Blogs from Varkala, Kerala, India, Asia - page 4

So we arrived in Varkala with the hope of a well deserved beach break (after not working for 3 months, yeah right). On arrival the place looked like everything we wanted, the sea, restaurants that sort of looked clean and shops. We decided to take a gamble and book into the mother palace guesthouse, which had ok reviews on hostelworld, but none on our favourite resource, trip advisor. When we got there all we wanted was a cold shower as it was absolutely boiling that day, and with around 8 hours of travel under our belts we could no longer blame the smell on nearby locals. Our room was nice and had a good view from the balcony to the sea. We only paid around £5 between us too. We were happy, until night time. After ... read more

Driving around Kerala one of the things you immediately notice is the amount of communist iconography that is hung, pasted and tied throughout the towns of Kerala. In most towns the majority of houses and shops will have at least one communist flag hanging proudly on display, bill boards with posters of local communist politicians, Lenin and Che Guevara are also commonplace. Posters of Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong Sung (North Korea) are noticeable in their absence, guess though tyrants don’t make such good poster boys. Kerala is India’s one and only communist state, though what this means in practice though I’m not sure. It struck me as very odd that an extreme left wing ideology that is anti capitalist and anti democratic would find any major support in a very materialistic, very capitalist and very democratic ... read more

I feel like load has happened already since last week! There's been dramas, sun, loads of drinking and backwaters to name a few things..... On Sunday we got up MEGA early, and took a trip in a rickshaw to meet some dude who took us to the Backwaters (organised by Uncle - the owner of the House, he's not really called Uncle, he's just the nicest and kindest man ever, that he's totally worthy of that name!). It was a 7 hour hour round trip, we saw loads.. toddy tapping, a woman making rope, had some chai with some islanders at their house, went on a canoe.. I've attached a few pics below :) Monday morning it was time for us to move on and say goodbye to Uncle. We took a 4 hour train to ... read more

WE CONTINUED TO FOLLOW INDIA’S WEST COAST southward until we reached the beach town of Varkala, beloved throughout Kerala and much of India for its blond beaches and dramatic cliffs which face the Arabian sea. The narrow, red dirt path that stretches out along the cliff face is overflowing with seafood restaurants, ayurvedic spas, small resorts and shops. Although well touristed, Varkala has a sophisticated feel to it, with flowy resort dresses outnumbering hippie pants and a far less stinky crowd. The air while we were there, however, was thick and unmoving, leaving a residue of slick sweat on our bodies at all times. Even jumping in the sea did not provide much relief – as soon as I exited the water the droplets on my skin began to instantly transform into sweat, leaving me even ... read more

We extended our stay in Palolem because we loved Goa so much and left Palolem on Thursday 12 January instead of the previous Sunday. We boarded our first Indian train just after midnight (after a delay of course). We were booked on Sleeper class and had only a rough idea of what to expect. It was a bit of a shock to both of us in the beginning but after setteling down on our births we managed to get some sleep. It was weird seeing so many people crammed into a carriage, people sleeping, standing, walking around, sitting and even laying outside where the toilets are was quite unusual for us. It's quite exciting travelling on an Indian train. You see loads of people and vendors come in selling tea, coffee, food and whatever you might ... read more