We got up in good time for a 9.30 departure from the hotel. Breakfast and then some group photos of us all taken by Nick.
The minibus turned up as planned and we got to the airport to drop off the Eustance family at just after 11 in good time for their flight to Mumbai.
We continued onto out hotel The South Park, Fortune Hotel. This was OK a business hotel which is cleaner than the hotel in Periyar and much nicer than the place we could have ended up in when we were in Kochi. Rather than sit in the hotel we decided to venture out to see the temples, and in particular the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, at the fort area of town. This proved to be a bit of a mistake it was too hot, the rickshaw drivers all wanted to take up to Kovalam Beach and did not speak English so we came back. C is also not feeling 100% either.
We decide to spend the afternoon in the hotel and venture out for dinner, there is a very good Italian mentioned in the Rough Guide. C and T get some work done and we get a dodgy room service!
I find out we cannot check in online from Trivandrum airport and arrange a large car to get us to the airport at 2am.
The kids work during the afternoon and B and I read until about 4.30 when we decide to venture out to look around a bit more and so in the opposite direction from the morning towards the Napier Museum and the zoo. The temperature was much better and we had a good time exploring a bit. I even managed to get rid of my 2 1 pisa coins to a coin seller – he was a bit surprised!! We bought some chocolate (Toberlone) for the kids and I got a watch strap for only 150 rupees which is about 1/8 of what I might pay in the UK!
The decision was made not to go out as we were not that hungary and C tummy was playing up so we went to the hotel restaurant instead. They had only go an enormous buffet which the staff were only too keen to show us and also looked delicious. However once B and T had had a bowl of soup and I a few bits of tempura we decided we really were no hungry after all! The staff were really good and we only paid for our drinks!!
We decided to play cards until 9.30 and then went to bed ready to get up at 1.40 to leave the hotel at 2am!!
A bit of an odd day really!