to see the photos of the beaches at Varkala, Kovalam and Kanyakumari click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009697&id=1112916442&l=0332e9d9ec
We left Alleppey on the ferry to Kollam, an 8 hour journey on the backwaters. About half way down, we went through a lock, travelling from fresh to sea water. Below the lock, much of the area had been devastated by the tsunami. Because it was salt water, we no longer had the displays of washing to keep us entertained, but saw more fishing and diving for sand and mussels.
Also passed the Hugging Mother Ashram. This is a number of multi-storey buildings, where anybody can go and live the simple ashram life, and maybe get to meet the Hugging Mother!! Also saw lots of Chinese fishing nets, but most of them were made of steel, rather than bamboo.
From Kollam we went by bus/autorickshaw to Varkala, one of the recognised beach resort areas in Southern Kerala. It was tourist central at the beach (the locals tend to live inland), with more foreign tourist than we had seen before!!
Stayed in a Bali style bamboo hut, and spent some time with Ulf and Maria from Sweden who we had met on the ferry from Alleppey. Varkala has a nice beach, and cliff top accommodation, restaurants, walks and the perennial shops and vendors. Unfortunately like most of India we have seen so far, it did not have rubbish bins, so rubbish was just tipped over the cliff edge. It was a shame to see such a beautiful place ruined by plastic bottles and rubbish.
From Varkala we travelled south to Kovalam, another beach, but no steps to climb down to get to the water. We decided to catch the train, a poor decision, since the 10.30 am train left at 1pm!!! Still we got there, were hijacked by a autorickshaw driver who took us to his preferred accommodation option. It worked out well as we got a room on the beachfront in a half-finished block for a very reasonable rate. We had great balcony, where we could sit and watch life on the beach!!! Lots of fisherman pulling in nets, also fishermen collecting mussels in boats made from about 4 or 5 shaped tree trunks and tied together with string. These were assembled to go fishing in, then broken down and placed on racks to dry after. Every restaurant had fresh fish out the front - Peter could choose a fish and get it cooked in his preferred style. Unfortunately, despite the garnishing being correct, the fish was usually very overcooked, and Peter gave up on the prawns!!! The last night we went to an upmarket restaurant where the cooks could cook seafood, and Peter had a great meal of mixed seafood shashlicks!!! During this stay, we were dodging the rain, but it didn't really worry us as we had our own private viewing balcony!!
One day we walked over the southern headland to see what was on the other side, and found a huge fishing village, with hundreds of boats, a fish market, 3 mosques and a huge Catholic church. The fish market was buzzing.
From Kovalam, we took a bus to the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari. One of the highlights of this place is to see the sunrise and the sunset, however in our 2 days there we did not see the sun!!! - let alone a rise or set. Also bought the second umbrella there. Even so, we were glad we went, they have a temple and a statue on islands just off the tip (ferry boat trip to visit), plus memorials to Gandhi and some other freedom fighter. Lots of Indian tourists here - it seems it is a place that is important for them to visit. Once again, we had a sea view, and could watch the fishing boats leaving in the morning and returning 2 or 3 hours later with their catches.
to see the photos of the beaches at Varkala, Kovalam and Kanyakumari click on the link below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009697&id=1112916442&l=0332e9d9ec
