15.4.2012

It  was the Vishu weekend, and thanks to lack of planning I had no tickets nor prospects of getting them. I was not feeling particularly excited about the usual weekend with bouts of lethargy attacks.  A momentary impulse in the morning led me into thinking this over. Some googling was done, a couple of enquiries were made and that was it.

I left office at 3:30, and started from home at 4. Preparational stunts were minimal, so most of the stuff that happened to be on my bed made their way into the bag. Thankfully I didn’t forget to take the spare batteries for the cam and the phone charger. Close to 15 minutes were lost at the petrol bunk near SEZ waiting in vain for someone to come and check up the air pressure in my bike tyres. I decided it could wait, and filled my tank to levels that it reaches on rare occasions like these, from the bunk just after the toll point after the Aakkulam Bridge.

I don’t know if this had to do with the occasion of a Vishu Weekend, but my initial 20-25 kms were a wretch. Damned traffic that stretched my patience to some very tight corners.  For a long stretch I kept chasing asses of huge trucks and KSRTC buses, and whenever I passed them, they would fart their big hot black smoke upon me. I stopped for prayer at some place near Neyyattinkara, and filed an extra petition heavenward for a reduced traffic on my way forward.

The weather was gloomy, just as per I'd have wished it to be, as the rain clouds had loomed over since afternoon. I would have preferred them to remain so but they did precipitate a bit later, and I promptly pulled over at a place called Kottaamam – no heroics against nature. Thankfully, it didn’t grow into the downpour as I had pessimistically anticipated, but resulted only in a small drizzle. Nothing could have been more helpful, since it cooled the air big time. I rode without the helmet for a while. The lighting was quite poor, and I was eager to avoid driving at night, so I decided my tea could wait till Nagercoil.

The tyre air pressure got fixed at a huge petrol bunk at Kuttivilai. I rode on, and the imagery on both sides of me started getting picturesque as I started getting close to Nagercoil. Small hillocks appeared in the background, always there, as in a RoadRash game.

[Note: Click on the pictures to enlarge.]

 There was this place, where they had like acres of banana cultivation on both sides where I stopped to take a good look and to stretch my back.

The road, which was quite good generally, save for a small stretch right after the border, started getting a little less smooth as I closed on Nagercoil Town.

The pit stop for tea never happened, as I went on, after a small ATM break. I reached Kanyakumari without any major hassles at about 6:45 PM. I did miss the sunset, and I hadn’t expected not to, but I stopped in the stretch of the very beautiful road of about 5 kms just before reaching Kanyakumari to see the sky lined hues of red, with the sun already sunk in to its retreat. I did take a picture, but it turned out to be blurred.

The big highway leads you to a T Junction, from where you have to take a left to reach the Kanyakumari Junction.  (ജങ്ക്ഷന്‍ ഇല്ലാത്ത നാടുണ്ടോ?).  I took a left and headed randomly into a small downward road where I could see a lot of lodges and hotels. Just as I descended and started moving slowly I was accosted by two guys saying “Room?”. Now, to tell you a fact I learnt from my experience. It is VERY hard to get lodging in Kanyakumari if you’re all by yourself and looking for a single room. The reason being that there were some suicide cases reported of late, and no boarder was willing to take a risk. Why not poison yourself at home, I ask. So I had enquired at a couple of hotels on the way by myself but they were not even ready to consider my case when they see me alone. So one of these guys whom I was speaking about walked with me to a hotel and asked for room, which was immediately rejected. He went to the next one, and made a case for me saying, “Bike! He came on a bike!”.  Cool. Apparently I’m not from the Suicide Gang. I’m just a random traveler.  I looked the part too. Dusty jacket, haggard face, disheveled hair, and tired eyes.  

“I need some ID”, the inn-keeper said.

I showed him my driving license.

“From Kerala?”

“Yes”.

“Whats the purpose of your visit?”

Man, who am I ? ShahRukh Khan at an American Airport?

“Sightseeing”

“I need to make a call to your home”

“Yeah, I am a seven year old kid”. Only I didn’t say that loud.

“Please dial this number”, says he pointing to the number in my license.

Be Damned! This will spill the beans. I had really no option other than that though.  I made the call home, summarized my situation to Mom who grew more confused with each passing second, and gave the phone to the guy.

“Rameez Rahman. Who are this guy to you?”

“Ok. Is it ok to give him a room here for stay?”

That was it. There were a lot of questions from the other end when he handed the phone back to me. I said I’d call later and cut the call. I tipped the guy who led me to the inn, and they gave me the key.

The room was on the first floor, and was quite nice, except that it was very hot inside. There was a double bed, a cupboard, attached bathroom (with running water, a luxury) and a TV.

I was about to go out from the room after Magrib, when I got the expected call from Dad. He freaked out, and I remained silent.

