In the morning, we took an auto for a whirlwind tour of some mosques and a Hindu temple. It helped that the auto driver was a Moslem and was able to get access to some of the mosques.
We then went to SM Street, one of the markets/shopping areas in Calicut. Helene was looking for some Indian sweets to take back for her work colleagues. We walked along the long street. Vendors were trying to persuade people to buy clothes, shoes, and sweets. We walked past one sweet seller but he didn’t try the hard sell. He didn’t even try the soft sell! We returned to him and he showed us the back room where the sweets were being made. We liked him. He knew the quality of his sweets. I took a photo but he didn’t want to be in it. His assistant was happy to oblige.
After that, Helene took the train back to Thiruvananthapurum.
I walked to a supermarket then popped into a cinema I happen to be passing. There were no English language (or English-subtitled) films showing.
Two people had recommended Beypore Beach. So I took an auto there. It was a thirty minute ride.
The beach was almost empty when I got there. There was nothing to do or look at. I walked to the end of the pier-like pathway to Dolphin point.
The beach was populated with some cheeky goats. They refused to take no for answer when asking for food.
After that I came back to the beach area and sat down. Someone came and sat next to me. He was joined by a friend then the lifeguard! We spoke as best we could. They taught me some Malayalam words, including counting from one to ten.
I left them and walked to another point on the beach. Another person came and sat next to me. He wanted to see the photos I was taking. He couldn’t speak English. I learnt that he worked on a ship that over a couple of months had sailed from Kolkata to Caliput. He had one more day before heading back. I resorted to Google Translate to translate between English and Bengali. When he saw this, he shouted incredulously to his two companions. He said something like, “His phone is letting us understand each other in English and Bengali!”
When I returned to central Calicut, I didn’t go to the hotel straight away. I walked along the adjacent beach. It was fairly deserted during the day. In the night, it was a different vibe. Lots of people were walking along the promenade, eating, and sitting on the beach.
