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Published: March 17th 2009
Coir Village
Leaving Coir Village the girls get ready to board the little shuttle boat across the river to the parking lot while staff look onJanuary 11th - 15th - ABD
A multinational convoy of three Jeeps packed to the roof with luggage and people made their way further South to Varkala on the morning of the 11th. We had enjoyed a champagne brunch at the Coir village before boarding our transport and heading into a new adventure.
We arrived at the very disappointing Seapearl Chalets, and crammed ourselves into a small chalet in pairs. Tim was feeling crook and I was still recovering from the “Delhi Belly”.
Varkala Beach is surrounded by cliffs and is nowhere near as lovely as the Goan Beaches. On top of these cliffs there is a long shopping and restaurant street which is mainly run by the Tibetan community.
Most of us enjoyed shopping more than beaching and the days flew by.
On the second day in Varkala, Alan went exploring only to return with two broken arms. We had not realized at the time the severity of the situation, but made ourselves to the local hospital to get some X-Rays done. The hospital was something out of a 50’s film. Everything was very clean and they seemed to have a fairly good system in place as we didn’t have
Convoy of Relatives
Driving through the Jungle on our way to Varkala a convoy of three 4x4 cars and too much luggage! to wait at all before getting the attention of the doctors and nurses. The equipment that was available for them to work with however, was a different story.
I cringed when I realized that my father in law was being x-rayed without wearing any protective aprons and worse still, the nurses seemed to twist his arms into various painful positions, to get the result they hoped from the century old x-ray machine.
After plenty of back and forth in which we needed to convince the doctor that both of Alan’s arms where in serious pain, we ended up walking out of the hospital with Alan’s left and right arms in slings and a bag full of pain killers. The whole thing ended up costing a ridiculously low amount, no more than 20 dollars!
The next day when Alan returned to the hospital, the doctor put his right arm in a cast but left the left arm in a sling.
When Alan returned to Australia 3 weeks later, his physio discovered that the left arm too had been fractured. Something that did not come up from the age old X-ray machine in India.
On my father and brothers last day in
India, we decide to go and take an elephant ride in the jungle. We got into the black “Scorpio” and started driving. We had absolutely no idea where we where heading but kept asking local villagers for directions to elephants. It was a funny affair and about an hour later we arrived at a place where supposedly we would get to ride an elephant.
The 6 of us, Maya, Andrew, Stacey, Claus, Yiannis and I stood baffled in front of a mother and baby elephant that where chained to a concrete floor. A few men where hosing them down and the baby elephant, playful at such a young age, kept being beaten by one of the men. The chains where so short that the elephants could hardly move two feet, a sight that broke everyone’s heart. We had seen enough and not one of us wanted to ride an elephant anymore. Saddened from the sight we returned to Varkala.
Every evening each of the restaurants would display the variety of fresh fish they had caught in the ocean that day. It was absolutely unbelievable. There where hundreds of sharks, swordfish, catfish, snappers, crabs, lobsters, squid, kingfish and many other varieties
on display. Every night, the fishing boats on the horizon of Varkala would seem like an entire city as they floated, lit up, catching more fish.
Tim told us one night that this over exploitation of marine life created an unprecedented change in the marine biology of the area, as there are no longer sufficient numbers of predators to keep their population growth in balance. The jellyfish now seems to evolve in size to the point where they are now almost “jumbo sized” jelly fish floating around in the bottom of the ocean. Not a good thing for smaller organisms trying to survive.
I wandered what happens to the fish caught in a day that aren’t sold that evening. They are not put back onto display the next evening as there is a fresh catch. I was told that they are made into fish curry. But really, how much fish curry can one place sell a day? I assume that it all gets thrown away.
Our time in Varkala, is a bit of a haze to Andrew and me. We where so overwhelmed with the whole wedding thing, still recovering from our respective illnesses and wanting to spend quality time
Varkala
On top of the cliff the little huts are the ones we stayed at. Wouldnt recommend the 2x2 sized room nor the nasty owner. The view was spectacular but definately overpriced with everyone of our guests. It was all a little impossible really. But we enjoyed having everyone around us and the weather was gorgeous and those days in Southern India will always hold a special place in our memory. I know of no other couple that has been more loved and supported by both sides of each others families, who had so many people fly over to a challenging part of the world to be with them on their special day or who made a bigger effort to make it as special as it was.
