I called Nila, the only laundry service on the cliff to do a laundry pick-up on December 28th. Since then I have begged, pleaded and on one occasion jumped in front of their truck as they pulled out of the hotel next door. Many times they assured me that there would be a tuck to pick up my laundry within the hour, but they didn't say which hour.
Early in the New Year I piled my laundry in to a garbage bag and took it to the Nila store front in Varkala. It turns out that the shop in town is a retail location for dry cleaning only and unaccustomed to regular laundry and dramatic gestures. They got the owner on the phone for me, who assured me that I needed to rush back to the cliff to await the imminent arrival of the fabled Nila truck. Do I need to explain that it did not come and that I had to return to town the following day to complete unfinished errands?
Later, I learned that the tuk-tuk drivers had placed bets on what I was lugging around in the black garbage bag. From their colourful guesses, I think it is safe to say some of them are afraid of me.
Desperate for clean bed sheets for the guesthouse, I was forced to be creative (and by creative I don't mean flipping the dirty sheets and putting them back on the bed like Adil does).
There is a mom and pop hand laundry service at Temple Junction that I use sometimes. It is not a perfect solution because the sheets come back a little more yellow each time they are washed despite the use of strong bleaching powders.
So now it is the middle of January and I must watch the Nila truck unload at the hotel next door.
Later, I learned that the tuk-tuk drivers had placed bets on what I was lugging around in the black garbage bag. From their colourful guesses, I think it is safe to say some of them are afraid of me.
Desperate for clean bed sheets for the guesthouse, I was forced to be creative (and by creative I don't mean flipping the dirty sheets and putting them back on the bed like Adil does).
There is a mom and pop hand laundry service at Temple Junction that I use sometimes. It is not a perfect solution because the sheets come back a little more yellow each time they are washed despite the use of strong bleaching powders.
Mom in her shop.
The irons get filled with burning coconut shells to heat them for use,
which explains why there are piles of coconut shells and charcoal in front of her counter.
Hand laundry services are often unreliable because they are so physically demanding that workers are often sick (and because they cannot dry clothes in the rain). Fortunately for me, mom looks like she is made of leather and it is not rainy season.
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