First days in Kerala
The first thing one notices flying into
Trivandrum is the dominance of the palm tree. Everything is green and lush. Then
you step off the airplane--not into an air conditioned jetway, but down steps
and onto the tarmac--and the heat and humidity hit you. It's only been about 30
degrees (roughly 86 degrees Fahrenheit), but with the humidity it feels
oppressively hot.
The view from the balcony of our room in the Wild
Palms guesthouse illustrates how lush it is. We're in the tropics, after all;
well below the tropic of cancer, though thankfully still some degrees of
latitude from the
equator.
Friday afternoon we settled into the guesthouse and the humidity before heading to TVM's main road--Mahatma Gandhi or 'MG' Road. There we found the travel agency, Aries Travel, that had been helping us. They directed us to shopping and ice cream, and arranged for us to visit an apartment in a high rise in the city on Saturday. We ate dinner at the guesthouse Friday night, then occupied Claire and Luc for a while with a DVD.
Saturday morning, Rajan, the uncle of a friend of a colleague of mine from USF (in India, it's all about contacts, no matter how distant the connection), took us to see a house for rent in a "complex" a ways from the center of Trivandrum. We were quite impressed with the house itself. In fact, it's more space than we need. And the neighbors we were introduced to were extremely nice and seemed enthusiastic about our moving in. The main problem, aside from the pool we had been told about being unswimmable, is the distance of the house from Trivandrum itself. It's about 20 km distant, and reachable only by car. My work will take me all over Kerala (and beyond), so being close to TVM is not necessarily essential. Our concern had to do with feeling trapped in what is essentially a western-style gated community. We became convinced while looking at the house that we could deal with the transportation issue (perhaps by buying a car and hiring a driver), and so verbally committed to the landlady (who is the wife of the former Indian ambassador to the U.S., among other places).
That afternoon we returned to Aries Travel to pay them for our air tickets and the transfer from the airport. Sarita, who runs Aries with her husband Rajiv, explained that she had hoped we would look at an apartment she had found for us right in the city. After much anxiety, mostly on my part out of concern for having committed to the first place we saw, we decided we would go and look at this apartment. All of our concerns about living right in the city (which we had concocted in order to convince ourselves that living in the "suburbs" would be acceptable, sounded like they would be made irrelevant by the particular apartment we were going to see. Namely, our concerns had to do with what we had experienced so far of TVM. First, MG Rd. has no sidewalks and heavy traffic, so getting around by foot is highly unpleasant and even dangerous. Second, if we were living in an apartment in the city, especially one in a high rise, we'd be limited in terms of outdoor activities for the kids. It's just not feasible to step outside and be in a safe place for them to play. Third, we'd still need a car to get around (related to my first point), so we'd be hiring a car whenever we needed to go anywhere.
But Sarita explained that the apartment she wanted to show us was very near the zoo, so activities for the kids would be possible, and it had a pool. Rent was 16,000 Rs compared to 20,000 for the house. So we went and looked at the apartment, which was a good thing, because it confirmed our original decision. The apartment building was near the zoo and botanical gardens, but across a busy road from them and not easy to walk to. There was also a pool, but it didn't look much better than the one at the house. The apartment itself was on the ninth floor. It had three bedrooms, but outside the bedrooms there was very little space. Marion and I both sensed we'd soon feel cramped. The apartment also had a dingy feel, was dark, and painted pretty odd and unappealing colors.
So we had the rickshaw take us to Pizza Corner for dinner and then went back to the guesthouse feeling pretty good about the decision to rent the house in the 'burbs.
Friday afternoon we settled into the guesthouse and the humidity before heading to TVM's main road--Mahatma Gandhi or 'MG' Road. There we found the travel agency, Aries Travel, that had been helping us. They directed us to shopping and ice cream, and arranged for us to visit an apartment in a high rise in the city on Saturday. We ate dinner at the guesthouse Friday night, then occupied Claire and Luc for a while with a DVD.
Saturday morning, Rajan, the uncle of a friend of a colleague of mine from USF (in India, it's all about contacts, no matter how distant the connection), took us to see a house for rent in a "complex" a ways from the center of Trivandrum. We were quite impressed with the house itself. In fact, it's more space than we need. And the neighbors we were introduced to were extremely nice and seemed enthusiastic about our moving in. The main problem, aside from the pool we had been told about being unswimmable, is the distance of the house from Trivandrum itself. It's about 20 km distant, and reachable only by car. My work will take me all over Kerala (and beyond), so being close to TVM is not necessarily essential. Our concern had to do with feeling trapped in what is essentially a western-style gated community. We became convinced while looking at the house that we could deal with the transportation issue (perhaps by buying a car and hiring a driver), and so verbally committed to the landlady (who is the wife of the former Indian ambassador to the U.S., among other places).
That afternoon we returned to Aries Travel to pay them for our air tickets and the transfer from the airport. Sarita, who runs Aries with her husband Rajiv, explained that she had hoped we would look at an apartment she had found for us right in the city. After much anxiety, mostly on my part out of concern for having committed to the first place we saw, we decided we would go and look at this apartment. All of our concerns about living right in the city (which we had concocted in order to convince ourselves that living in the "suburbs" would be acceptable, sounded like they would be made irrelevant by the particular apartment we were going to see. Namely, our concerns had to do with what we had experienced so far of TVM. First, MG Rd. has no sidewalks and heavy traffic, so getting around by foot is highly unpleasant and even dangerous. Second, if we were living in an apartment in the city, especially one in a high rise, we'd be limited in terms of outdoor activities for the kids. It's just not feasible to step outside and be in a safe place for them to play. Third, we'd still need a car to get around (related to my first point), so we'd be hiring a car whenever we needed to go anywhere.
But Sarita explained that the apartment she wanted to show us was very near the zoo, so activities for the kids would be possible, and it had a pool. Rent was 16,000 Rs compared to 20,000 for the house. So we went and looked at the apartment, which was a good thing, because it confirmed our original decision. The apartment building was near the zoo and botanical gardens, but across a busy road from them and not easy to walk to. There was also a pool, but it didn't look much better than the one at the house. The apartment itself was on the ninth floor. It had three bedrooms, but outside the bedrooms there was very little space. Marion and I both sensed we'd soon feel cramped. The apartment also had a dingy feel, was dark, and painted pretty odd and unappealing colors.
So we had the rickshaw take us to Pizza Corner for dinner and then went back to the guesthouse feeling pretty good about the decision to rent the house in the 'burbs.
Posted: Sun - December 18, 2005 at 06:21 PM
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The Zavelogue chronicles the travels and travails of Stephen, Marion, Claire and Luc during our six months in India on a Fulbright.
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Published On: Jul 15, 2006 12:54 AM
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Published On: Jul 15, 2006 12:54 AM