I am eternally grateful for those days spent with everyone on one beach, for the stimulating conversations and relaxing dinners, for the genuine will to get along and the value each and every one has attached to that time. Having my friends over made it even more special, Stacey and Alice both, although I realize that at times it may not have been easy for them.
On the day my father and brother left for Trivandrum airport to fly back to Cyprus, I felt sad that our time together had been so short. On the way back to Varkala, to console my grief, we made
The Demetriou/Dutton Clan
Alexia Dutton, Maya Demetriou, Claus Demetriou, Yiannis Demetriou and Andrew Dutton a quick stop at “SUBWAY”, unbelievable but yet so true, in the middle of the Keralan Jungle, rising above the palm trees, there it was! I was like a kid in a candy store. Good wholemeal Bread, same Australian quality, yummy yummy cold cuts, the undeniable taste of honey mustard sauce (or American imperialist globalization, as my husband who by the way gorged on two of those footlong subby’s, would say!)
A few days later we said our goodbyes to my parents in law, Bek, Adam and Belle and Anjali and Tim. We where becoming less and less. The next day, Alice, Maya, Stacey, Andrew and I set off in the black “Scorpio” to Fort Cochin. On the way we dropped off Stacey at the Bus station. Another sad goodbye.
Andrew drove in true Indian Style, “pushing horn ok” all the way to Alleppey. We stopped at the ATDC Office, the headquarters of Coir Village where we had the wedding and asked our contact, Devadas, for the promised photographs. On the day we agreed that we would have the wedding at their venue they had asked if it was ok to send their own photographer to the wedding as they
wanted to use it for future advertisement of their resort. Of course we agreed and they happily confirmed we would get a copy of the DVD and the photos.
Devadas seemed surprised to see us at the doorstep of his office and was quick to make excuses as to why he did not have anything to give us although more than a week had gone by since the wedding. I guess by Indian standards that is considered far too soon. He promised to send us the material to Goa where we where planning to stay for a month.
We continued our journey to Fort Cochin, where we were to drop off the car and have Saki (the car owner) drive us to the airport.
My mother and Alice quickly went for another round of shopping while Andrew and I made our way to the Vasco Da Gama Church.
It wasn’t long before we where on our way to Delhi.
Friday January 16th 2009 - ATD
Today we left Varkala and ended our stay perched above Varkala beach at the Seapearl Chalets. Maya, Alice, Alexia and I made the long journey north to Cochin in our hire car. Over the
week or so we have grown very fond of this car, a black 4x4 Mahindra Scorpio. With it we have weaved in and out of countless goods trucks (most with the senseless instruction ‘horn ok please’ emblazoned on the back), inched our way down impossibly crowded backstreets and ferried our wedding guests up and down the coast of Kerala.
We met the man who had made the illegitimate car-hire possible back in the cozy streets of Fort Cochin. Sakki is a man who I at first took to be a dodgy wheeler and dealer, but on closer inspection found to be just trying to scrape by on making an honest living like most people we have met here. As part of the deal, he drove us back to the Airport, on the way being sternly told by my new mother-in-law that he should marry only for love.
Our flight took us all the way back up to the Indian capital Delhi, stopping via Hyderabad on the way. We arrived at the hotel I had pre-booked over the internet after midnight, exhausted from a very long day of travelling. To our dismay the Hotel we had arrived at was not the
Chill out Sunset
Our Chalets Garden proved a little haven for chilling out. Claus, Stacey and Andy, taking it easy one we had pre-booked, but another one of the proprietor’s properties. Too exhausted to argue or look for somewhere else to spend the night, we made our way upstairs.
I was feeling a little on edge, as the next day I was to be trying to pick up a job at the Council of International Schools (CIS) recruitment fair. Alexia did a sterling job of preparing me for the day, urging me correctly that dressing well on the day would be important in making a good impression on the recruiters. The day before we had picked up some leather shoes and a nice grey shirt for me to wear, and she selflessly spent the last moments of her day ironing my trousers while I rested.
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