December 22, 2010
From Thrissur towards the coast
a night in Kodungallur
It's barely five, but as I'm awake it seems like a good idea to get up and do something and when I look out the balcony door, which last night faced the sunset, I see the moon is full and bright and in the same place more or less as the sun was when I arrived yesterday.
Before seven I'm outside and walk up to the Circle where the old Hindu temple is situated and take some more photos of its gated entrances. Only those of the faith can enter and it's a big walled complex and there are worshipers gathered around as well as people walking to get some exercise: not jogging, but looking purposeful all the same.
Breakfast is at the three-star hotel I visited, where they offered me a suite for over 2,500 rupees as there were no singles or doubles available and which I of course declined.
I had dinner here last night in the bar area and a bottle of Kingfisher to go with it and the dining room now looks completely different. Calm and peaceful with few people. Maybe I'm a little early as it's not yet eight. Or it could be the rates.
The head waiter recommends the Kerala buffet breakfast that's just 120 rupees a head and even though I'd more or less ordered the American special I take up his suggestion and enjoy a couple of platefuls of tasty hot food which is slightly spicy. The pineapple juice is freshly squeezed for me - the real deal.
It's time to go - to start riding to the sea. I'll head towards Kerala's coast and my goal is Cochin, but it's not clear which route is good to cycle along to get there.
However, there'll be no more busy roads if I can help it.
The hotel is on the north-south route and I make a left out of the hotel and go with the flow along the busy, tight street. Five or ten minutes later there's a left turn, just a narrow lane, but it's worth a try and down it I go.
There are bigger homes around here, tucked out the way and set in spacious gardens that are half-hidden by tall trees, with walls that offer some privacy. There must be some money around here.
There's no way of saying where these lanes will lead, but I keep veering south or east and after a while one spits me out onto a path leading back towards highway 22.
There's a wide river to cross and the the only bridge is in the distance, with bloody trucks and buses using their horns to wake the dead zipping across it.
The 22 has my company for a kilometre max' and then it's then another left turn off it, but after 20 minutes of riding it winds its way back to the 22 -- nice while it lasted, though.
Actually the 22 is better than yesterday's highway. That was crap big time. There's less traffic here and it's acceptable so I press on and while it goes up and down, there are no real climbs - the type to make you sweat.
At one small town at a junction I stop for a cold drink and sit inside the café and consume a freshly squeezed orange juice, two glasses of sweetened lemon juice, some sweet stuff that tastes like fruit cake yet has the texture of jelly, then an ice cream cone followed by a Cadbury's chocolate bar. It comes to less than 100 rupees. Who knows what this lot has done to my blood-sugar level,but I feel better.
The guy behind the counter says there's a temple I should see, seeing as I'm a tourist and all and suffixes that it's not far away -a couple of K down the side road -so I ride there and find it after a bit of messing around.
I'd describe it as a high-walled Hindu structure that looks old but I really have no idea as there's no info' board and I can't walk inside as I'm not a Hindu. Regardless, I cycle around the narrow path that circumnavigates its perimeter and that's me done being a tourist.
There's a hotel nearby, but it's not even two yet so I pedal back to route 22 and head south again. It occurs to me to make more detours, but as the hotel that a man told me about is only a dozen kilometres away I might as well stick it out and just get there ASAP.
The town with the hotel must be small as I ride through it and only realise so when I ask for it and the person points back where I've come from saying 5 km. Not to worry. I ride on.
At gone four a busy little place again not shown on my large-scale Nelles map has a hotel, says a traffic cop at the town's main crossroads and he points up the road that's signposted to Cochin and mentions 200 metres. Just the job!
It'll do. It's not the Ritz, but for what it costs I'm happy and pay the extra 300 or so rupees to have air con because it's been hot today and I feel frazzled and think it'll make the room more comfortable, which of course it does.
The receptionist gets me to fill out the usual form with all sorts of personal details and adds "profession" to it and also asks for my email address and I say this is bullshit and that I don't have email and write my job as that of being a "cyclist" which he disbelieves, but really what can he do about it.
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The porter says it's 70 km to Cochin, which can't be right, surely, and the man behind the desk tells me 50, which seems more accurate and therefore it should be a relatively easy day's ride tomorrow - one that'll allow me the time to get off the busy 22 and explore more of the meandering lanes where people wave and smile and where the pace of life is slower... certainly an escape from the annoying blast of bus and truck horns. That's the plan.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,158 km (1,340 miles)
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