An incoming text woke me at 4am. I had intended to be up early, change my flight to Sumatra* and on my way back to Nedumkandam by 11am but I didn't surface again until 9·30. Once I'd packed, I went present/souvenir shopping and the to try to buy the peanuts Jaya had asked me to bring back from Tamil Nadu. This involved using a lot of pedal-rickshaw use. Oh well, it may have been better than petrol or diesel engines.
*My Indonesian friend's family live in Pekanbaru and Padang, not at Madan as I'd previously understood.
I walked to the bus-station near to the city centre, to find that it only served local buses: the inter-city bus station appeared to be over an hour's walk away and I didn't want to use any more auto- or pedal-rickshaws. Madurai's station was nearby and reducing my bus backside-bashing appealed a lot, so I hobbled there in the blazing heat to find that there would be a train to Theni at 2·40. I thought that this would get me to Theni in time to get a bus to Cumbum and then go on to Nedumkandam. I'd forgotten how slow Indian trains can go.
There's a note in my diary about the climate:
FUCK IT'S HOT AND I'M GRIMY!
I wrote up my notes for my talk during the train journey. I was sitting in a compartment with an older man who was also going to Theni. When we arrived, he walked me to the bus stand (a kilometre along a disty track in the boiling heat) and made sure I got on the right bus. I wish I'd hired one of the autos for us - I had no other way to thank him for his guidance. Theni's rural areas seemed as dilapidated as parts of Mumbai.
On the bus, I sat and or stood as near as I could to the rear door because I was feeling very travel-sick. The conductor reminded me of Stalin except he smiled. Many other folk tried helpful but the English-Tamil barrier rather got in our way. The road surface was good apart from where there were detours around gaps where bridges hadn't yet been completed.
Along the way there were many pictures of Jayalalitaa and MGR. There were also many fires - apparently makeshift brick kilns. There were many, many rice fields. Above them, the Western Ghats towered: a seemingly impossible barrier to the magic land of Kerala.
I arrived at Cumbum around 6pm, to find the only bus going into Idukki district was going to Kumily (about 30km from Nedumkandam) but I hoped I'd be able to find a bus from from there to Nedumkandam. A soldier who was travelling to Vandiperiyar talked with me and showed me where to wait for a bus: about midnight there would be one to Kattappana and Ernakulam that would pass through Puliyanmala. From there I'd be able to get a night bus to Thookupulam (where tomorrow's event would take place so I'd just sleep there) or get an auto (or walk - it's only 10km) to Nedumkandam.
On the bus to Puliayanmala, the only vacant seat was underneath a loudspeaker: I suffered high-volume radio Tamil until my ears bled. When I got to Pulianmala, I went into the only sign of life around, a godown next to the bus stop where someone was serving coffee from his travel-cart. I needed something to help me cope with the headache and tiredness from the incredibly bumpy bus-journey. As I chatted with the people in the godown, the night bus to Thoookupulam sailed past the stop without even slowing down. I ran after it but it didn't notice me. One of my fellow waiters was an auto-driver - I hired him to take me to Nedumkandam. This took another hour so I didn't arrive there until 4am. I felt stupid because my attempt to reduce travel time had failed and I'd kept Ajeesh waiting for me until about 2 hours before we were due to be at a major event he'd organised.
© (except the blatantly ripped-off bits) Random Bozo 2006