Motorcycle Ride in Kerala

Kollam, not the most interesting town in the world. The nightlife is lacking. In fact, the daytime life is lacking as well. In fact, the only thing around is the big hotel conference center at which we were staying. So, one night we took the bus down to the next restaurant. The food there was mostly terrible, but at least we weren't trapped eating dinner at our hotel. The food probably would have been better, but we wanted to get the hell out of the hotel. All day sitting around is fun, except for the fact that it's not.

So: off we are to the local "restaurants" on the local bus. We eat, drink a little terrible beer, and decide after watching chennai get crushed in cricket that we should leave. Back to the local bus stop. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. A young man comes along on a motorcycle and drops his friend off at our bus station. He asks what the hell we two white people are doing at a bus station in kollam at that hour without anyone else. We tell him we're just going back to the hotel. He says he'll take us.
Yvonne is quite vociferous. "No, I'm not getting on that thing, especially without a helmet." I was for it from the beginning. After a little persuasion I finally convince yvonne that we should get our asses on a motorcycle and go with the flow. The guy turns out to be an excellent pilot. Swerving in and around big buses and trucks, small cars. All the three of us on a motorcycle built for two and no one wearing a helmet. We made it all two miles back to the hotel safely, and then got some terribly peculiar looks from the hotel guards and staff. Our motorcycle guy seeing that he will get in trouble if he stays too long, jets off into the Kerala night and we never see him again. If only our parents knew how crazy and irresponsible we were...