Varkala, Kerala

I haven’t got huge amounts to say about Varkala. We went there so Gaia could write her first chapter, and that she did. We spent most of the time eating and relaxing after a lot of hectic travelling on night buses etc.

Varkala could be really beautiful, but for the ever present rubbish. Its a beach with a cliff above it and the tourist shops and restaurants at the top of the cliff.

Some of the shops/restaurants have an out of sight out of mind mentality to their waste, they simply tip it over the cliff and down onto the beach. Looks ok from the top as long as you don’t lean too far over, but looks terrible from the sea or the beach. Another place living on borrowed time, before its so disgusting, noone wants to go there.

This aside, its a nice place to spend some time, if a little over populated by tourists with roll along luggage. We generally prefer to get a bit further off the beaten track, but needed good internet for Gaia and for me to upload a load of pictures.

Anyway, i’ve put all that weight i lost back on again, i thought i was supposed to lose weight here. Presumably lady luck is saving up a really nasty bug for me, i hope not tho’.

We went to a festival a few miles from Varkala, which was amazing and over the top as you’d expect. Drumming of all types, but mostly rythmic and LOUD! The floats were amazing, with roaring lions, giant monkey gods who stood up and laughed manically, and all sorts of colourful performances and costumes. Photos to follow soon.

Then we got the train to Allepey to do the backwater thing, but this turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, with the boat staff not really getting what it was that we were after by way of an experience. We’d booked 2 days, and a far as they were concerned, this meant the same as a one day trip, just much slower. All the other boats were overtaking us, so all we could see and smell was the other boats.

We eventually left the rest behind on the second day, but they were angry when i told them i didn’t want to listen to their bollywood DVD while we went along ( yes there was a TV onboard ) It kind of went downhill from there, with the staff being more interested in their experience than ours. They finished by trying to moor next to the public boat jetty for the night, but we insisted on moving. I wouldn’t recommend this trip to anyone really, there are better things to do with your time. If you do have to do it, don’t book the boat remotely, go there and choose a nice small one that can squeeze down the smaller canals.

Now we are in Trivandrum and tomorrow we go to the Maldives to see the coral reef restoration projects and see whats being done to combat sea level rise and interview the new president. Can’t wait.

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~ by Nick on February 27, 2009.