Peace in Varkala

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Kerala has been a vacation, I can’t even call this traveling, it has been too easy and too enjoyable. I spent several days at a homestay 20 miles outside of Alleppey. A family had set up living arrangements for a handful of tourists on their family farm. They were wonderful and the food was among the best I’ve ever eaten. The other guests were a German couple and a blind English couple accompanied by an English guide who had been to India many times. Each evening we would drink heavily and debate the hypothetical question if aliens had observed the last three years of WW2 would they have been able to differentiate who the “moral” or “immoral” nations were between the Germans/Russians/Japanese/Americans, as well as some less heavy things. It was interesting observing blind people, a group I have no experience with. They could tell things which were surprising to me, such as what person was approaching by the sound of their feet and what the food was by smell (I assume that was how they could tell). The woman, Jane, walked off one day. Everyone else had taken a nap during the heat of the day and when people started getting up found that she was not there. An Indian woman who worked in the home said she had seen her walk off about two hours before. For a person with all of their senses, Kerala provides endless opportunities for exploration and adventure. For a person who is blind, it is a death trap. The trails begin and end haphazardly, the areas which are paved are often broken or uneven, the canal system can only be crossed by narrow bridges with no railings, and everywhere the pathways are paralleled by a drop into the water. I thought for sure she had drowned. Everyone set out to look for her. After crossing a bridge and walking down a path for a few minutes I met her ambling towards me. She was in high spirits and had been walking all that time without any problem. I let her lead the way back, it was interesting how she was able to navigate the uneven pathway and anticipate turns in the road. Her mental map must have been pretty good, it was definitely beyond my understanding.

I arrived in Varkala on the 22nd. This is the Indian version of Dahab, without the SCUBA diving. The town is a series of small buildings built between the jungle and a cliff which drops onto a beach. It is beautiful, the weather is perfect, the rooms are cheap and clean. It is full of tourists from whatever region of the world has mass produced hairy white men frolicking in man-thongs, probably Europe.

I found another homestay a few miles north of the city. It is in a secluded area where you can walk for miles along the beach or through the jungles and be alone except for the birds and trees and ocean. In the evenings I’ve been able to sit alone along the cliffs and read and watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean. At the house is another man named Richard, an Englishman who has spent two of the last six years wandering through India. He works as a pizza delivery man and a construction worker in England for a year at a time and uses his saved money to travel. He said initially when he started he wanted to visit the whole world, but he keeps coming back to India and Nepal. I asked him if he was going to do this permanently. He looked at me confused, "I don't know man, I am just trying to have a nice day."

From here I fly from Trivandrum to Udaipur on March 4, have a train to Jaipur on the 8th, a train from Agra to Varanasi on the 21st, hopefully be in Amritsar on the 28th, and then spend my last two weeks in Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh. I wish I could spend more time in Varanasi and Amritsar, but I would prefer to spend as much time as possible in Dharsalama. That will give me about 12 days relaxing in the Himalayas before I start back toward Delhi on April 9th which should give me some wiggle room to make sure I don’t miss my flight home on the April 12th.

Also realized I haven't bathed with hot water yet in 2011, not by choice.

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Comments

[HT Tom]

Travel Adventures
Hi Chris, Sounds like you're doing well. I love to read the stories about the sites you see and people you meet. The destinations are all so foreign, but it looks like you have grown quite accustomed to travelling through India. I look forward to seeing pictures of the Himalayas (one destination I have heard of!) Also sounds like you're visiting some really enjoyable places with clean rooms and good food now. If there are alot of tourists, its probably nice. Sounds like you might be ready to get home (just a little). Enjoy the rest of your time there and stay safe.