19:50] Packing clothes for laundry.[20:07] To dinner.[20:10] Searching for the driver. First one didn't see shit, he had my phone few inches from his phase and couldn't read the address. I'm not kidding, so lucky we realised this when showing him where we wanted to go. He drew off voluntarily. I guess he didn't want to put up with tourists, and who could blame him.The second one with the taxi meter:[20:30] At Villa Maya. Got the table inside. Little chilly, but they actually asked if they should adjust ac 🙏.[20:45] Ordered the food. It’s fine dining sure. But not to expensive.[20:52] We got the starter gooseberry juice. Which we realised that we have in the garden at home. Yes we have gooseberry in our garden, white, black and red.[20:59] 🪴 have those plants at home.Yes that's the toilet. There was pond on the ground.Oh and they are apparently the best Italian restaurant of 2023 of the region. Not willing to check though, cause we want to try local food.[21:30] Got the food. Was spicy so we ordered some extra nani. And then had too much to eat:Jerca really likes the chairs:=> Anyone has a clue where to get them?[22:15] They forgot to charge for Pepsi, so I went and said for fix the bill and they were confused 😂The bill came with this bell, if you liked the food you had to ring it:Outside was really nice, but way to many mosquitoes:[22:20] First 60 INR for 3L of water.[22:25] Off we go to get a rickshaw. No, no sir. After 21:30 night price sir, so no taxi meter. So we paid 150 and were at the hotel in like 3 minutes. Without taxi meter it was 15 minutes for half the price. So without taxi meter it's a race.[22:40] At the reception they told us that at night they charge more because it’s less customers, and they still have to get back to where they started. Makes sense.[22:50] Shower. Handing over the laundry. 🧺 for me it was the first time that I had to fill the form what I want washed at the hotel. Luckily Jerca knew what to do 😬[23:10] Blog notes in at my "office desk" for the next two days:[23:30] We watched the PrimeVideo show: Our Man in India. Yes we can agree:It' feels like India is trying to beat you up.[01:00] Trying to get a better train ticket, without success. Jerca booked the next hotel for Tiruchirappalli:[01:30] To sleep, again late, ... after a super eventful, day. It's really hard to keep track of what happened, even with the notes, I'm writing throughout the day.
