We book into the same hotel again, and give up the idea of Alleppey. I spend the next hour or so cribbing to Amit while gorging on the sandwiches which we had gotten packed at Thekkady. My idea was a backwater cruise, I crib. I wanted to sail still scenic waters, I splutter, stammering on the sibilants. The idea was to have a calm, relaxed journey in the daytime and just stop for nights, not to spend long hours in boring cabs on filthy roads in the daytime and drop dead at night, I scream. Amit stuffs some more food into my mouth to quieten me. After a while, it works, and I retire, hurt, to the bathroom for a hot bath.

After a longer while things seem - well just as bad, really. We take a long hard look at the situation and decide to try to retrieve the remaining part of the holiday. We will not return defeated to Bangalore. We will soldier on bravely, bypassing Quilon in the absence of backwater cruises, to Kanyakumari, then to Kovalam. The beaches at least can't disappoint us, we console ourselves. It takes a quick trek down to the railway station to find the trains that run to Trivandrum. There is a train directly to Kanyakumari, but if it reaches late - a distinct possibility - we will miss the sunset. The Trivandrum train has tickets available and there is only a very short queue. Our luck seems to be turning. The only bad news is that the train leaves at 0550 hours. Which calls for an early night. We do some quick souvenir shopping and return to the hotel for drinks and dinner. This is a pleasant experience as we get some really good, freshly squeezed orange juice, and try out a dish called beef Ugalithalu (or something very like it) which consists of tiny bits of beef fried in a spicy and very interesting dry masala. Variations in chicken and mutton were also available.

Dinner consists of fish curry. The fish is called something unpronounceable, but when it appears, it is pomfret. We also get fish fry, rice and curd. The fry is nice, the curry is ok, but on my plate the bones fall apart and manage to get mixed with the rice which is not a very pleasant experience. Everything tastes of coconut oil, including the wafers we got with the drinks before dinner. But here, in this food, the taste is not obtrusive or unpleasant. Perhaps I am getting used to it. Perhaps here I expect it. Whatever it is, though not usually a devotee of coconut oil I quite like it.

The next morning we rise, dress, make our way to the train, seat ourselves and fall asleep. We can sleep easy, since Trivandrum is the terminus of this train. It is a long journey, five hours, and crowded by the end of it. In the intervals that I awaken, I notice that some of the countryside is lovely, with romantic little houses with red-tile roofs nestling amongst lush greenery and leaning palm trees. We catch occasional glimpses of water just behind the huts, which tug at my heartstrings, reminding me of what could not be. Later we pass over bridges, with water on both sides. Still later, the backwaters widen out and extend tot he horizons, till we wonder whether we have reached the sea already. But they come close again, and it is still the backwaters.

South - To Kanyakumari!