Our first week in Varkala was amazing!
Ippy met up with her friend Nanda and she and I got along amazingly!
Nanda had already been in Varkala for two weeks
and knew loads of things we could do and some super places where we
could eat too!
Angharad quickly made friends with the
ladies in the beauty parlour at the entrance to the hotel and got
some amazing deals with henna!
They loved her smile so much they kept
offering to henna her arms and hands for a fraction of the price they
were charging everyone else.
Cian made friends with Shiva from the
Blue Moon and together they went mussel hunting, diving down amongst
the rocks just off the point.
Shiva dove each day without the aid of
goggles or a mask and we offered to buy one for him to make things
easier.
We all spent an entire morning racing around fishing villages
with Shiva and a friend of his in his rickshaw trying to find him one
but in the end we had to return empty handed.
Cian also made friends with some people
from one of the stalls who invited him to their home for food.
Each
day Cian would sit with them for a few hours always returning with a
small gift and a better understanding of Islamic life and culture.
Peter and I enjoyed these quiet times
playing back gammon or going for walks.
Although Ippy had arranged to pay for all the
rooms with her card at the end of our stay, we still needed to
find cash for our daily expenses.
It had been decided that we would
keep to a budget of £5 each a day for food as this was more than
enough to live on plus the children had their spending money if they
wanted anything else.
The boys at Blue Moon told Peter that the ATM in Varkala
was now paying out 10,000 rupees instead of the 2,000 we had been getting
else where so a trip was arranged.
Even with the sun heading for the
horizon the heat radiating off the road was intense.
Cars, bikes and
the occasional rickshaw tooted their horns as they passed us, one
rickshaw even stopped to ask us if we wanted him to take us
somewhere.
We smiled and assured him we were fine, after all Ippy was
sure town wasn't that far.
By the time we reached the temple at
the bottom of the hill we felt we had already walked 3km and we still
had to walk back up the next hill into town.
Conversation stopped as
we began to climb.
Even the cars that passed us did so slowly, trucks
positively inched up the incline.
We rounded a corner only to see the
road continuing its assent. We rounded the next corner and again the
road stretched into the distance. Ippy stopped by the only open stall
beside the road to check where we were.
“Town, ATM this way?” she
asked.
The man nodded his head.
“How far? 1Km? 2Km?” she smiled.
The man smiled back.
“3, 4km” he grinned.
Ippy turned to see the horror on
everyone's face! They had already walked about 4km in the fumes, dust
and heat.
She smiled weakly. “It's not that far really, we've done
the worse bit!”
Without saying another word she turned
to face the incline and continued to walk.
Luckily the ATM we were
looking for was just around the next bend while the road continued
onto town. Peter withdrew 10,000 rupees but Ippy card was rejected!!
Was the machine out of money?
Ippy tried again but the same thing
happened.
Unable to face the long walk home Peter
flagged down a rickshaw that took us all the way back to the cliff
top for 70 rupees (£1) and Ippy got out her laptop to send a message
to her bank!!
On all of her other trips Ippy has
always been rather remiss about notifying her bank about her travels
but this year she had made a special trip to the bank to inform them
where she was going and when.
Within minutes of sending her message
she got a call from the bank asking her to confirm where she was.
At
£1 per minute to just receive a call in India Ippy wasn't impressed,
informing the guy at the end of the phone she had 4 minutes credit
and no more!
The guy raced through the security questions, pressed
the right buttons and informed Ippy that everything was now sorted
and her card would work fine!!
The children however refused point blank to
walk into town ever again but Peter and I agreed to walk with
her to the ATM the next night as long as we could get a rickshaw
back!
Although Varkala is amazing it is also
totally tourist orientated with main stream restaurants and shops
along the cliff top.
Prices range from medium to high compared with
the prices in the smaller back street cafes and street food.
Even in the tiny mini markets the
prices can be up to four times the cost of things in town.
On the
cliff you paid as much for the convenience of having things on your
doorstep as for the goods.
As Ippy and Peter were on a budget and
as Ippy needed to go to the ATM anyway, Peter and I decided we might
as well walk the entire way into town to pick up antihistamines and
mosquito sprays as well as any other bits and bobs we needed for the
entire stay.
The next evening while the children
were safely occupied with their friends plus an open tab at Blue moon
for their evening meal. Peter, Ippy and I walked once more into town.
We reached the ATM in record time now we knew where we were going and
how to pace ourselves. Ippy and Peter both took out the maximum
allowance of 10,000 rupees and we walked on.
We paused for a chai in a little street
side stall watching the evening traffic pass by.
Buses filled with
people chugged their way around the statue in the centre of town,
rickshaws lined one side of the road parked end to end and calling to
people as they walked past.
With the shopping all completed plus
enough money to now last us for quite a while Ippy suggested that we
eat in town before heading back.
We popped into Suprabhatham, one of
the restaurants beside the roundabout that Nanda had recommended and
ordered a Plain Massala Dosa plus a Paper Massala Dosa!
Nanda had warned us about the size of
these things but when it arrived we were still very surprised!
Ippys Massala Dosa filled the tray
spilling over the sides but Peter's Paper Massala Dosa not only
filled its own tray, it also filled a second tray!!
I helped best I could eating some of
Ippys food plus some of Peter's and eventually we cleared all the
trays.
We relaxed against the wall for a
moment or two to recover while people walked in and out.
Still unable to move we ordered chai
and sat for another half and hour.
Food service in Suprahatham was
amazingly quick.
As soon as people sat down someone would appear to
take their order.
Within two minutes the food would be at their table
along with constant refills of sauces and dahl until they had had
suffice.
Chai was poured and served constantly with people asking if
you needed more every time they passed.
It was fully dark when we left even
though it had been barely dusk when we had entered.
Darkness falls
extremely quickly in India compared with the UK.
Sun set to darkness
taking minutes not the hour or so back in Wales.
We sat in the small park across the
road enjoying the evening air.
A cooling breeze blew through the
trees above us, people said hello as they passed or asked us where we
were from.
Colours and sounds filled the night.
Ippy spotted the sari shop next to the
restaurant and asked if she could pop in 'just for a look'.
Two saris later we headed to the
rickshaw rank around the corner to sort our lift home.
We were full, we had money and Ippy had
sari's.
Life was good!
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