Day 32
Without any exaggeration, today was the biggest failure out of my whole trip to India. One mistake, one badly planned travel was enough for that. To say it shortly, I traveled by public buses, changing buses along every major city. Pondicherry - Viluppuram - Trichy - Coimbatore - Kochi. Overall above 17 hours. I woke up very early morning and arrived to Kochi after midnight. I had rough guide from which city go to which next, but without timetable. Why did I do something like that? Well, the main reason was that such plans so far worked out for me quite well during my trip. But they were travels on much shorter distances. Here I had to cross from eastern coast to western one. From opposite ends of two states.
Telling about my stops doesn't give away how disastrous that travel was. From Viluppuram I taken wrong bus and I realized only at the first stop, so I had to return and take correct one to Trichy. It was actually first time such thing happened to me. Both in Trichy and Coimbatore buses didn't stop at the main bus stand so I had to take city bus to reach main bus stands. In Coimbatore buses to Kerala had their own stand. It wasn't far from main one, just across the street, but finding my way there was challenging, because I was very tired at this point. Additionally, I didn't eat anything substantial for whole day, only some snacks I had stored. I was worried about my homestay, but fortunately I was returning to familiar place and they accommodated to me and prepared something for the night. Still, I didn't want to make them troubled even more.
Somewhere along the way my friends texted and asked if I met Nicha already. I didn't update them at all about last days, but being asked directly was tough. Despite of that, I decided to keep radio silence for a little longer. My emotional resolve just wasn't there yet, while physical tiredness and worrying about reaching Kochi didn't help.
When I boarded bus to Kerala I felt surge of weird feelings. There were nostalgia already, however strange it is to feel it for land that I traveled for half a month two weeks ago. But also creeping awareness that it indicated my coming return and finish of the trip. Crushed dreams of meeting Nicha also found their place among the mix of feelings. Returning to Kerala felt bittersweet, but at this moment I decided to focus on sweetness. Sits in Kerala buses maybe were more sturdy than the ones in Tamil Nadu, but they strangely gave me comfort. I couldn't wait to see Kochi again. Nicha sent me video when she was returning tired by bus with her sleeping sisters, one of them laying her head on Nicha's shoulder. This image felt like mirror to my own feelings, tired but weirdly pleased.
One observation worth mentioning. This time while approaching Kochi from the north I noticed few people sleeping on the ground. A view that wasn't completely uncommon in Tamil Nadu, but I didn't see it in Kerala before. That's just good reminder not to make too hasty generalizations on limited experience.
When I arrived to Kochi I took tuk tuk into homestay, without strength to bargain, but still getting reasonable fair price. It was already very late, but even seeing glimpse of familiar places made me excited for the next day. When I saw Greenwood Bethlehem sign I really felt happy. Their worker (or at least I think he's worker, not family) was waiting for me and shown me my room. Beautiful room, different this time, but I just was reminded why it was my favorite homestay. I decided that I can relax, first time in a long time I didn't have to worry about plans for the next day so I could sleep soundly.
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