Thrissur Travails

No, I did not mean 'Travels', and I do hope someone appreciates our 'Travails' in making it to the wedding, although after it was over.

This trip was a bagful of 'firsts' as my fellow travellers will attest (unfortunately i cannot disclose details here). We left Bangalore at 5:00am for a 470km trip with just enough fuel in the car for 80kms. Obviously, didn't find a gas station till just the last few drops were left. Happy at getting the fuel, we zoomed, determine to make it to Thrissur in less than 10 hours - and hit a dog! A first that left the dog dead and my number plate broken. Shaken and shivering we tried to forget the incident, but Ved wouldn't let us!! Lord have no mercy on him.

By 6:30 we were starving, so took a detour in to Salem and stuffed ourselves for an hour. I will take the TN food any day over Bangalore. Then it was my turn to drive, as expected the world was awake, pedestrians were busy crossing roads, traffic was building up and the roads weren't getting any better. Finally, we made it to God's own country, without so much as a speck of scenic beauty (another one of the many lies told by our host to lure us there). Picked up beers that cost a lot, filled fuel that cost a lot less and had a brilliant lunch that made us super drowsy. Landed up at the hotel at 3:30 and were greeted by a 30 second appearance of the groom, not looking very groomy. Our host was a man of few words. All he could manage was "Wow! i can't believe you are here", thrice! not a peep from him otherwise in all of 1.5 days.

We noticed our hotel offered 'aurvedic massages' and rushed to get pampered and massaged and rested. For a long term massage veteran like me, it was a tad brutal while our resident 'Massage Virgin' has been scarred for life (saying any more on that has been prohibited on a death threat, so I shall desist). It did make us very sleepy though and rubbished all our sight seeing plans. We got out of our rooms at 9:00 only to be told that the town shuts at 8:00. Desperate and hungry we roamed the streets at night looking for a few scraps of food (sniff.. :( it was heartbreaking). Anyway, for those in our predicament we would recommend 'Hotel Akshaya' open till 1:00am with brilliant food.

Back to the hotel and into a deep sleep; we managed to get up at 9:00am. Our friend was already married by then! Still, hurried to get ready and reach the venue 25kms away only to get stuck in a traffic jam. Arrived at the venue to squeeze in one of the last pictures before they got off the stage for lunch. Since we had a late breakfast, couldn't eat a bite of lunch, which I am told was delicious. I did have the payasam though, which was indeed nice.


Got a scolding for being late so feeling really bad we thought we'll rush back and get ready for the reception early (we did it!). So afternoon sight seeing plans were dropped in favour of chilled beers and peanuts in the room and some mallu songs for the ambiance. Reached the reception before the wedded couple (phew!) and duly registered our attendance with a pic. No food again, 6:30 was a bit early after those beers and snacks and we were buzzed.

We finally said our good byes at 8 and ran up to catch some sleep. Left at 1:00am for our journey back to Bangalore after a dinner at 'Akshaya' again. After a VERY sleepy drive and endless stops for tea made it to Bangalore at 7:30am. Ah! what a bliss it was to just sleep and close my tired, swollen eyes. Unfortunately the other 3 are at their respective offices slogging away for a living. HAHA!