Finally flip-flops....

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Time for a break, time for flip-flops....

Ok, this is our private 10 day holiday. We were on the road for more that 4 months and our last decent holiday was in Nov 2008, time for a break, time for flip-flops....

Knowing that our India trip would be shorter as planned (no six months visa and only a single entry), we decided to do it properly and fly to Varkala and bbasically do nothing. It was harrd work, but we succeeded. We managed to undergo a 7 day massage treatment, with the beach 2 minutes from our place: pretty nice. The food in our favorite place (Johnney's Cool Cafe) was a struggle everytime we got there: all 100%!f(MISSING)resh (the cutting of the veggies or prepareing of the curries happened only once an order for it was made....), but it took more than 1 hour every time. The suffering we endured.... Hanging in the hammock, sipping your beer / fruit juice while waiting for your dinner. In one word: Tough!

After the 7-days treatment, we were off to Allepey for a 24 hours boat trip on the backwater. For the experts among us: Giethoorn, but then tropical.

So that's all the comments and enjoy the pics!!!!

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Photos

Our beach
Yes, time to drool guys, this is where we spent 10 days. Odaya beach in Varkala. The funny thing is huge hotels cant be built here due to the weakness of the ground. Many people like this!

A lazy day in the shade
Johnny Cool Cafe in Varkala with the best chef in town.

Fishermen at work
They pull the fishing net from the shore and hoping for a good catch!

Sunset on the beach
no comment...

Bananas, bananas...
They are so sweet and tasty, uncomparable to what you get back at home.

Kerala women in a festival
No comment, they are just beautiful

Enormous animal
One of the dressed up elephants at a local festival in Kerala.

Ornament on a Hindi temple gate
Many temples have such ornaments on their roofs in South India, they are so colorful and tell so many stories.

The Keralan backwaters
We spent 24 hours on a private houseboat - all for ourselves. It was a lovely trip with very friendly crew and a great cook!

Our boat
Hired for 24 hours with a cook and 2 crewmen. Nice views, great food, special experience.

Women in water
They use it as a bath, as a dishwashing sink, part of their daily life.

Paddy workers
Kerala grows loads of rice, and these people work under the hot sun every day. They umbrellas are pretty handy.

Check out
Boats on their way back to the dock in the morning after breakfast.

Comments

[Patrik]

Nice !
Not bad at all!!! Must say it is a nice way to get to know a country ;-) just wondering about that boat, so did a family had to sleep outside for a night for you guys to rent that boat? You rich capitalistic westerns! Though that hammock looks just fine for one night, guess they didn't mind ;-)

[Lawrence]

The updates for the last two months....
Hi Agi and Chris ! It was some time since I wrote back to you in response to your blog so my apologies come right here (ç+”*£äüö*&/&). You remember that I have gone through some changes in my relationship (single again, I am!) that being the main reason for my withdrawal, or rather the lack of time. But rest assured that I have read every blog text you wrote and I am pretty much up to date what, where and how you done and ate and how you felt during and afterwards of it. I must say that I am envious but full of admiration for the patience, courage and adventurous spirit you show each day I must look for a companion that can do the same with me! On that front, there is no shortage of candidates but they all fall behind in qualifying for some areas when I put them to the tests … but I enjoy testing them, so finding my next companion can take some time :) You will be happy to know that your stuff is still safely tucked in my basement. Janet has moved out and I am living alone (most of the time) in now “my own” apartment. I make no immediate plans to move out of it, though eventually, yes, I will do so, because this one is too far out of town and, to large for me, and therefore expensive. With the many friends I have in Lux I am sure I will be able to find something cheaper and closer to town, perhaps even in Limpersberg, and in decent square meters size. Or so I hope. But in the meantime, your stuff stays where you put it. Your fridge was being used for storing Yukon’s chicken, but not any more, I will probably turn it off as I am not a big eater myself, and since I don’t cook (in the learning process) the amount of food I store is no that large. Ending my note here as I still have to do some work and want to end earlier today to make it to my French lesson. Keep up the writing! Don’t stop the adventures! Good Luck! Lawrence

[Winnie]

Hallo daar!
That sounds really good, all this relaxing! About the same we are doing now, we are on the 4000 islands in Laos en doing nothing else than reading, swimming, enjoying the sun and eating really good food. Tommorrow we will go back to Cambodia and we really look forward to it. I think we lost your emailadress by the way, or I just don't remember were I wrote it down... Can you sned it to us? Greets, Erwin and Winnie