Day 0

Sometimes we have quite natural question - is 0 natural number? Mathematicians are quite ambivalent in the matter of 0. Usually they would say that it is convention and it depends on what you want to do with it. At one time it is convenient to assume that 0 is natural, but other times that it's not. Programmers, on the other hand, love to count starting with zero - while common folk start with one.

Similarly, I'm fuzzy on whether today counts as my trip already. In the end, I always defined it as an Indian trip and I won't be there yet today. But it's undeniable that I'm already on the move, already in travel. So I'll use that ambivalence of zero and proclaim it day 0.

This is good place to mention that it is something you could call "trip of a lifetime". At least for now it's biggest trip for me, full of "firsts". It's my first trip to India, in fact, it's my first trip to Asia. I was traveling by plane once (or rather twice - back and forth) - to Georgia. But it was organized group travel and this time I'm on my own. I never ventured so far, and when I traveled abroad, it was always with someone.

Of course, it's more than that. Whoever knew me and talked with me for at least a little bit longer in the last 1.5 year would know how obsessive I'm about India. Although I was always interested in whole of India in its mind-bogling diversity, my focus drifted more to South India and then even more to Kerala, which is in my heart already even before I set foot on its soil. In the last 1.5 year I watched 145 Indian movies, including 50 Malayalam ones (that's precise number), read 40 Indian or Indian-related books, listened to countless podcasts, ate enormous amount of Indian food almost on a daily basis and went to 7 Indian events. Numbers speak for themselves.

If you read [[Day -1 (Wednesday, 18.12.2024)|day -1 log]], you probably aware how ridiculously messy my preparation were and that I didn't really sleep. I was afraid to go to sleep for a moment, because I could overslept. In the train to Kraków I was tired due to that and similarly didn't want to nap. And here I am at the gate to my plane and waiting. I fumbled so much before, but today was surprisingly smooth. I worried a little that it's the only day I have reason to be concerned about. I can stumble my way through India, but here is bottleneck, if I mess something up today, that can be it, no trip.

But I am not concerned the way I suspected I could be. Sometimes being flegmatic has its perks. I saw many malayalis here and even chatted with one guy, so I know who to follow just in case.

Onboard

Only when I boarded first plane I felt I can finally relax and wait for some food. I couldn't wait for my chana dal and paratha. Noteworthy point for me was that in Arabic airlines, stewardesses were East or Southeast Asian and we started our flight with Muslim prayer.

But what really kept my attention was the view. Whatever you say about the planes, I can't help, but be kept in awe seeing the world from the up above. When we started weather was clear and I enjoyed it. Soon enough I lost orientation and just couldn't stop staring through the window (fortunately I could choose seat at the window). Glimmering human settlements moved along serpentine paths through the valleys, making us seem not that different than shining rivers. Glorious snowy mountains captivated my attention for a while, but I was confused which ones are they. We barely started so is it possible it's Slovakia already? Then lower clouds started to appear and they were absolutely beautiful. They looked like puffy cover of the earth, almost possible to mistake with fresh snowy landscape. Piercing through the higher clouds only added more charm to experience. Clouds started to be so all-encompassing that with sunlight it was blinding me, so I couldn't look too long.

Ruckus redirected my attention when stewardesses started to bring food. I got nice little chana dal and paratha. After so little sleep I felt finally satiated.

I woken up to beautiful sunset and view of huge mountains covering slowly darkening landscape. Are these Caucasus mountains? My confusion over geography felt little embarrassing, but I had very limited perspective and little experience. When diminishing red light started to fade, it gave space for new sight - web-like spread of city lights.

Into the second plane

There have been slight delay which made transit quite hectic experience. I knew who to follow though, few people were unmistakable malayali so I kept close to them.

Airport in Sharjah seems to be run to huge degree by Indians - also Indians were big chunk of passengers. Whole airport was very different vibe than chill, slowed down and spacious atmosphere of Kraków airport in early morning. Here we had huge crowds running to their connections - there were a lot of Middle-Easterners, Indians and Africans (sorry, on the run I didn't have chance to make guesswork which part of Africa).

I think I can be the only European on this flight. Which makes me think that I'm either crazy or just unusual. In previous flight there were a lot of Polish and Ukrainian people, apparently going somewhere for vacation during Christmas, so it's not here where is the difference. People next to me said that they are going to Bangkok, for example.

Maybe Kochi simply is not obvious choice for most Europeans. People choose the most famous touristic places in the North India. Or Goa, for some reason. But I wonder what people here think of this sole European guy going on a flight to Kochi this time of a year. And yet, I heard often that it's good time to visit.

I waited for upma with sambar and it was nice little treat. It made me craving South Indian food even more now. But these two little dishes weren't enough for such a long journey and I need to fill my stomach finally.

At first it was hard for me to interpret the sight I had from the window. It was in relative darkness. What are these lone lights? What are these patches of lighter tones in the sea of darkness? Before I understood it was a little bit surreal, especially because we were going through turbulence, but I understood finally that we're flying over ocean and lighter spots are low clouds, lone lights being ships.

Deficit of sleep, long travel, small seats, little space for legs - all of that is exhausting and little bit painful. And after all of that I have whole day ahead of me. Whole trip ahead of me.

.