Road trip

As I signed off Moonlight II in Nice after the open day event and handover to the other Captain, I decided that instead of flying I'd be going to Greece by land. So I disembarked on a calm day and saw classic yachts at the Beaulieu anchorage.

s/s Delphine

I was surprised seeing s/s Delphine (built 1921) as she had been, according to some media sources, been laid up somewhere in Tunisia but obviously now had found a new Owner so she was back in the game. She did not look very shipshape up close but classic yachts always need a lot of TLC in order to get up to standard.

m/y Nero

Next I saw m/y Nero (built 2007) that is not a very old classic but built in China to this design, she looks the part without the age. 

Well in Nice by taxi I checked the timetables and was disappointed to discover there would be no trains east that evening so I booked a ticket to Milan for the next morning. Next I had to find a room and settled to a cheap and cheerful place next to the trainstation. I walked around town in the evening and could not find any appealing places to eat at so I just bought a ready-made sandwich at a 24h supermarket that then refused to sell me a small bottle of wine as it was after a certain hour. In France? Can you imagine. Did not take me long to walk a few blocks around the trainstation to find a hole-in-the-wall shop that sold me the bottle of wine instead.  

Nice train station

Next morning I was up on time and moseyed over to the trainstation, it is not a big affair so finding my train was piece of cake. Last evening I had bought online a continuation to Ancona so I would have a few hours to walk around Milan. Some hours later the train arrived Milan and everything there was huge. Unfortunately it was a holiday so all shops were mostly closed so I was just window shopping and walking around town like any average tourist.

Milan cathedral

Then it was time to head for the train station again and find my train for Ancona which was no biggie and off we went on time. The Italian countryside is not very interesting, lot of fields and country houses with afew cities in between with various factories visible. Coming to the Aegean coast the line was following it to Ancona sometimes almost in the sea.

Ancona

Ancona train station was a very worn out affair and I had to walk abt 1km to the hotel I had booked close to the port in old town. I walked past the quarantine castle and along the coast until I arrived the hotel. Very friendly service and I ended up having dinner there. Next morning I got up early and walked around the old town and palazzos discovering all the things worth seeing, Ancona actually has quite a lot to offer for the odd traveller.

Superfast at Ancona

Later in the afternoon it was time to pick up my luggage and get in the port, the boat was a bit late but eventually it arrived and started discharging it's cargo and until it was empty we had t wait on the jetty and it was scorching hot. After some time we were allowed to embark and I found myself a nice sofa to occupy myself on. It was an overnight trip so I had dinner at the a'la carte restaurant and ordered too much of the Greek food but it was vacation time.

Igoumenitsa

After having slept a few hours on a sofa in the buffet we arrived to the port of Igoumenitsa and I disembarked on the huge open field of tarmac, obviously it was thought the port would be a continuation of the highway or a much larger quantity of cargo was envisaged to move through. By the look of things this has not yet happened. I ended walking up to town and found the bus station to get a ticket for Athens as I did not fancy to stay a night here to explore. I was in luck, the K-tel bus left within the hour and soon enough we were on our way. The trip was quite comfortable and the roads were good, I missed the Rio bridge totally (if we even pased over it), I don't know. Some 5hrs later I arrived Athens and made my way for the metro lines.

Return to Mumbai

We woke up early and left Nagercoil for Trivandrum 3 hrs before the train was due to leave. We had our rally driver wannabe driving so we felt safe to reach on time (70 km trip). The traffic was light to begin with and we made good headway. I was still amazed with the amount of hospitals and schools in Tamil Nadu.

Loaded hay truck

This lady had her own road safety gear, a grinding mask

Apparently the illiteracy level is very low here compared to other areas in India and crime too due to the reason of religious upbringing (most schools names are preceded by Her Holiness School .... The Saint School .... ), so the kids here are very smart and have a knack for curing people. During these few days I must have seen a specialist hospital for nearly every organ in the body.

One of the many Churches of Tamil Nadu

After we passed the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border and were about 10k's into Kerala the traffic slowed down and finally stopped into complete gridlock. I wondered what is going on and the driver informed that we are at the Kerala Custom checkpoint. They check trucks that they have all the proper tax documents for bringing stuff into Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Gridlocked at the checkpoint

Sounds ridiculous but this is India and it is not one country, it is consisting of several states and they all have their own regulations. In New Delhi is only the Central Government. I once heard a discussion that if India would not have strong Central Government the whole system (i.e. country) would fall into chaos. Very much like Burma that also consists of something like 30+ tribes (states) but is ruthlessly ruled by a military junta.

One stop medicine shop: Western, Eastern and animal drugs

Anyway, we sat in the traffic queue for at least 45m and then we started making headway. I was looking at the watch but was not worried at this stage. Our driver were clocking in kilometers again and it seemed we were on time when the traffic came to a crawl at a busy intersection. The driver said it was the last bottle neck on the way. The clock was ticking and we started discussing plan "B" if we would not make the train.

Roadside breakfast

The intersection was guarded by Lord Krishna

Finally we passed the intersection and entered into Trivandrum where traffic was not all too smooth. We all were counting minutes now. The driver was making daredevil maneuvers on the road and the trainstation was still far away. We had something like 10 minutes left for the train departure when we passed the last bridge before the station, we raced over it and the driver turned left into the station and we exited the taxi, fast.

