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Published: January 23rd 2008
Varkala
We left Kovallam by taxi and arrived up the coast at Varkala 1.5 hours later all for the same price as a Wellington to Johnsonville ride - NZ$40! I could say the trains were fully booked but that would be a lie. I was amazed during our ride how many fabulous houses there were, great big brick houses with fancy iron gates and concrete columns. Certainly different living standards than we have seen so far.
Varkala is similar to Kovallam in that it has a walkway lined with hotels, shops and restaurants. When I say hotels don’t imagine western type hotels, they are lucky to be more than 1 story high, more like motels or guest houses. Anyway on the other side of the walkway is the beach but it is like down the bottom of a steep cliff. I tell you it would be easy to get rid of someone here - just one push on the footpath and splat!
The first night I went to bed at about 9pm and other than waking for 1 hour to move hotels and 1 hour to watch Carl eat dinner, I did not get up until the following
day - 36 hours later. No idea what I had picked up but all I could do was sleep, although a bird did poop on me at breakfast.
Everywhere down here in the South people come for the Ayurveda treatments, supposed to restore balance in your body by purification. It’s a mix of massage, exercise and diet; they say you need to do it daily for more than a few weeks to get any benefits. An example of a treatment is….well…….pour milk over your head for 45 minutes…….what? Lots of Yoga around as well, tourists on the beach doing their thing to the delight and laughter of the locals.
There are crows everywhere in India - OMEN Crows - rather large mean looking buggers. There is no tweeting from these birds, they bloody screech and today one flew off with half a pineapple right off our houseboat table. We also got a surprise when an eagle flew in for a drink out of our swimming pool. We have not seen any animals roaming around since we arrived down South, its so nice not to have to watch every step you take on the roads.
To all of
those who said I would lose weight - SLAP! There may be a few kilo’s gone wayward, but that’s probably only until we get back to Swensons. But in hindsight backpacking (how we explained our holiday) conjures up images of cooking up instant noodles in a camp kitchen, and that’s definitely not what we ended up having to do. It’s more like a budget holiday.
Carl has been told 6 times how he looks like Stephen Flemming. Yes, I know that’s what I said! But they say “same shaped face” - um…have you not noticed the hair!
We have temperatures of early 30’s every day, and at night it’s about 22. We never get AC, not only because its double the price, but we need to get acclimatised to the early 40’s when summer hits.
Food This place had some decent cocktail lists and good prices as well, much better than Kovallam’s options. It took a few tastings but the best option was a Cuba Libra (basically rum and coke with lime), so for the first time in India Carl got to drink something other than beer.
Café Del Mar is a real gem, they have
a coffee machine - a real one and they double the shots, and best of all they put it in takeaway cups - it was fantastic, and checkout their breakfast menu.
Otherwise dinner was at a choice out of the LP book (Lonely Planet) our favourite for fantastic pasta being Trattoria, its right down the end, but has a clothing shop next door not to be missed.
Accommodation Review Kerala Bamboo House - Once again all accommodation was booked out when we went through the internet and LP Book choices. We finally found a room at Kerala Bamboo House on the morning we left and on the promise of 1000 rupees, which, when we arrived changed to 1500 rupees (NZ$50). The place is in a lovely setting, the rooms big and clean bathrooms, but very overpriced for what you get. We also booked our house boat at this hotel.
Kerala Bamboo House Getting a view at the top the cliff at Varkala from your hotel is near impossible, even if you got one you would not get much to look at. There is a beach around the corner that does not have a cliff, you can get views
there, but its not very nice and a walk away from the main area. So we decided as the beach was so far down we would try and get a pool, so we went searching and could not believe how many times we were approached with offers of rooms. Once again we realized you don’t need to pre-book and if everything on the internet is booked, no problem. There were some really clean large rooms available for like NZ$16 (400 rupees). But we wanted a pool and tried once again a hotel we had been ringing from Kovalam for the last few days trying to get in - and we did.
