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Published: December 29th 2012
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Everyone says “you’ve got to go to Goa.” So we did. Benolium Beach was a little slice of paradise. The water is warm, the surf is mellow and the sunsets are to die for. It is an easy place to spend time in. Calm waters flow into fine white sand. Days are spent practicing yoga, taking long walks and working on tanning. Goa is different from the rest of India. Alcohol flows freely, bikini clad tourists flaunt their skin and vendors are laid back when selling their wares. I can see why people spend their entire winter on these beaches and never venture far away. We, however, continued south to Kochi, Kerala.
I liked Fort Cochin immediately. It’s a laid back coastal town shaded by tall trees and the high walls of its Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial architecture. Along the water, a line of Chinese-style fishing nets that are lowered and raised by groups of men hauling in the daily catch of seafood that disappears into kitchens in all the locals homes and restaurants.
We spent our days in town wandering the spice scented streets. We walked through Fort cochi, venturing through Jew Town and the famous
synagogue. The streets were crowded with locals, women in saris carrying umbrellas for shade, out shopping for rice and vegetables. When the sun got to hot we’d head back to our guest house for a cold drink and rest. We had a great time in Fort Cochin and the surrounding area. We had planned to only spend a few days there but really liked it so stopped for a week. It was very quiet very little traffic with lots of small alleyways to wander and get lost in.
After leaving Kochi (Fort Cochin, somebody keeps changing all the place names) we moved on to Alappuzha (Alleppey, they've changed that one as well) which is one of the stagging post for the rice house boat trips on the backwaters of Kerala. The backwaters are known as Venice of the East. People live and worked on the rivers. Water taxis make regular runs like buses would in a city, villages are built on canals and shops and markets sit on the river banks. People use canoes as autos and pathways are made to walk from village to village. There didn’t seem to be a reason for anyone to even leave the
back waters.
The scenery was quite beautiful and the food is excellent. We opted out of the house boat option as we are on my budget and the house boats are much to expensive. Instead we got to enjoy two 8 hour day trips one out of Cochi and one in Alleppey. While in Cochi we were in a group setting and got to do a spice garden tour, in Alleppy we had our own individual boat and got to see how the locals live and also our guide took us off into the canals to walk around which was great.
We spent a few days in the city of Kollam which wasn’t particularly pleasing but a stop on our way to our final destination in India Varkala. We have planned to spend two weeks over the Christmas holidays. We rented a cozy little two bedroom apartment with a kitchen where dad spends most of his time perfecting yummy indian dishes.
Varkala has a strange cliff colony of would be hippies and holiday makers. The main event is all along the cliffs above lovely sandy beaches - a narrow lane with shops on one side and a
200 foot drop to certain death on the other and no fence; Varkala is not for the faint hearted or drunk.
Nothing much happens here although we have seen people climbing coconut trees and a bus ran into a power line cutting off power to most of the community for a few hours. Varkala is becoming a routine after breakfast, we descend the cliff to the beach and spend a couple of hours bodysurfing before the searing sun drives us to one of the many cliffside restaurant bars, the perfect place to pass the late morning and the better part of the afternoon reading while drinking a succession of fresh lime sodas and cold coffees in the shade. By the late afternoon, Varkala's stifling heat and humidity began to give way to cooler temperatures and some semblance of a breeze, as we walk to get groceries for the night and head back for seiesta at home. After our sleep in the hot afternoon, we head for beers on the cliff and some chess matches. Surfing the net in the evening and then dinner as the sun goes down. In short, it was a day of not doing a whole
lot in particular, but one well spent. After the 6 weeks we needed the break but the change in pace is a little disconcerting.
One funny thing about Kerala is that a lot of the restaurants don’t have an alcohol licence so you get your beer in a giant tea mug and the bottle wrapped in newspaper and hidden under your table. I can’t believe that the police walking by don’t know what’s going on when they see a load of drunk tourists drinking brown foamy stuff out of a tea cup with a not very well hidden bottle.
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