A day in Kozhikode

14.2.19

Off we went to explore this city.

One of the highest rated things to do here is S.M. Street. Originally it was all sweet meats but now it’s a fairly long street with some small alleys and roads from it, although the stench of urine makes some difficult to explore.

No longer just sweets, mainly clothes, shoes, bags, fabric, decorative jewellery and the inevitable shops selling plastic items.

From there we walked to Kozhikode beach. Once again google maps took us down little alleyways, but this time there was a way out at the other end.

The beach is impressive but a backdrop of rubbish and building materials massively lets it down.

We saw a crazy dog chasing a jet ski, super cute and we called him over when it stopped. He was so excited and leapt all over us, leaving us very soggy and sandy. He followed us for a while and had a great time with John throwing sticks for him.

I paddled in the Arabian Sea, it was incredibly warm.

Kozhikide is the hottest place we’ve been to so far, we were warned by our driver in Munnar that it would be very hot.

Again, the beach is only really used in the evening by locals who stand at the waters edge in the evenings and use the little stalls to buy snacks or take picnics, so nowhere shady to sit for a while or have a drink.

Our little dog got set upon by a pack further along, we felt guilty as he had followed us into their territory but he was having none of it and saw them all off in the other direction. Thankfully it meant we didnt have to keep him.

We headed for Focus Mall, voted the best locally. The air conditioning was much needed, as was a break from the incessant traffic horns, just heavenly.

John had planned to take me for dinner at a Paragon group restaurant as it’s Valentines Day but we will have to go to bed very early as we have a 7am flight to Delhi tomorrow.

As luck would have it M Grill is part of Paragon and had a restaurant in the food court and we were starving.

The menu was fabulous, many of the usual Keralan dishes, but also dishes from across the world, even shepherds pie!

I chose the shrimp pasta, John had tenderloin steak and we chose a couple of mocktails. It was all perfect.

We then went into a clothes store that was like an Indian Primark / LC Waikiki. Spent ages in there, so many beautiful Indian clothes and some more western items. I bought 2 t shirts, and 2 lovely tops and a red Valentines t shirt for John.

They don’t provide bags but for 5 rupees you can buy a bag made of a stiff paper/cotton material, a much more environmentally friendly idea than paying to get plastic.

We decided to make our way back to the hotel as nothing else really to see. Its just a huge sprawling town, incredibly noisy and grubby.

We passed some very sad areas, this one particularly, it’s dreadful that this poverty still exists and worlds apart from the luxury food and shopping 20 minutes walk away.

Really makes you think and count your blessings.

Near the hotel is a supermarket, quite a rarity, so we went in search of ice cream. The staff were very smily and welcoming, we were clearly the first foreigners ever to shop there.

We seemed to be the only foreigners in the entire city and felt eyes on us the entire time. The staring is relentless and goes on for far too long!

We bought a 400g tub of Carte D’Or creme brulee ice cream, suggested serving size 54g.

Of course we scoffed the lot while playing rummikub back in our air conditioned room.

No it isn’t sugar free, but it is Valentines Day. And we walked nearly 13km today.

I was a little worried by the date stamp on the ice cream. December 2018, and it was very frosty all the way through but John maintained it was fine and that it was the date it was made. It didn’t stop us enjoying it.

Later we popped out for a last pineapple juice and John had 2 battered fried bananas.

In bed at 8pm alarm set for 3.15am. Ola taxi (like Uber) booked for 4am. A bit nerve wracking as they will confirm 10 minutes before the journey.

Fell asleep almost instantly with headphones and a tv programme to drown out traffic and noisy guests.

2 reasons to visit Kozhikode :

1. To eat at M Grill.

2. To get a flight out of there.