Greetings!
Currently I am swinging in a hammock outside our room. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the waves are crashing in the near distance. I've just finished my book. It sound perfect, and it is, but it was torture finding our way here!
We are currently in Varkala staying near Varkala Cliff but before I fill you in on here I'll quickly tell you about Alleppey.
We stayed in Alleppey for two nights. We were there to see the Alleppey Backwaters. In the morning we headed to the river where all the tour companies sit with their boats offering deals. We were hoping for a half day tour but most were only offering full day tours (nine hours) and were a little out of our price range. Luckily we found a lovely local who took us on a four hour ride for considerably cheaper. I reckon this was actually a nice way to do the backwaters because he had a small boat The was able to fit through the smaller canals, we had the boat to ourselves so we could take our time, and he told us the ins and outs of the different villages and wildlife. He particularly loved spotting kingfishers and a highlight was stopping and following him to a large coconut tree filled with hummingbird nests which were just gorgeous.
We wove our way through small canals and villages where the people live literally on the water. They wash their clothes, dishes and bathe in the water. The houses were so colourful along the backwaters and it was SO QUIET. Such a contrast to the rest of India. We stopped off at a local restaurant who served us the traditional kerala meal for 80 rupees.
The next day we headed to the train station to catch the train from Alleppey to Varkala. There was a train leaving at 2.30pm so we got tickets for that. The only tickets left were for the sleeper carriage. Completely UNsleepable ( see pictures below). To put it bluntly it was full of mice, dirty, smelly and prison like. Although, less crowded than we thought and the open windows created a nice breeze so it wasn't too hot. The other con was that because it was coming from Mumbai, it was incredibly delayed. Every hour on the hour the man at the station would rub out the estimated time of arrival and add an extra hour.. we were at the mosquito ridden station for seven hours before it arrived..at 9pm.
We arrived at Varkala at midnight and after many rude rickshaw drivers trying to charge us triple the cost for an eight minute drive, we made it to our accommodation. Thankfully, we are very happy with our new place and we have booked it for the rest of the week. As we have been moving around every couple of days we've decided to bunk down here and relax for the week.
Varkala is lovely. It's calm and beachy with more tourists than we've come across this last month. Usually we are the only white people to be seen but here there are quite a few tourists, not enough to make it too crowded though. There are restaurants here that have multi cuisine rather than just Indian so our stomaches are being given a much needed break! I've found my favourite restaurant where I'll be dining for the next week called 'InDa' and a lovely juice shack.
I'm writing this in my phone as unfortunately our computer has died :-( :-( disaster!! No more episodes or surfing the net for next destinations. All research will be done on our tiny, not updated cellphones. I will still try to update as often as possible.
Current accommodation: Keratheeram beach resort ( sounds flash, it's not)
Next destination: We fly to Sri Lanka (Colombo) on the 17th at 9.55am.
Currently I am swinging in a hammock outside our room. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the waves are crashing in the near distance. I've just finished my book. It sound perfect, and it is, but it was torture finding our way here!
We are currently in Varkala staying near Varkala Cliff but before I fill you in on here I'll quickly tell you about Alleppey.
We stayed in Alleppey for two nights. We were there to see the Alleppey Backwaters. In the morning we headed to the river where all the tour companies sit with their boats offering deals. We were hoping for a half day tour but most were only offering full day tours (nine hours) and were a little out of our price range. Luckily we found a lovely local who took us on a four hour ride for considerably cheaper. I reckon this was actually a nice way to do the backwaters because he had a small boat The was able to fit through the smaller canals, we had the boat to ourselves so we could take our time, and he told us the ins and outs of the different villages and wildlife. He particularly loved spotting kingfishers and a highlight was stopping and following him to a large coconut tree filled with hummingbird nests which were just gorgeous.
We wove our way through small canals and villages where the people live literally on the water. They wash their clothes, dishes and bathe in the water. The houses were so colourful along the backwaters and it was SO QUIET. Such a contrast to the rest of India. We stopped off at a local restaurant who served us the traditional kerala meal for 80 rupees.
The next day we headed to the train station to catch the train from Alleppey to Varkala. There was a train leaving at 2.30pm so we got tickets for that. The only tickets left were for the sleeper carriage. Completely UNsleepable ( see pictures below). To put it bluntly it was full of mice, dirty, smelly and prison like. Although, less crowded than we thought and the open windows created a nice breeze so it wasn't too hot. The other con was that because it was coming from Mumbai, it was incredibly delayed. Every hour on the hour the man at the station would rub out the estimated time of arrival and add an extra hour.. we were at the mosquito ridden station for seven hours before it arrived..at 9pm.
We arrived at Varkala at midnight and after many rude rickshaw drivers trying to charge us triple the cost for an eight minute drive, we made it to our accommodation. Thankfully, we are very happy with our new place and we have booked it for the rest of the week. As we have been moving around every couple of days we've decided to bunk down here and relax for the week.
Varkala is lovely. It's calm and beachy with more tourists than we've come across this last month. Usually we are the only white people to be seen but here there are quite a few tourists, not enough to make it too crowded though. There are restaurants here that have multi cuisine rather than just Indian so our stomaches are being given a much needed break! I've found my favourite restaurant where I'll be dining for the next week called 'InDa' and a lovely juice shack.
I'm writing this in my phone as unfortunately our computer has died :-( :-( disaster!! No more episodes or surfing the net for next destinations. All research will be done on our tiny, not updated cellphones. I will still try to update as often as possible.
Current accommodation: Keratheeram beach resort ( sounds flash, it's not)
Next destination: We fly to Sri Lanka (Colombo) on the 17th at 9.55am.
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