We got a taxi to Kollam straight to a hotel we’d found in the Lonely Planet. It was quite a grand entrance but the rooms were pretty basic (and expensive). I was showed to my room but the first two rooms were flooded (standard). Eventually after finding a dry room we all set off to sort out a deal for a house boat. It’s ironic the amount of stress you have to go through in order to arrange a weekend of peace and tranquillity. People crowd round you like you’re a member of a boy band. Everyone is trying to get you on their boat (still funny). There was a point when I thought that it might be easier to forget about it and just head back to Varkala. Nothing is ever straight forward here.
We needed some time to think over things so we got a tuk tuk to the harbour, where we thought we would find somewhere (relatively) quiet to sit and discuss the plan. Our driver was a bloke called Sudhi. He was telling me that he’d won an award for being the friendliest driver in Kerala (at a rough estimate there must be a gazillion tuk tuk drivers in Kerala). I’m not entirely sure who runs this competition or how it’s judged, because in the whole scheme of things old Sudhi didn’t seem particularly friendly (well not enough to win an award). I would've only scored him a 7 out of 10 in the friendly stakes. If it were down to me I would dethrone him immediately.
He then produced an A4 folder, from under his chair, which had a photocopy of the paper cutting from when this story had been published. The story was about 10 years old and the picture was so faded it could have been a photograph of me and I still wouldn’t have recognised it. He had then filled the rest of the folder with letters from tourists saying how he was the happiest, friendly tuk tuk driver in Kerala. I had to take a sneaky picture as it tickled me so much. He has blatantly requested for these people to write him letters, as unless I've been doing it wrong all this time, a small tip of monetary value tents to be a much more preferred method of showing ones gratitude
We then went to the liquor store to get some booze for the boat. Phillip asked me how many beers I would drink. The actual answer should have been 7 bottles but after he said that he was only getting 2, I thought I should show some decorum and said about 4 or 5 would be fine. He plumped for 4. Argghh.
We then went back to the hotel. The view over the river was amazing so we sat outside, overlooking the water, drinking beer and watching the world go by. We saw an enormous fruit bat fly over and then hang in a nearby tree, and that was all it took for me to go to bed very happy, with a big smile on my face.
We needed some time to think over things so we got a tuk tuk to the harbour, where we thought we would find somewhere (relatively) quiet to sit and discuss the plan. Our driver was a bloke called Sudhi. He was telling me that he’d won an award for being the friendliest driver in Kerala (at a rough estimate there must be a gazillion tuk tuk drivers in Kerala). I’m not entirely sure who runs this competition or how it’s judged, because in the whole scheme of things old Sudhi didn’t seem particularly friendly (well not enough to win an award). I would've only scored him a 7 out of 10 in the friendly stakes. If it were down to me I would dethrone him immediately.
He then produced an A4 folder, from under his chair, which had a photocopy of the paper cutting from when this story had been published. The story was about 10 years old and the picture was so faded it could have been a photograph of me and I still wouldn’t have recognised it. He had then filled the rest of the folder with letters from tourists saying how he was the happiest, friendly tuk tuk driver in Kerala. I had to take a sneaky picture as it tickled me so much. He has blatantly requested for these people to write him letters, as unless I've been doing it wrong all this time, a small tip of monetary value tents to be a much more preferred method of showing ones gratitude
We then went to the liquor store to get some booze for the boat. Phillip asked me how many beers I would drink. The actual answer should have been 7 bottles but after he said that he was only getting 2, I thought I should show some decorum and said about 4 or 5 would be fine. He plumped for 4. Argghh.
We then went back to the hotel. The view over the river was amazing so we sat outside, overlooking the water, drinking beer and watching the world go by. We saw an enormous fruit bat fly over and then hang in a nearby tree, and that was all it took for me to go to bed very happy, with a big smile on my face.
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