Trivandrum and back to Madurai.

After the backwaters, our plan was to go to Thekaddy to see some wildlife. Instead, we made a detour to Trivandrum to see Dr Sarma, a reputed Ayurvedic doctor. Trivadrum is a 3 hour drive from Alleppey. The drive there was pretty uneventful but it took us an hour or so to find the doctor's office. Dr Sarma who is also an allopathic doctor was very pleasant and friendly with the children. He assured us that Rushil's condition was treatable and that we should see results in 1 month. Both Sindhu and Rushil have been taking the bitter medicine (with honey and treats afterwards) for 1 week and Rushil seems to be getting better but I'm not sure if the allopathic medicine also helped.

Trivandrum is the biggest city we've seen in Kerala. We did drive through Cochin but did not stop there. Trivandrum is surprisingly clean for a big city. We stayed overnight at the Mascot Hotel which is one of the older business hotels in the city but was well maintained and a step up from Snehadhara. I'm really glad we stayed at Green Planet in Munnar and Snehadara in Alleppey to get a more homey feel but it was a welcome change to stay in a big hotel with all the amenities and the anonymity too.

We booked a car from the hotel after randomly calling a few travel agents. We probably took a risk but we found a nice clean Innova van and driver and headed to Madurai the next day to catch our flight. We tried to book a train directly from Trivandrum but there was no availability and booking any flights at the last minute would have been too expensive. The agent at the train station was very rude to Prasad and could not believe he was trying to make a reservation for at the last minute. Anyway, we made it in pretty good time by car, 6 hours with no big breaks. Our driver drove like a maniac and multiple times, Prasad had to tell him to slow down. He was on a mission to bypass everyone on a one-lane highway and so a few times we were in a hairy spot facing a large truck and he had to swerve to avoid it. He said he didn't speak any English but understood everything we said. We also made it in time to meet Krithiga and family one more time as they were in Madurai visiting her relatives and to do an important exchange of shoes :-) Sindhu was thrilled to see Surina again and the kids had fun playing at the park outside of the restaurant although inside the open-air restaurant, we were bit alive by the mosquitoes. The food was delicious. We barely made it to the airport as we left the restaurant a bit late and the driver got lost but luckily his speedy driving capability pulled through. We boarded our plane and got back home safely to our warm, cozy, beds.