Kochi to Calicut to Wayanad in 1 day (don’t try it!)

We left Kochi on Dec 27 on a mission to get to the reknowned wildlife sanctuaries near Wayanad, Kerala. We knew we were going to be on the road for a good 8 hours to get there, but we figured that if we started the trip on a 6:45am train, we would be able to get there before dark. However, the journey got off to a foreboding start when we unthinkingly bought tickets in unreserved second class on the train. We boarded a train car where we thought we were allowed to sit, but less than 20 minutes after the train had left the station, the conductor informed us that we were in a reserved second class car and kicked us out of our seats. By this point all the seats in the unreserved second class were full of people. We doggedly dragged our stuff through car after car stuffed full of people until we got separated and I couldn’t go any farther. It was standing room only. I ended up squashed somewhere between the train door and the toilet, and spent the next 5 hours half-standing, half-squatting on my bag. Tim was in the same situation on the opposite side of the car, miserably huddled with his backpack against the wall. Finally we reached our stop at Calicut, and stumbled off the train in a glassy-eyed haze of post-traumatic shock from the experience. In Calicut we made a detour to the post office so I could send a box of stuff home to myself. (Side note: I had ended up leaving Azerbaijan with more stuff than I could carry through India; some of my Azeri colleagues and friends had given me some rather bulky gifts including a small carpet and a huge copper vase. I had planned to send it all home to myself right after landing in Mumbai, but my bags got lost on route and due to a series of mix-ups I didn’t get my bags until the day after Christmas - 15 days after I arrived!) Anyway, Calicut was my first chance to go to the post office and since I already had most of the stuff boxed up and ready to mail, we thought it wouldn’t take too long. But, India being India the process took almost 2 hours and by this point we were starving and in need of sustenance before we got our bus from Calicut to Wayanad. But by the time we finished lunch and dragged ourselves to the bus stand in Calicut of course the buses were all full! We weren’t on the road for our 3 hour ride onward to Wayanad until 4pm. And when we finally arrived in Manathavadi near Wayanad…the bus to take us to our hotel had stopped running. So we had to get there via ANOTHER bus AND a jeep, FINALLY arriving at the guesthouse at 9:30pm. And we had gotten up at 5:30am that morning! What a day.