Varkala and Munro Island
We needed Varkala to fix us. Travelling for around six weeks, we were a bit sick. We had suffered from back-to-back colds. We had both been ill in Kochi and were now also sick of moving about. Having reached the end of the world at Kanyakumari we were heading back north. Ultimately back to Delhi via Goa, but first, we needed to explore Kerala. But we weren’t feeling it at all. Our five-hour planning meeting in Kanyakumari had concluded that we needed some time to reset. Lots of noise on Social Media about Varkala made us decide to make a detour.
A train and then a bus saw us deposited in Varkala, for a week in the homestay ‘Gypsy Walker’
Varkala is a strange hippy hangout. Built on a cliff, which Mother Nature is slowly eroding below your feet.
There are a couple of places you can get down to the beach. At one end, ‘Black Beach’ isn’t very black. It is made of small coves, making the majority of it inaccessible. At the other end, is monopolised in the mornings by holy men . They will happily take your money and provide you with a blessing and a variety of rice (?) on a banana leaf to cast upon the sea.
Sometimes you can feel very far from home.
The homestay was very nice, but at this point, I was happy if the bed was comfortable and there was toilet paper in the bathroom. We quickly fell into a routine which involved a late breakfast and a 7 pm dinner….usually at the Holy Rabbit. At some point during the week, we bought Jewellery for each other as Christmas presents, discovered and drank copious amounts of organic Tulsi Tea, lit boxes of holy basil incense on our balcony, dodged many thunderstorms had a discussion with a family from Bangalore about ancient Tamil scripts, and had three inches cut off my hair by a Massuse with a pair of scissors for just £4. We spent most days working, reading and trying to devise a plan to leave Kerala. Planning being complicated by all the trains being fully booked, showing wait lists only.
Rather than improving my health, I went down with yet another cold. Caused by our continued use of public transport. It was less violent than previous colds and was chased away by tea and the purchasing of industrial volumes of tissues.
Despite hours of trying to plan a diversion into the Western Gaats for its ‘Toy Trains’ and tea plantations, we were finally defeated. There were just no transport options to get there. A decision was made to divert to Munroe Island, before moving on to Alleppey to check out the availability and cost of houseboat cruises. Perhaps stay long enough to have a cruise and tick that one off the ‘wish list’, then fly back to Goa. Our attention turned to trying to find somewhere affordable to spend nearly four weeks in Goa just as they started to enter their busy season.
By the beginning of the second week in November, we were ready to move on. We wandered to Trattoria for our normal breakfast, finished the packing and took a 1hr 45-minute cab to Munroe Island. Our first impressions were that we weren’t sure why we had come. Four days later when we left we were still none the wiser.
Munroe Island is a series of sleepy backwaters and a smattering of prawn farms around a sparsely populated area. Busy at the weekends, people visit to be punted along the canals. Rather than be punted, we took a guide and in a big red Kayak explored the backwaters and the lake.
The hotel itself was very lush but other than the wonderful wrap-around patio there was very little to do here, no shops or restaurants. Days drifted by in a combination of working and hanging in an ‘egg chair’ reading a book on the veranda. The food was good, and the service was glacial even by Indian standards. The trip in the backwaters was a highlight as was access to an Amazon Prime TV account.
The one thing which spoiled our oasis of ‘absolutely nothing to do’ was the building work going on …..monopolising all of the grounds. Our first day was to the sound of chainsaws levelling off the palm tree piling. The management apologised and promised no more noise. The second day we were treated to the soundtrack of a jackhammer. When we left the Management asked for a five-star review. Also mentioning that we should reference the building works – it all seemed a bit dishonest. We didn’t comply with their request. However, we do think the swimming pool will be a great addition to this hotel when it’s completed.
We left Munroe Island by train. A local train with tickets bought at the station. The station we had passed numerous times whilst walking in the area. We knew it was just a short walk through an area that we had dubbed the Crocodile Farm (although it was actually a Prawn farm)
The train, of course, left from the opposite platform. With no overbridge at this local halt, a walk along the platforms and over the tracks was called for. Having not yet had a chance to be delayed the local service arrived on time. We sat in their 3rd class, next to a glass-less windows, utilising our 20p single tickets to Alleppey.
Our accommodation in Alleppey for one night turned out to be as good as we had hoped for. The room was of little interest. However, the view of the continual passage of boats passing by, from our chairs on the veranda, was enchanting. We felt like we were beginning to find our sea legs (or whatever the Back Water equivalent is)
After weeks of picking through careful camera angles and elaborately crafted narratives on accommodation booking sites, it was a joy to find that this accommodation was exactly as described and I spent a lovely afternoon painting and watching the beautiful ‘Rice’ boats pass the veranda…..building the expectation for what was to come tomorrow and the backwater cruise.