Preeth Ayurveda Hotel - this hotel is great if you are looking for a pool, it caters to every budget, from 700 to 2500 rupees. We had 3 different rooms whilst staying there from 700 to 900. The cheap rooms can be very small but fine, bathrooms adequate. It’s the pool though, it is just fantastic in this heat, very clean, the water is transparent even, its large, great temperature and always a lounger chair available (amazing with Europeans around). We only went to the beach once in
6 days. Unfortunately the General Manager on the counter was easily confused, in saying that he did find us a room each night and was very nice, but found simple things like adding up the cost of 6 nights accommodation, laundry and breakfast - “complicated” - his words. If trying to book keep ringing every day until he finds a room, he gives you the impression he has no idea what he has available day to day until people checkout, and each time we rang available rooms changed. Once we got in we managed to get a room each night for 6 nights. The only problem we had was with the room on the last night, the mattress had flees - mum, dad and the kids had moved in. They changed the mattress and we sprayed but when we got back from tea there were more bugs appeared on the sheets, but that was just too hard for the General Manager to deal with, so we slept in the silk sheets and moved out early.
Preeth Ayurveda Hotel Alleppey
Backwaters WOW we hired a house boat for 22 hours all to ourselves with 3 staff members. We had
a cook, waiter and a driver all to ourselves. The boat meandered through the backwaters which were made up of canals and waterways, divided by rice paddies and strips of land inhabited by villages and lined with palm trees. We sat back in our arm chairs viewing village life being served afternoon tea. We stopped for lunch tied to a tree next to a thin strip of land about 3 feet wide, the stop bank between the rice paddies and a lake. We were served a 2 course meal, (fantastic fish with pineapple sauce) and then the staff disappeared. Wondering where they had gone after 45 minutes I had a peek down the side of the boat and here they were all lying asleep on the floor in the skinny hall way down the side of the boat. We dined at our dining table by candle light and slept in our double room with an ensuite.
It was just great, the amazing sights of village life, living along the strips of land, most only wide enough for one small house. The river sides were brick with steps down to the water in front of every house, where they did
all the washing, from dishes, to bodies to clothes. People wash their bodies with their clothes on in the river, men only lucky enough to strip down to their undies, woman in their full sari. Women doing the washing beat the clothes clean by rubbing with soap on a large flat rock and them smashing the clothes against the rock. The girls do the dishes in the river, whilst the boys swim and fish. Transport is a wooden canoe in the water or a bicycle on the strips of land. In the morning everyone was out down their steps brushing their teeth, the river banks a hive of activity. Their traditional village life seemed peaceful in a tranquil environment.
We stopped for the night at the side of the river, being visited by children wanting pens or chocolate. It normally starts with “Hello” “What’s your name” “Where are you from” “Can we have pen”. Some find it a bit more difficult to converse and just come out with “Give me a pen”. A photo, sometimes an address to send the photo back, and then a “Thank you” and off they go to tell their friends. You know within 5
minutes all children of the village will be passing by…stop… and it starts “Hello” “What’s your name” “Where are you from” “Can we have pen”.
We hired our boat through Kerala Bamboo House in Varkala for 5500 rupees (NZ$190). Definitely recommend, they also have a couple of new boats that were not available when we went.
Alleppey There is nothing to do or buy here, so we rest up and catch up on the news whilst planning our next few days in Cochin - the LP Book promise we will think we are in a European village - YEH right!
Accommodation Review We spent the next couple of nights at the Arcadia Regency which is the best value for money we have come across in India. It was only 1000 rupees (NZ$34) for a fantastic room in a 5 storied hotel with a swimming pool. Hiding in the room we could have been in any western hotel room, spotless, tastefully decorated, TV, spring mattress even and hot water shower, something we have not had for over 2 weeks now. Highly recommend this hotel if you have to stay in Alleppey.
Arcadia Regency Hotel We have booked a
tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) to take us to Cochin tomorrow, 1.5 hours in a tuk tuk, should be lots more fun than a taxi and only NZ$20 for 70 km.
Whats Next We arrived in Cochin yesterday and really enjoyed our tuk tuk ride, and we are now off to upload this into the internet. Well they were right about Fort Cochin, very small but the few small streets where tourists stay are filled with European looking guest houses and restaurants. The beach is lined with old wooden Chinese fishing contraptions, so beach not inviting for a swim, and we saw 2 cows sunbathing on the beach with their friends the goat - oh well.
We will stay here 3 nights and then cross the water to Vypeen Island to rest on the beach for a few days before we can get an overnight train to GOA - yippeeeeee a train ride! On the 26 or 27 January is their public day so trains are full, they have big celebrations here.
Our $ was getting 30 rupees, yesterday it dropped to 29, but today back up to 30, so watching closely.
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raju121
raju
Varaka & Alleppey
W O W VERY BEAUTIFUL AND PICTUROUS BLOG raju :)