It was time to return to Kozhikode (Calicut). Last night, I’d contacted the taxi driver who brought us to the homestay. After our breakfast, he drove us back to Calicut. We again encountered the nine (numbered) hairpin bends!
After checking into our hotel, we explored Calicut for the first time. We walked along the beach near our hotel. When we ran out of paving, we turned into Big Bazaar Road. This was mainly a market for wholesalers. As I took photos of various foods, the owners were very friendly, asking us where we were from.
On leaving Big Bazaar Road, we went to the library first then Mananchira Park and had tea. It’s a nice park with people of all ages sitting on the grass and benches. Men and women used the outdoor gym.
Mananchira Pond is next to the park. We passed that and headed to the bookshops on Rajaji Road. When we were trying to cross a busy road, someone decided we needed help! He stopped the traffic with one hand as he waved us forward with the other. He continued to accompany us for 10 minutes. He was on his way home. We said goodbye after we went into a bookshop.
Rajaji Road has several bookshops. As we hopped between them, there were drops of rain. It looked like a downpour was imminent. We stayed close to the bookshops in case we needed to escape the rain.
Ramadan covers the whole of March this year. When Muslims break their day fast, they fill the streets here and go to restaurants. This happens around sunset.
We decided to eat at a restaurant before sunset. This way, we’d avoid the crowds.
Helene had already been to a few of the famous Paragon restaurants in Kerala. The first to open, in 1939, was in Calicut. So we went there before 6.30. When we got there, people were sitting outside. We assumed they were waiting for 6.30pm. We were given a table straight away.
The food at Paragon was fine. Nothing special. Perhaps we’d been spoilt by the delicious food we’d been having every night at the Aranyakum Homestay.
On returning to the hotel, we asked what time was checkout. At this point, the manager appeared. He asked what time Helene’s train was due to depart. On hearing 1.45pm, he said we could checkout at 1.45pm! He also gave me a discounted rate since I was staying on.