Beachy Varkala

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After our great backwater experince, we decided to travel south from Fort Cochin by boat so booked a tourist boat from Alleppey (2 hours from Fort Cochin) to Kollam. We took a death-wish taxi to Alleppey and boarded our boat. It was very empty, just 10 of us in total, so comfortable. It was very slow going (10km/hr) but the scenery was amazing so we didn't mind. We got to Kollam, a typical (horrible) big Indian town, we hated it and got a taxi straight to Varkala.

We'd been recommended this place by Steve and Sarah, who we'd met in Goa. They are beach lovers like us, so we were looking forward to some sea and sand before going to north India. We stayed in a lovely home stay (also recommended) owned by a young couple called John and Pema. John in Australian and Pema is Nepalese. They have a little house with 2 guest rooms, which is spotlessly clean and nicely decorated and it was so cheap (300 rupees a night, that's 4 quid). Varkala is a lovely beach overlooked by huge cliffs. There a lots of nice restaurants and bars along the cliff and we immediately liked it. Again, bars aren't allowed to serve alcohol here but we didn't find it difficult to drink beers and mojitos covertly!

One evening we did a cooking class with Pema and she showed us how to make traditional Nepalese and Tibetan dishes including Momos (steamed vegetable filled dumplings), Dal (lentil curry), Chutney (spicy tomato salsa) and one other spicy potato dish, which I forget the name of now. It was good, although we had a mini power cut at the start so we had to wear our head torches! We also took advantage of the many Ayurvedic Treatments available here and we had massages and Holly had a pedicure!

We had a lovely few days on the beach in Varkala and managed to relax before our flight to Delhi.......

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Photos

Varkala
The beach was calling

Varkala
Ahhh

Varkala
Holly Making Momos by torchlight in powercut

Varkala
Dee trying to make Momos

Varkala
Lovely Nepaleese and Tibetan food cooked by us and Pema

Varkala
Beach life

Varkala
Paradise

Varkala
Kerela Coffe House

Varkala
Table Lizard

Varkala
Ahh

Varkala
Chill time

Varkala
Our last night in Lovely Varkala

Varkala
John & Pemas

Comments

[John Horncastle]

Great to get the updates
A quick 'thanks' for the blog. Really good to get the regular updates (the good and the bad). Love John

[Brad]

So Jealous...
Wow, I'm half a world away from you guys, but can just smell how good that food is!!! Glad you are learning some new skills to bring back with you. The beaches look amazing, and you guys look so happy!!! Continue to live it up... Much Love, B