Reading through the guide book and hearing stories of Goan adventures inspired the idea in my mind that renting a motorbike would be an incredibly dangerous idea, which of course means, sign me up right now. In pursuit of this I’ve been asking all over town in countless bike shops about renting motorbikes. After giving me blank stares, usually I had to ask for “hiring” bikes, with my r’s rolled. That way they could understand me enough to say no, and that they didn’t have any idea where I could either. Finally I found somewhere that said the expected no, but they did know somewhere that I could. “Unicorn motors,” they told me, “on Airport Road. Somewhere.” Seeing as how my school is half a block off of Airport Road, this sounded fantastic. I set off for school with intentions of giving a hunt down for this place afterschool. Lo! and behold, on my way to school in the morning, I notice a scooter zooming past, and on the sparetire-cover is an add for Unicorn Motors. There were what looked like two phone numbers, one of which I missed, and the other being 3333333, I actually caught it in the passing of the scooter. So, this number in my brain, after school I head straight to the STD/ISD – or, to ye uninitiated, the payphone. (Buffalo Thompson, anyone?) I dial up the phone number, ask if it’s Unicorn Motors. This being India, of course it wasn’t. But she could tell me the number if I wanted. Yes, I wanted. Called the number. Learned first in English, then in Kannada that the number had been changed. Called that number. “Is this Unicorn Motors?” Nope. Wrong number. Disillusioned, I set off for a phonebook. Amazingly, found one. Looked up the number. Amazingly, found it. Called the number. “Yes, this is Unicorn Motors,” I barely heard over the traffic noise. “Do you hire motorbikes?” “Sorry?” “Mo-to-r Bi-kes??” “Yes yes! Motorbikes!” I got an address in somewhere I had never heard of (Aganynagar er something), told it was across from Reliance Mobile, on the main street. Hopped in an autorickshaw, rattled off all I knew, and off I went. Soon I was basically leaving Bangalore and way out in some fields on some highway worrying with the thought that this driver might pull a Rio de Janeiro and working on memorizing his license number. Well, got to some almost entirely dirt-paved ‘burb/village. Saw Reliance Mobile, looked across the street, and there it was. Got out, walked in. “So, you rent motorbikes?” “You want a motorbike?” “Yes, for rent.” “Sorry, rent?” “Hire. For hire.” “Oh, for hire. Sorry, we don’t hire motorbikes.” “Oh.” “But, we are a branch office. Here is the phone number of the main office, they hire scooters.” Finally, this number really worked. I got the low down and the address. Not on Airport Road, but also not out in the middle of some village. 100 rupees($1.25)/24hrs for a Honda Kinetic, which seems a pretty nice kind of scooter. I love the way to find things here. Back home I just stumble to the old glowing button machine and type something into the information super highway. Now one of these weekends (my number of weekends here is dwindling at an alarming rate) I and some adventurous others can go ride off somewhere fun.

Oh, and mom. Don’t read any of that part because renting a scooter is a horrible idea that I would never consider. Though if someone forced me to at gun point consider it, I yes will wear a helmet.

I’m taking a train to Kerala! I’m sooo excited to ride the train. There was a big derailment a week ago, lots dead. That makes it SO much more exciting! Besides, trains really are just pretty damned cool.

Here’s some info on Kerala, for which I will be leaving Wednesday night, and from which I will be returning the following Wednesday mornin’:

“Kerala lies in the southern part of India. In the east is the state of Tamil Nadu and some parts of the northeast is bordered by the state of Karnataka. The state is divided in to three geographical units; (a) highlands, (b) midlands and (c) lowlands. The slope down from the Western Ghats is the highlands and is at an average elevation of 900 meters and having some peaks of 800 meters in height. The midlands are between the mountains and the low land. This is an area of thick cultivation. The low lands are the low-lying areas in the costal region, river deltas and the backwaters.

“There is an interesting legend about the genesis of Kerala, which is held true by theists. Parasuram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu slaughtered about twenty-one generations of Kshatriyas (the warrior caste) in a fit of anger. But soon after the monstrous act, overcome by a deep sense of regret he retired to the Western Ghats and went into penance. The gods were moved by this and offered him a stretch of land that his axe could cover. The Western Ghats was then running along the coast of the Arabian sea. Parasurama flung his axe across the sea and it is believed the land that emerged from the depths along the trajectory came to be known as Kerala.

“Kerala has a warm tropical climate the most pleasant with no extremes of hot or cold. Throughout the year the mercury varies between 32º Celsius and 22º Celsius. Summer is from March to May while December, January and February are the months of pleasant winter. Kerala gets her annual rainfall from June to August followed by a week northeast monsoon. The southwest monsoon strikes Kerala first before advancing northwards to the rest of the country. The monsoon is in the Aushadi Masam (June & July), the month for rest and recuperation.”