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Published: October 23rd 2011
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Varkala Strip
Right on the cliff the thing is….
I’m having some resistance (from the universe, that is) in my numerous attempts to get my camera going. I found a place that sells memory chips, but luckily I tried it out before I left the store, and lo and behold, it didn’t work. My friend Brittany was there so we tried the chip in her camera and no dice. So I still don’t have a chip. But I had the forethought to grab a handful of old chips I had laying around at home. They are 12 MBs, so they only hold 4 to 6 pics each, but I have four of them. As soon as they are full, I move the pics to my little laptop and clear the disk. Rather tiresome, but better than nothing. Brit also has chip issues, namely, hers is full and she has 5 more days in this area. She wanted to upload the pics to a website, but the internet here isn’t able to handle uploading 150 pics. So she is still trying to figure out what to do about that.
Tonight Brit and I met for dinner again, at a different place. I misread my watch and
Rani
My host at Mummy's ended up going there 2 hours early. So I sat down and enjoyed the view of the ocean and got caught up on my writing. The hummus there wasn’t nearly as good as the day before. When Brittany arrived I realized that I needed to get money before all the places closed (Thank you BofA for declining my transaction!!!). As I’m running around taking care of that, we got a torrential downpour. I tried to wait it out, but it wasn’t letting up and I had to get back to the restaurant. So I got the details of our departure confirmed with her and then I had to get back to my room, to get into some dry clothes. The the power went out for an hour or so. So I wasn’t able to Skype with my husband and my sister. Hopefully I will be able to Skype tomorrow. It’s tricky, with the time difference there is only a small window of opportunity to get ahold of people before the wifi provider (café) closes for the night.
Speaking of Brittany, I have to comment on her name. She is the least Brittany person I have ever met. She has dreads, is a vegetarian and teaches the most intense form of yoga. She is aware of the incongruity and I asked her if she ever considered changing her name, at which she just shrugged. I, especially, can’t imagine going through life with a name I didn’t like. Naming me was one thing my parents definitely got right.
So tomorrow we are heading for the backwaters of Kerala at 7am. We’re taking a taxi 15 min ride to the train station ($3.50), then riding the train for 30 min with all the throngs of people heading north for the holiday Divali, which is not celebrated here in Kerala. We’ll see how that goes. It’s only 30 min. Then we are taking a guided canoe trip through the backwaters for 4 hrs ($25). Should be awesome! I’m not sure where we are going to end up sleeping tomorrow, it depends how transportation is. We’re trying to make our way north to Cochin. We might end up at Amma’s ashram, but she is on tour in Europe, otherwise we would have definitely ended up there.
My thoughts on Varkala, now that I’m leaving: I’ve bonded with the place in the last couple of days. I’ve interacted with the locals quite a bit and I’ve been amazed at the number of people I genuinely like here. Their eyes are so soulful, they are jovial and curious and ever so willing to communicate. Today I held a guy’s baby for 20 minutes while he tried to figure out the memory chip issue. First thing everyone wants to know is: where are you from. Most people speak English fluently, which is great.
As for is a Varkala as a destination, I like it a lot and I definitely want to come back. It’s funky, it’s colorful, the palm trees are awesome, but they crammed a lot of guesthouses, restaurants and shops into a very small area. The space between guest houses is about 5 to 10 ft. The placing of it on a cliff gives me concern for the people who live here, in light of the nature issues we have been experiencing in the last years.
There are a lot of Europeans, Russians and Australians that come here. I was here during very low season, which made it a little too quiet for me, but I’m not sure how enjoyable it would have been, had it been crowded.
There are a ton of guesthouses in all price ranges, with the low in low season going for about $7. I paid $13. Mummy’s got excellent reviews on Tripadvisor.com, because of their friendliness and cleanliness. The other guest houses didn’t seem dirty either, though, so in general the place has a lot of decent, cheap places to stay. Some of you might be appalled to stay in a place that costs $ 13 a night, but I can assure you, it’s perfectly fine. I understand that some people like to enjoy luxurious surroundings when they go on vacation, me? – not so much. I like roughing it a bit. Like, I don’t care about air-conditioning, I prefer a good fan. And I don’t need a pool, I wouldn’t use it unless I was the only one around.
Stay tuned for more……..
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