The journey begins

Trivandrum, 10metres, 34celcius.

I'm back at Trivandrum in less than an year. Bit cloudy today and, towards evening a haze hung in the air. We got caught in the rush hour and it never ceases to amaze me that the millions of people milling about on the roads, not to mention the buses and the rickshaws suggest an order of sorts that is lacking on the streets of Male. Here, everyone seems busy, to have a sense of purpose.

We've got train tickets to Gorakhpur, near the border with Nepal. It takes three days to get there and we're lucky to have got a contact in Trivandrum prior to our arrival. We have a flight to catch in Nepal on 14 November and the less time we spend in India the better. Moreover, winter is fast setting in in Nepal---it's already 5 degrees celcius in Lukla, where we start the trek.

Earlier today Narco was very helpful, transporting me on my last minute errands providing upbeat anacdotes on the way and, finally, dropping me off at the airport ferry.

Hilath and Saffah (Saffalhey as he was known in a previous post) came to the airport to see us off. Muha said he thought they were more emotional than we were about our departure. But Saffalhey said he'd only come for Muha's promised tea which, sadly, didn't materialise because there really wasn't enough time.

On the way to the airport, Hilath was saying surfboard surfers like Shaaxu (known as Shaaziyya in an earlier post) wouldn't have as nice ankles as bodysurf surfers like himself (to verify, see hilath's ankles in previous post---he's on the left with a suspicious looking bottle).

Although Hilath and Saffah was gossiping all the time they were at the airport, it was nice of them to take the trouble to come.

Muha's bag is just under 10kg, but I'm over a few kilos over our 10kg-limit. We'll have to dump some of our stuff in Katmandu before we head off on the trek.