We left Varkala for Thrissur by train, passing by the vast lakes of Kerala. The vegetation is just so beautiful…palm trees, banana trees, flocks of egrets, bright green paddy fields. So much better than driving down the highway which is currently chockablock with road works.
There is something magical about Indian trains with the song of the chai wallahs constantly walking up and down the length of all the twenty carriages selling every kind of drink or snack you can imagine.
A minute after we had boarded the train we were eating biriani for lunch!
We came out of the wrong entrance of the station, as we were so far at the back of the train, and found ourselves in the mayhem of the rickshaws but eventually found Kavitha and Rajesh who had come to meet us.
It was lovely to see them again and they whisked us back through all the mad Thrissur traffic to their spacious house on the edge of town for tea, toast and jackfruit cake!
We are very happy to be back in Thrissur…there are very few European tourists but everyone smiles at us and asks where we are from!
On Saturday we went into town to explore. First we walked around the a Skywalk, an overhead air conditioned walkway that goes right round a massive roundabout…so we could look down on the hustle and bustle of the traffic that is so typical of India! Underneath nestle all the vegetable markets.
Thrissur is centred around the Vadakkunnathan temple , set in a huge park and circular road both called The Round.
We set off in a rickshaw to meet Kavitha at The Women’s Food Court…but the driver couldn’t find it so we went round and round The Round …but he didn’t charge us extra…he said it was his mistake!
Fish fry and amazing gooseberry and ginger juice for lunch!
On Sunday we went back to The Round to meet up with two art students, Jinesh and Sneha, who had offered to show us the temple and the elephants. The park is full of huge banyan trees, with a circular concrete around each one, perfect to sit in the shade and eat ice creams!
Then we wandered towards the elephant enclosure, while they showed us their sketch books…they had been drawing the elephants the day before! Jinesh rang the manager and wangled the opportunity for us to go inside.
Such beautiful animals, unadorned, smaller with a pink face and calm, the other huge and aggressive, waving his bamboo shoot lunch in the air. We kept our distance.
A perfect ending to an incredible day!
