Varkala

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Hello again,so we got to Varkala by train, our first train journey but not the last, from Allepey which was another place I didnt want to leave but once I saw where we were I was absolutely delighted. It was night time when we arrived so unfortunately we weren't able to swim or so we thought. We booked into a really nice place called Bamboo village and obviosly all the huts were made from bamboo so this was another first experience for us. Didnt do too much the first night, got some beer, got our bearings on the surounding area and got nicely acquinted with Abby the guy who runs Bamboo village who took a liking to us immediately. So sim went off to bed and i drank some beers got the dutch courage on the go and at about 3 in the morning decided to find the beach and go for a swim, not the brightest idea but it was so amazing. We basically live on the top of a cliff looking out onto the ocean with a beautiful beach just beneath,like paradise, so for the last week all we've been doing is lying on the beach, tanning or burning for me, lots of swimming, some boarding, the waves are huge its really unbelievable and definately the best of the trip so far. We got Abby who I call Happy down 200 hundred rupies since we got here so we are actually paying the same price as the single rooms, i hook him up with a beer once in a while so its all pretty sweet. We went for a small day trip around a few really small and local villages and got a taste of the not so touristy part and I climbed about 20 feet of a coconut tree but got tired and had to come down, tough work but sim got a good picture.We've found 2 dogs on the beach where we usually pan out for the day and they have 9 tiny puppys, so small and so cute about 3 weeks old, they can hardly even stand so we've been bringing them cookies for the last few days cos they look hungry so thats kinda cool too. Prob going to do some yoga tomorrow to see what its like cos its huge down here, every second shop is a yoga class.Weve been going out for 1 or 2 beers at night to some really cool bars and I finally got to see myfirst football match on a tv , yes a tv, the other night so I was super excited espeially getting to see the City game, it made my night and thats pretty hard because evrything here is just 1 fantastic experience after another, all day everyday, and thats it for now, going home to chill out crack open a beer and listen to the sound of the waves crash off the cliff about 20 feet away from our hut. Boom.



So we got train from Alleppey to Varkala to enjoy sun and sea and to start off our travels by proper lazy holidays. The moment we got here, I got very disappointed as we found ourselves in this terrible touristic spot full of tourists, stalls selling touristy stuff and expensive restaurants with pizzas and pastas on the menu. We stayed in pretty much the first place we went to check out, the Bamboo village, as I was dying to try out staying in a bamboo hut to have the proper beach holiday feeling experience. I think Davy loved everything about Varkala with its touristy spots except the hut. Shortly after checking in, we realised you can hear everything as the bamboo is simply a bamboo and not a real wall. It didn't take long for both of us to completely change our minds. This place is absolutely awesome, with amazingly beautiful beaches, clean and insanely warm water, huge waves so you can spend hours and hours having fun in the ocean, friendly people who stopped trying to sell us stuff (one the reasons could be that I bought a few things really really cheap and they don't want to see me in their shop again) and a great bamboo hut that is just perfect addition to this place. It's lovely to wake up in the morning and being able to hear the waves down under the cliff and birds flying above us. We also found real local Indian restaurants free of tourists where they even don't speak English and just give you whatever they have cooked, without any menu, without spoon and for 1/5 of the touristy prices. Davy is absolutely awesome with all the local kids, stocking up on lollies and sweets and giving them to the children whenever he can. You just have to love when their eyes light up every time they get one. We spend pretty much every day on the beach trying to get some tan, Davy keeps working on his killer sudokus and I read this great book from Dalai Lama and we could easily spend the whole 4 months here and we are already planning to come back as soon as we save some money for it. Doing some Wikipedia research, it turned out that Varkala is a holly place and local waters are supposed to wash sins away so I think if Davy had any, they all must be gone by now. Also there is this Black beach close to us that - surprise surprise - has black sand and apparently that contains some radioactive compounds. We tried the famous Indian Ayurvedic massage, full body massage using a proper herbal oil that I absolutely loved and Davy not that much (as Davy had a sore neck and whenever he told the guy not to push that much, he pushed even more as he didn't have any english 😊. I also went to Hatha yoga class. I was planning to do yoga every day but my muscles were so sore after the first one that I'm still waiting for a full recovery so I can go again. But I definitely made bigger progress during this one class than over last few years back home. But even without yoga you simply can't avoid finding yourself meditating while sitting on the beach, watching sunset, feeling the Indian air and hearing people playing bongos around. One of the days when we were completely sunburnt and yoga sore, we rented a tuk-tuk for the afternoon. It was so cool just to be looking at the real life while driving around and we also visited a few temples around Varkala. It's so hard to describe the feeling of being here, it's like a paradise. Not mentioning again the hours of enjoying sun and the ocean, the highlight for me was when we got our fake wedding rings. We were thinking about getting some cheap rings so we could say we are married when travelling further to Cambodia and Laos. We didn't look much for them yet but then visited a shop of a guy who we met in Alleppey train station and Davy took a picture with his son. We entered his shop and were politely looking at some rings and then we said we wanted to get the same ones for both of us and he didn't have any. Davy was trying on his finger this thick silver ring and then we got this brilliant idea that he could cut it half for us and he did. So we have a ring each now that used to be one ring before 😊 I am so happy we had this idea and even the guy said he never saw anything like that before, cutting a ring into two. So I think that's all the news from here, sorry for a million of pictures with us on a beach or us and the sunset, it is hard not to take them and not to upload them.

