On my first night in Varkala I had a drink and some Momos (tasty Tibetan dumplings) with a couple of Spaniards at my guesthouse. If you recall, I'd arrived that morning after a mammoth 21 hour trip from Ooty, eyes almost sealed with tiredness and a feeling of lethargy that was compounded by the searing heat of Kerala.
So when the beer was drank and the Momos eaten, it was 11pm and I was ready to hit the sack. However, the Spaniards - Rachel and her best mate Allejo (a Jesus doppelganger) - had other ideas and gnawed away at me to join them for more drinks along the cliff.
Now when you're travelling alone, as I am, you can't really afford to pass up opportunities of social interaction - especially in a country like India that has no hostel 'scene' (with shared dormitories and communal areas). Meeting people can be difficult here.
Suppressing the yawns and the stinging eyes, I took a 20 minute walk with them to the North Cliff. Varkala has a town centre, approx 2 km inland, but the tourists and backpackers come here for the beach and clifftop views/restaurants/bars/shops that sit above it:
We headed to the Rock n Roll bar - as the others had been there the night before - and ended up having a great night. After my illness-induced period of alcohol abstinence, I seem to be making up for lost time in Varkala at the moment. And obviously bars = drink = social interaction = fun = making friends.
After a long night chatting to lots of people of various nationalities, including the likes of Lorenzo (Swiss/Italian) and Andreas (Swedish)...
...and some time on the dancefloor with Allejo/Jesus and a strange guy from Stoke....
...I finally crashed at 5am and slept through my checkout time of 10.30am. Oops.
My second day was spent moving to my new guesthouse - this one is perfectly located on the Cliff and is run by a brilliant Indian/Canadian duo - and nursing my hangover with a combination of lemon soda, sweet coffee and fried eggs on toast.
Yesterday I took a walk along the coast to Black Beach:
I spent most of my hour there having a verbal fight with a pack of dogs who wanted to use the shade from my umbrella to sleep. The littlebastards puppies wouldn't take no for an answer, so I got frustrated and went back to the normal beach - which had better sand and water anyway.
Apart from that, my time has mainly been spent reading (finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest; started The Dice Man), lying on the beach, getting my haircut by an expert back street barber, drinking copious amounts of water (it's incredibly humid here) and eating the hottest curry of my trip so far.
While eating that curry last night - face dripping with sweat, eyes watering, mouth hotter than the depths of hell - a girl on a moped entered my vision from the left, lurched joltingly forward (as she applied the accelarator instead of the brake) and smashed into a tree on the right. Not something you normally see during a quiet meal out.
I jumped up - as did half the restaurant - and helped pulled the bike off her, put her into the recovery position and got her water. Luckily her boyfriend was there and after half an hour she gingerly got to her feet and walked away. She wasn't wearing a helmet (no-one does out here), so one lucky girl.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one evening, I ended up having another great night at the Rock n Roll bar - and noticed that their dancefloor included a small area for pumping iron. And why not? Do a bit of dancing, some bench presses, maybe lift some dumbells in between sips of your Cuba Libre...
So yes, another night on the tiles and another 5am finish meant today was mostly a write-off. But I still had time for a couple of hours on the beach with some Swedish folks I met here. And in a minute I'm off to go and have some grilled fresh fish. The life in Varkala is something I could get used to.
So when the beer was drank and the Momos eaten, it was 11pm and I was ready to hit the sack. However, the Spaniards - Rachel and her best mate Allejo (a Jesus doppelganger) - had other ideas and gnawed away at me to join them for more drinks along the cliff.
Now when you're travelling alone, as I am, you can't really afford to pass up opportunities of social interaction - especially in a country like India that has no hostel 'scene' (with shared dormitories and communal areas). Meeting people can be difficult here.
Suppressing the yawns and the stinging eyes, I took a 20 minute walk with them to the North Cliff. Varkala has a town centre, approx 2 km inland, but the tourists and backpackers come here for the beach and clifftop views/restaurants/bars/shops that sit above it:
We headed to the Rock n Roll bar - as the others had been there the night before - and ended up having a great night. After my illness-induced period of alcohol abstinence, I seem to be making up for lost time in Varkala at the moment. And obviously bars = drink = social interaction = fun = making friends.
After a long night chatting to lots of people of various nationalities, including the likes of Lorenzo (Swiss/Italian) and Andreas (Swedish)...
...and some time on the dancefloor with Allejo/Jesus and a strange guy from Stoke....
...I finally crashed at 5am and slept through my checkout time of 10.30am. Oops.
My second day was spent moving to my new guesthouse - this one is perfectly located on the Cliff and is run by a brilliant Indian/Canadian duo - and nursing my hangover with a combination of lemon soda, sweet coffee and fried eggs on toast.
Yesterday I took a walk along the coast to Black Beach:
I spent most of my hour there having a verbal fight with a pack of dogs who wanted to use the shade from my umbrella to sleep. The little
Apart from that, my time has mainly been spent reading (finished The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest; started The Dice Man), lying on the beach, getting my haircut by an expert back street barber, drinking copious amounts of water (it's incredibly humid here) and eating the hottest curry of my trip so far.
While eating that curry last night - face dripping with sweat, eyes watering, mouth hotter than the depths of hell - a girl on a moped entered my vision from the left, lurched joltingly forward (as she applied the accelarator instead of the brake) and smashed into a tree on the right. Not something you normally see during a quiet meal out.
I jumped up - as did half the restaurant - and helped pulled the bike off her, put her into the recovery position and got her water. Luckily her boyfriend was there and after half an hour she gingerly got to her feet and walked away. She wasn't wearing a helmet (no-one does out here), so one lucky girl.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one evening, I ended up having another great night at the Rock n Roll bar - and noticed that their dancefloor included a small area for pumping iron. And why not? Do a bit of dancing, some bench presses, maybe lift some dumbells in between sips of your Cuba Libre...
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| (apologies for blurred lens...) |
So yes, another night on the tiles and another 5am finish meant today was mostly a write-off. But I still had time for a couple of hours on the beach with some Swedish folks I met here. And in a minute I'm off to go and have some grilled fresh fish. The life in Varkala is something I could get used to.
