Train to Thiruvananthapurum

Indian trains are renowned for overcrowding. This occurs for the unticketed seats. For the ticketed seats, there is a sophisticated buying system.

Some seats have higher demand, like those with air-conditioning. For these, you generally have to buy an advanced ticket because they can sell out quickly. You have several options. If you try early enough, you can buy the ticket. This is called a confirmed ticket. Otherwise you can go on one of several waiting lists. Close to the train’s departure time, some form of reconciliation is done and seats are allocated. If confirmed seats are cancelled, they are allocated to those on the waiting lists.

I went to buy a ticket from Kochi to Thiruvananthapurum, which is still called Trivandrum by locals. The ticket I bought was designated WL. I belated remembered what WL stood for. When booking a seat with a waiting list (status WL), you can ask about the likelihood of getting the seat. I decided if it’s greater than 50%, I would book it. I booked my first ticket, which was status WL. Then, I decided to find a train were there were empty seats. I found a train with no waiting list and I booked a seat. Afterwards, I realised that this was not the best class of seat, by western standards. So I booked another seat which had a (smaller) waiting list! You can cancel tickets for a variable admin fee.

In the end, the day before, I moved off the waiting list for the two tickets. I ended up with three tickets! I picked the fastest train and cancelled the other two. One ticket, I got no refund because it was close to the departure day; for the other, 50% was returned. It was worth it because the fastest train was just over three hours. The other two were 4-6 hours.

I’m not normally this reckless when booking train tickets. I had forgotten that trains get booked up in advance and I had left it late to get to Trivandrum.

On the train, my neighbour was a woman who was born in Kerala and worked in Saudi Arabia. She was back in Kochi to look after her parents for a few months while they recovered from illness. During her time here, she was popping over to Trivandrum to get some paperwork sorted.

She had ordered food when she booked. I hadn’t. You get the choice of veg or non-veg but you don’t know whether there’s dairy, eggs, etc in the veg. So I didn’t order anything. I ate some bananas and cashew nuts, which is not much different from what I normally have for lunch. Her veg lunch was quite substantial but she didn’t eat much. Perhaps, we were talking too much. She told me about the time she twisted her ankle when she lost balance. She was debilitated for quite a while and had to learn to walk again.

When we got to Trivandrum, I called a tuk tuk via Uber and checked into my hotel.

In the evening, I went for a walk towards the State Library, passing a Hindu temple and a church.

For dinner, I went to eat at Mothers Veg Plaza, which Helene had recommended. I was seated on a four-seat table on my own. As is customary in Indian restaurants, I went to wash my hands before eating. There are some Indian meals I eat with my hand, as is traditional in India. But if the dish has a lot of sauce, I use a spoon because it can get messy. Generally they give non-Indians a spoon anyway. With me, it varies: sometimes I get one, sometimes I don’t.

When I returned to my seat, someone was seated diagonally opposite me. We got talking. Sid was born in Delhi then lived in Singapore and Hong Kong. He led quite an itinerant lifestyle. He was in Trivandrum for a stay at an ayuvedic centre (a place where traditional Indian medicine is practised).

We spent several hours talking. We discussed many things. We talked about world politics, health, and Netflix programmes like Squid Games and Dave Chappelle. We also discussed religion and many more things I can’t remember. It was great to meet Sid. We immediately bonded.

Generally, people came to this restaurant, had their meal and left. At one point two of the staff were looking at us from a distance. There were tables for new diners. I still asked a few of times if it was okay for us to sit and chat. They always replied it was fine. We had to leave eventually. The restaurant was closing!

We said goodbye after connecting on WhatsApp.