We are staying here for 3 more days, then flying to Delhi on 9.2.2013 and finally meeting Indu and going to Nainital for a few days with her to meet her family and see the north of India.



Czech version:

Prvni prejezd vlakem na jih do Varkaly. Ja jsem propadla mirnemu zdeseni hned, co jsme dorazili na misto. Kolem samy turista, stanek vedle stanku s turistickymi vecmi, drahe restaurace nabizejici pizzu, pastu, hovezi hamburger (cily nesmysl zde v Indii) a luxusem evrospkych zachodu a mydel. Netrvalo dlouho nez me me rozcarovani opustilo a my si zacali uzivat nadhernych plazi, slunicka, uzasne tepleho more a pratelskych lidi. Doslo to tak daleko, ze si tajne prejeme abychom cele ty 4 mesice mohli zustat tady. Takze naprosto uprimne travime vetsinu casu na plazi, zkousime se trochu opalit abychom nebyli ti nejbelejssi lidi a cele hodiny plaveme a blbneme ve vlnach. V minimu zbyleho casu jsme zvladli zajit na ayurvedskou masaz (naprosto dokonala), na hatha jogu (uzasna) a na jeden celodenni vylet tuk-tukem po okoli a okolnich klasterech. Bydlime v bambusove chaticce, ktera se nam ze zacatku tak uplne nepozdavala, ale nakonec je to skvela tresnicka na dortu, slysime vlny z utesu pod nami a ptaky poletujici na nad nami. Chystali jsme se s Davym koupit si nejake levne prstynky, abychom mohli predstirat, ze jsme manzele ve vzdalenejsich koutek sveta Kambodzi a Laosu. Uplne nahodou jsme se ocitli v kramku cloveka, ktereho jsme potkali na nadrezi v Alleppey. Zkouseli jsme si v jeho obchudchu nejake prstynky, ale pak jsme mu rekli, ze jsme si stejne chteli koupit dva stejne a v tom nas napadlo, ze bysme si mohli nechat jeden z tech prstynku rozriznout na pulku a tim padem mit kazdy svuj prstynek. Naproste genialni napad. Clovek, Davy mu rika Santa, rikal, ze teda jeste nic nikdy takoveho neslysel a souhlasil, prstynek nam do druheho dne prerizl vejpul a tak ted mame s Davym kazdy svuj 😊 Posilame milion fotek z plaze a zapadu slunce, to se proste neda to nefotit a nevim, kdy se zase dostaneme na internet. V sobotu letime do Delhi, za Indu a pak se s Indu chystame do jejiho rodneho Nainitalu.

Vsechno nejlepsi k narozeninam mym nejdrazsim rodicum (se zpozdenim a predstihem) preje Simuska

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