Chennai to Trivandrum

We left Chennai at about 8.30pm on the Trivandrum Mail, an overnight (15hr) ride in a 1st class sleeper carriage. We shared with two other Indian gentlemen, one of which was a wealth of knowledge on where we were heading. I also had quite a discussion on the Steven Covey book he was reading ‘ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Tahlia was bored with that so she went to the cabin next door and talked to English couple, David and Margaret; an lovely older couple exploring India for 6 months. Later on the Porters come and make up the beds.

At about 6.30am the Porters bring you coffee and by about 9.00am, Tahlia and I had the cabin to ourselves as both the others had left the train. Tahlia spent the trip sitting on the seat watching the world through the window and taking the odd photo. We also had discussion on where we would go and stay for the next couple of days. We decided on a fishing village about 16km up the coast from Trivandrum. The train arrived in Trivandrum just before 11.00am where we grabbed an auto-rickshaw to Kovalam.