Train ride to the Western Ghats

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  Varkala, Kerala, India
Friday, March 3, 2006

The lonely Planet guide books tells us that there is a metre gauge railway which runs from the Keralan town of Kollom (pronounced Koylom) for a distance of about 94km to the town of Shencottah, which is situated in the range of hills to the east known as the Western Ghats. These hills form the border with the state of Tamil Nadoo. The book says that the view on the ride is very scenic, so Maire and I asked our taxi driver, Raffi to take us on the 1 hour drive from Varkala to Kollom so that we could catch the morning train at 0815. The train only has one class of carriage and there were only a very few padded seats on the outward run (and none at all on the return journey!) The journey was supposed to last about 4 hours but because we had to wait to wait for the single track line to clear the outward journey lasted nearer 5 hours.

We did not actually get into the hills for a couple of hours and Maire and I really just wanted to look out of the windows and enjoy the views but one fellow passenger had other ideas. He wanted to know EVERYTHING about us...names, nationality......I suspect he would have asked our inside leg measurement if he thought I would tell him! We tried to be polite but by the end of the journey he was becoming rather wearing. To compound the problem we also had possibly the two worst behaved children that we have encountered on the journey so far in our compartment. The young girl was extremely spoilt and very bored by the journey. She seemed intent on making everyone's journey a misery which she did by throwing temper tantrums and trying to hit or kick her mother whenever she tried to control her. I am not someone who normally advocates corporal punishment but I would happily have clipped this particular little monster around the ears myself!

Eventually we arrived at our destination and found it to be a small town in the hills with nothing much of interest there except the local scenery. We took a rickshaw and asked him to take us to somewhere where we could get some lunch. Unfortunately the only local place was a small cafe which is normally the preserve of the local men. The food is all eaten with the hand (no knives and forks here!) This is a skill that Maire will never master and she does not even like to see me doing it! However, having been taken there I really thought that I should order something. The owner brought me a mutton birrianni served on a banana leaf plate and I ate it by squashing the rice and meat into small balls with the right hand and sort of "flicking" the balls into my mouth. I have Raffi to thank for learning that particular skill on our taxi tour of last month. Maire had a soft drink while she waited for me and when I had finished and paid the grand total of 50 rupees for our lunch, we took another rickshaw back to the station. Maire was clearly not very happy at the attention her presence had excited in the cafe. Several men could hardly take their eyes off her the entire time we were in there. We were being stared at so much that I had to check my trousers to make sure that my zip was not undone!!!!

Back at the station our train was on the platform and we sat and waited about 30 minutes for the train to draw out. We had a compartment to ourselves at the beginning but after a couple of stops a group of schoolboys boarded the train. They had seen us from the platform and the entire group of five or six boys made a beeline for our compartment and simply sat and stared at us. They were only 11 or 12 years old and there was no threat but it was very disconcerting. One of them started to talk to us which we knew would inevitably end in them asking for pens or rupees. Maire replied to them in Irish in the hope that they would get bored and move away.....but they didn't. Eventually they reached their stop and they all trooped merrily off the train doubtless to tell their friends of the strange beings they had encountered that afternoon.

As the train went on more men got on and once again we were subjected to yet another cross examination. What are your names? Where do you come from?....It was as if we were the first tourists they had ever met.....and we were both rapidly tiring of the whole game. Once again we pretended we could not speak any English and eventually we were left in peace to complete the journey. Raffi met us at the station and found the whole story very amusing. He explained that the people on the train are mostly Tamils and they do not see many strangers.....he said that Maire was possibly the first woman to venture into the cafe and that is why she was stared at. Still, at least in the time when we were not fending off the local's questions, I was able to take some photos and I shall put some of the better ones on the photo page.

On Sunday we are going to a wedding, Raffi's sister is getting married. The family is Muslim and this will be the first Islamic wedding that either of us has been to. I am also looking forward to meeting Raffi's English "boss" who is flying out tomorrow especially for the wedding.

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