Struttin' in me shalwar

I decided yesterday to throw on the ol' shalwar kameez, which some of you might remember is the pyjama-like clothing that I got in Pakistan. So there I was strutting along the beach front with my tails flowing in the afternoon breeze... you should have seen the respect I was getting. "Hey man, cool shalwar", "nice clothes buddy"... and no-one tried to flog me anything (this is unheard of) as I was clearly a soul brother just goin' for a walk! There were a couple of Muslims boppin' around as well, and they were chuffed to pieces when they saw me. It was Friday afternoon and they were all done up in their shalwars as well for prayers. One of them saw me coming and tried to trick me to see if I was the 'real deal'... He mumbled asalaam aleikum as I passed (the arabic greeting common to all Muslim countries) and I rolled back at him with the response ma aleikum a-salaam.... he broke out in an ear to ear grin, it was deadly!

So apart from getting down and jiggy with my Muslim brothers, there ain't too much else goin' on. I'm in a beautiful beach resort called Varkala, halfway between Trivandurum and Quillon in the state of Kerala on the West Coast of India by the Arabian Sea. The village is set up along a cliff edge here with a nice beach about a hundred feet below us. It's pretty touristy and there are lots of heads here, but it's nice and relaxed.

We had a nice few days in Pondicherry, but Helen was sick so we didn't get up to too much. Spent most of the time reading my book and walking around the French quarter. Then we jumped on a sleeper crossing the Southern tip of the country to the West coast. The trains here are pretty good. It's far from the chaos and mayhem that used to reign (as portrayed in films like Ghandi) with people hangin' out of the rafters and sitting on the roof etc. There are a plethora of different classes, starting with first class (two berth private compartments with AC), to second class two-tiered compartments with AC, to second class three tiered compartments with AC, to second class three-tiered compartments without AC to third class wooden seats.

I've always gone for the second class three tiered compartments without AC, this is sleeper class and it's what the vast majority of people travel in. You have open carriages with eight 'compartments' (all open, no doors or anything). Each compartment has seating for nine people, three facing backwards, three facing forwards and three facing across the train on the other side of the walkway. At night time, you can pull down beds so that there are three beds on each wall, lower, middle and upper berths. I always try to go for the upper berth, because it doesn't get folded away so you can always just lie down on it (it's also quite comfy to sit on), you're higher up and therefore more out of the action and you've got the fans right above you so you tend to be cooler. For some reason, Indian's don't really like this berth so it's quite easy to get one. The downside is that you have to look at cockroaches crawling across the ceiling as you prepare for sleep.

The journey's have always been very pleasant as well. Usually you get a night train so that you can spend the vast majority of the journey sleeping. You have to bail on to the train pretty quickly to make sure that you get to store your bags under the seats or else they're just knockin' around the aisles. But once you're installed, everyone's always really friendly, happy to chat away with you and inviting you for teas from one of the hundreds of chai sellers who roll through the carraiges.

It's been raining heavily here this morning, but it's stopping now and the sun is coming out so I'm off down the beach. Peace out.

C.


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