People at the bus station

On the rail road again

Richard grabbed a coolie to take our luggage and we followed him while Richard ran ahead to find the correct platform and to inform the conductor that we were coming. The coolie did not run, I don't think anybody runs with 30 kilos on his head and a few bags on his shoulder so we were just hoping for the best and fearing the worst. Finally we got to the train, found our compartment and loaded ourselves onto it. We shook hands with Richard and he said goodbye. The coolie asked for 200 Rs, so Richard took him outside to deal with, (he settled for 100 Rs). Once we sat down and managed to catch our breath the train started moving. We had made it in the last second...

Meeting cargo train

The return trip was the same as coming down, same chicken and rice and once we reached Maharashtra it started raining. There were no Naxalites and no derailings, so all was good. As we had agreed to meet up with Dubey for dinner at his pad we got off the next evening at Panvel. This time we had a taxi that could fit a bag into the boot as last time our stuff got wet and I was not taking any chances with the weather.

Paddy field

Plowing paddy with Oxen

In Khargar at Dubey's place we met his mother, wife, daughter and son. I had bought the kids some halva to treat themselves to. As we were tired of the trip we had an excellent dinner and pretty much fell asleep.

Touristing in India

As I still had some days of vacation left to spend I asked Jira whether she would be interested in joining me to go down south India to Tamil Nadu and meet Richard who was on his annual leave also. She said yes and we spent a week getting her Indian visa made. Cost was abt 4000THB via a travel agent, at least it saved us the time and hassle to go up to Bangkok and in the end I think it would have been more expensive.

Maharashtra paddy fields

Another problem was to get a flight ticket to India that would have cost triple the amount on my flight (Thai airways) but I found a same priced ticket as mine at Malaysian airways. So, kudos for them for flying people around cheaply and none for Thai trying to extort the max from their own people. Only minus was that we had to travel separately, then I also had to arrange train tickets from Mumbai to Trivandrum, return was easy but the departure we were on the waiting list. Thanks to Saini we managed to get those tickets as well all in rupees as we did not use foreign tourist quota (they have to pay hard currency).

Maharashtra

I arrived about an hour before Jira to Mumbai without any hassles and was waiting for her to land. After awhile she found me albeit I had been keeping a keen eye on the stream of people coming out of the airport. Then it was on to queuing for the pre-paid taxi to Khargar as we had agreed on staying at Saini's pad for one night. We arrived at midnight so it was just hello, shower and sleep for Jira. I sat up with Saini and discussed some job things.

Kerala

Next morning 10th July we had to leave early again for Kurla train station. The weather looked good but halfway to the station it started raining, of course our luggage was on the roof of the taxi as the dickey (boot) was taken up by the LPG tank. We arrived the station about an hour earlier of departure and found our seats confirmed on the tatkal scheme (short notice quota) and even beside each other in 3rd tier A/C. Dubey was escorting us and kept an eye out for bag snatchers, we found our compartment and settled down for the 1800km journey to Trivandrum.

In Kerala, note the lungis

Soon enough the Netravati Express train left on time and we were on our way. I called up Richard letting him know of our arrival. Soon enough the vendors (all licensed) started running up and down the aisles selling tea, coffee etc. This was not like the Rajdhani Express where all was included in the ticket, here everything went on cash payments. Lunch time came and we opted for the non-veg which was ghee rice and fried chicken with dhal.

Kerala landscape

Soon enough we passed Panvel, the last suburb of Mumbai and the Maharashtrian countryside spread out on both sides of the rail. Everything was as green can be with all the monsoon rains continuously pouring down. Peasants could be seen ploughing their paddy fields with Oxen and planting rice. Waterfalls and rivers cut the scenery at steady intervals. Soon it was dark and nothing could be seen. Dinner was served later and we had the non-veg option which was chicken and ghee rice with dhal. Then we made our beds and I pushed Jira up and I slept myself down below.

Netravati Express

Next morning we got up at at first light, same as all other passengers. Soon enough the chai wallas came around and other wallas selling Pao's and Samosas for breakfast. The train made breakfast had the non-veg option that was a few slices of bread and a fried egg. The sun came up after the rainy Maharashtra and we were in Kerala already. One could see men walking around in their lungis and the script had changed.

Netravati Express

As the day went by we came more south and the landscape had more rivers crossing the rails. We also could see more in land lakes that are called backwaters as many are accessible from the sea. The day was really long and the train was running late due to having slowed down the previous night, also in Kerala this train was stopping at every station. Finally we arrived around 8pm and at the platform we were met by Richard and his son Ashley. Soon enough we were ushered into a white Ambassador taxi and off we drove towards Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu.

It was dark already so there was not much to be seen except at times big crowds of men gathered around wine shops getting their evening fix. We passed the border into Tamil Nadu and the road became narrower and interestingly the roadsides became littered with hospitals. After about an hours drive later we arrived Nagercoil and the taxi drove to Hotel Canaan. The reception area was full of Jesus pictures and bible quotation that I got a feeling of being in a church than a hotel but nevertheless it was a hotel. We had some late dinner and settled down for sleep.