Got to the airport at around 6am and had an uneventful flight back to Trivandrum. At the Trivandrum airport they were screening for swine flu. I filled out a form and the mask wearing immigration lady aimed a non-contact thermal probe right between my eyebrows. Zap. Normal temperature. Cool. Then she waved me on. Usual ride back to the ashram; auto-rickshaw to the train station. The auto-rickshaw driver kept begging me for 5 dollars. I told him I didn't have any dollars on me, only rupees. He must have thought I was lying cause he kept pestering me for 5 bucks. Jeez, buddy, give it a rest. I gave him a 20 rupee tip at the train station and he looked at me like I handed him a pile of feces along with news that his whole family perished in a train wreck. Ouch. I scuttled guiltily into the station and got into the ticket line. Glancing outside I saw the poor guy still there, staring at me with a sad expression. Ouch again.
About an hour before the train got to my stop it cleared out, leaving lots of empty benches. Cool. I stretched out on a bench and asked the Indian man nearby to tap me when we got to Kayamkulam. Then I had a wonderful snooze. I felt a gentle tapping on my head. The man smiled and said "Kayamkulam". Thanks! I hopped off and hopped on to an auto-rickshaw and buzzed back to the ashram. Felt great to be back. Looks like the non-stop rain we had for 5 days finally cleared up.
Later that afternoon one of the western admin office guys knocked on my door. He was surprised to see me open the door. He said "Oh! You're here. I thought you checked out." I said I just left for 2 days for my visa travel. He said "OK, I was going to clean the room, but no need to now." I said "Wait! Its no problem. You can clean!" He just smiled and walked away.
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