I went out after that, headed to the main market, and was looking for some place to park my bike, and ran straight into two policemen. Once again I had to take out my license, and then they made me blow into their nose to prove I was sober and they let me go.

Most of the shops displayed handicrafts, spices, and showpieces made out of shells and the like. I roamed about carelessly, stood for sometime before a stage just in front of the temple where a family was singing songs on the deity. My sister called then, and asked who was crying in the background.

I made the worst choice for a restaurant to have dinner after a lot of searching, as it turned out. Please avoid Sangamam Restaurant a miss at any costs – overpriced, tasteless food. Pathetic reason for a restaurant.

I retreated back to my room, watched 3 overs of the IPL Match after prayer and got sick of it. I took out the Vikram Seth travelogue, and slept sometime afterward. When I woke up at around 1, I heard shouts from the outside. They were a couple of guys shouting in hindi, frustrated and angry at the fact they weren’t given a room to stay anywhere. The guy who had helped me was seen with them, trying to calm them down. The thought of people who had ended their lives (perhaps in the same room?) wasn’t very comforting, so I had a disturbed sleep. The couple of times I woke up, I looked through the window to check if my bike was there.

I woke up at 5, and felt very energetic after the prayer, so I ventured out. It was still dark, but there were a lot of people on the streets, heading towards the temple I suppose. Some coffee shops were up and running, and I had a hot coffee. I walked around a bit, but it was another half an hour more for the spectacle to begin, so I went back to room. Damn I slept for about 35 minutes, and it was very much crowded when I reached the place to watch the sun wake up.

It was beautiful. And majestic. The sky kept changing its hues slowly, and looked like an artist’s palette. The Sun started to push outside, slowly and mightily over what was the confluence of the 3 major water bodies – Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and The Indian Ocean. I stood along the people, spellbound, even forgetting to take a picture until when it was almost full up in the horizon.

I rode along to some distance and reached a point at some height from the sea, where there wasn’t any crowd, but had the full view of the beautiful calm ocean. If the sight of that doesn’t humble you, then I don’t know what else does. I sat there for almost an hour.

Beautiful, eh?

The Light House

The Vivekananda Rock (left) and the Statue of Poet Thiruvalluvar

I returned to the main junction again, where a crazy queue had already been formed by crowd for getting into the ferry to take them to the Vivekananda Rock. That wasn’t in my plans anyways, so I started walking again. The shops were opening, but there was a milling crowd already on the streets – many of them taking the plunge into the sea at the other end, near the Gandhi Memorial. The Vivekananda Rock and the Thiruvalluvar Statue stood tall, basking in the morning sun. The sun was against me, so getting properly lighted pictures of the sea was very hard. (Ok, call it a lame excuse for my poor pictures.)

I went back to the room, had a bath and checked out from the room. As I handed the keys over, there was the guy who verified the amount of my suicidal tendencies (or the lack of it) yesterday.

“Good morning”, he smiled.

“Morning. Alive, you see”, I said.

He was apologetic and said that just one case could give them a lot of pain in the behind for a long time, that’s why they were taking no risks. I thanked him anyways for taking me in, and set off. I had food from the small vegetarian outlet right opposite to the mistake I made the day before. Tasty stuff.

My Tamil, very broken one at that though, was greatly helpful in asking for directions and for general queries. I headed to a small fort nearby Kanyakumari, called Vattakottai, about 6 kms from it. I passed through a couple of small villages, and reached the place. It was around 10:30 and the Sun was about to get to right above my head. There was no entry fee, and I went in. Here’s the wiki link for more info. What you see in the centre in the below pic, is a tank of water which, as the board outside the fort says, "supplied perennial water for defense personnel".

There’s an end of the fort that extends itself above the sea. This point gave me one of the most beautiful views of the sea I had seen in my life. I bet you the water seemed turquoise blue as it hit the shores, like you see in Maldives Wallpapers. I cant describe them well to express the effect, so I throw in a couple of pics.

I wished to stay longer there, but it was getting more hotter upon the top, so I had to retreat. For a more detailed account, please do read this.

I set off again, reached Kanyakumari once again, and started my return journey, very slowly. I had to enjoy the ride before the traffic became too crazy. 

The heat was bearable, the dust wasn’t. I masked myself with my towel at a point, and rode on. A couple of stops later, at vendors selling tender coconut under shade, I started getting the crazy traffic I had anticipated, and then there wasn’t any stops and I rode on, avoiding the saddlesore and as I neared the Trivandrum City, the traffic became unbearable. I reached Trivandrum City at around 1:30, and headed off to Black Pepper for lunch. I assume I were quite a sight after the journey since the waiter flinched a bit.

At the end of it, when I turned the machine off, the trip meter read 245 kms. It was sad, as I had miserably failed in the endurance test.

I am almost as much as tired as then from non-stop typing for now.

That’s all.