Days 48-50
Our present location is the clifftop resort of Varkala on the Keralan coast. Similar to Goa we have spent our time here relaxing and rebuilding our energy levels before continuing on the rest of our journey. Also we leave India next week and we are determined that our last week at least should be an enjoyable one. One of my regular readers commented on my Madurai post "why all the back of the head shots?". The reason is simple: anonymity. We don't want our faces plastered all over the internet and being used for God knows what. It might seem a bit prude or paranoid in the age of facebook etc but this is a public blog and that's the way we feel. For the record, we both look the same except we are both skinnier and my wife is much more brown than usual, I am the usual reassuring ghostly white!
As we passed the half way point on our trip we are now on the slippery slope back to work and real life. We also plunged for the final time from the Western Ghats after criss-crossing them several times as we journeyed south. Our bus driver was intent on making it a memorable journey as he made his way through the steep roads and around the blind corners that snake through the tea plantations by using the bulk of the bus to intimidate anyone that was going to get in his preferred route. "Fly at the Speed of Fear" is the marketing slogan for the Tatsu rollercoaster in California and this journey could also have lived up to that billing. I tried to capture a few "What's happening next?" moments from road in front of us but they seemed to rectify themselves as quickly as they had arisen.
Just like Tatsu we survived and the bus stopped in Kottayam and we boarded our train to Varkala. The sun was setting as we arrived at our hotel and the dusk conjured up a strange errie red hue. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our ocean view hotel room was going to set us back only 500 rupees ($9.50/£6.00). The off season definitely has its benefits but the on set of evening drizzle displayed its downside too.
Varkala like Goa is backpackerville. Tettering along a clifftop in the form of restaurants guest houses, souvenir shops and (expensive!) internet cafes catering for everything modern long term budget tourists require. There are two pretty beaches at the base of the cliffs, the smaller of the two, Black Beach was our beach of choice. It is pretty much deserted save for a few tourists, fishermen and an enterprising gentleman who rents beach umbrellas. He also acted as a sort of guide as well, pointing out to us dolphins feeding off shore and the sea eagles trying to scavenge on the dolphins bounty.
Beach dwelling and wandering the restaurants for fresh shark, tiger prawns and red snapper are our main objectives in Varkala and as result I have nothing as exciting as leeches to report. Our days have been spent reading which I shouldn't bore you with, but I would like to say that I have just finished Micky Harte's latest book for the 2nd time on this trip. Fantastic read, more of a motivational or self improvement book than anything else, but a great read none the less. Of course it would help if your a GAA fan and even more so a Tyrone supporter, but I think anyone could apply the lessons from it in their own life, whatever they are doing. It is especially sad the number of stories he has about his daughter Michaela who was obviously the light of his life, the book was written before her tragic death.
In the world of cycling it looks like poor old Lance Armstrong has proved that his super human feats were after all, superhuman and that he was indeed using blood doping, drugs and hormones to boost his and his team mates performances. To me it does seem like a bit of a witch hunt on Lance as probably all the winners of the Tour de France for 50 years prior to him were guilty of the same thing. But I guess the correct message has to be sent out and means correcting the biggest wrongs. One thing remains though and that is Lance was an incredible athlete and he had a super desire to succeed and that he no doubt would have won lots of Tours, although maybe not quite as many.
Apologies to those who enjoy reading my extra long posts for this brief one, hopefully it will give those of you who have being telling me they are falling behind a chance to catch up. Tomorrow we are back on the road and on to Alleppey at the heart of the Keralan backwaters. Since the Andaman islands are now off our itinerary we have decided to splash out on a night on a house boat wandering the coastal canals of Kerala. An activity that to me sounds like a mosquito orgy, but everyone we have spoken to have told us its a fantastic experience.
Our present location is the clifftop resort of Varkala on the Keralan coast. Similar to Goa we have spent our time here relaxing and rebuilding our energy levels before continuing on the rest of our journey. Also we leave India next week and we are determined that our last week at least should be an enjoyable one. One of my regular readers commented on my Madurai post "why all the back of the head shots?". The reason is simple: anonymity. We don't want our faces plastered all over the internet and being used for God knows what. It might seem a bit prude or paranoid in the age of facebook etc but this is a public blog and that's the way we feel. For the record, we both look the same except we are both skinnier and my wife is much more brown than usual, I am the usual reassuring ghostly white!
As we passed the half way point on our trip we are now on the slippery slope back to work and real life. We also plunged for the final time from the Western Ghats after criss-crossing them several times as we journeyed south. Our bus driver was intent on making it a memorable journey as he made his way through the steep roads and around the blind corners that snake through the tea plantations by using the bulk of the bus to intimidate anyone that was going to get in his preferred route. "Fly at the Speed of Fear" is the marketing slogan for the Tatsu rollercoaster in California and this journey could also have lived up to that billing. I tried to capture a few "What's happening next?" moments from road in front of us but they seemed to rectify themselves as quickly as they had arisen.
Just like Tatsu we survived and the bus stopped in Kottayam and we boarded our train to Varkala. The sun was setting as we arrived at our hotel and the dusk conjured up a strange errie red hue. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our ocean view hotel room was going to set us back only 500 rupees ($9.50/£6.00). The off season definitely has its benefits but the on set of evening drizzle displayed its downside too.
Beach dwelling and wandering the restaurants for fresh shark, tiger prawns and red snapper are our main objectives in Varkala and as result I have nothing as exciting as leeches to report. Our days have been spent reading which I shouldn't bore you with, but I would like to say that I have just finished Micky Harte's latest book for the 2nd time on this trip. Fantastic read, more of a motivational or self improvement book than anything else, but a great read none the less. Of course it would help if your a GAA fan and even more so a Tyrone supporter, but I think anyone could apply the lessons from it in their own life, whatever they are doing. It is especially sad the number of stories he has about his daughter Michaela who was obviously the light of his life, the book was written before her tragic death.
In the world of cycling it looks like poor old Lance Armstrong has proved that his super human feats were after all, superhuman and that he was indeed using blood doping, drugs and hormones to boost his and his team mates performances. To me it does seem like a bit of a witch hunt on Lance as probably all the winners of the Tour de France for 50 years prior to him were guilty of the same thing. But I guess the correct message has to be sent out and means correcting the biggest wrongs. One thing remains though and that is Lance was an incredible athlete and he had a super desire to succeed and that he no doubt would have won lots of Tours, although maybe not quite as many.
Apologies to those who enjoy reading my extra long posts for this brief one, hopefully it will give those of you who have being telling me they are falling behind a chance to catch up. Tomorrow we are back on the road and on to Alleppey at the heart of the Keralan backwaters. Since the Andaman islands are now off our itinerary we have decided to splash out on a night on a house boat wandering the coastal canals of Kerala. An activity that to me sounds like a mosquito orgy, but everyone we have spoken to have told us its a fantastic experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment