The journey to Cochin was the worst journey of my life (see Travel Notes: The journey to Cochin was the worst journey of my life). Cochin was a stop-over before heading to the beach towns of Kovalam and Varkala. It was really to break up our journey so we weren't that fussed with it. A short ferry ride took us to the smartest place we had been in India so it grabbed our attention immediately. The rick-shaw driver wouldn't take us to our accommodation (normal) so eventually settled on a place he would take us to. It was nice.
Not a lot to report from Cochin. We saw some Chinese fishing nets, bought some books, visited Jew Town, negotiated the purchase of a stone carved elephant for half an hour and had a run in with the rickshaw driver from the previous day (liar). We also ate at a swanky Relais and Chateaux restaurant on a McDonald's budget of £14. Bargain.
And onto the beach towns. Quite excited by this. We'd been travelling for 2 months with no real beach time to report. So it was with some regret that we rolled into Kovalam. What a scummy little place. Rubbish everywhere, diggers putting drainage pipes along the beach and a rickshaw driver who wouldn't take us to our accommodation. We couldn't really wait to get away from Kovalam so we reworked our plans to get onto Varkala sooner. As soon as we had done this we began to relax. We had two awesome early morning breakfasts looking out over the sea and a few reasonable evening meals. I cannot recall the events between these two highlights so I guess my brain has deleted them. They probably involved plenty of moaning about India and Lonely Planets description of Kovalam: “a pristine slice of sand”. Probably written by a rickshaw driver.
In Varkala things began to look up. But not before I had dragged Chloe on a treacherous route around the beach town (with her massive rucksack) looking for accommodation. Varkala is a town on a cliff edge with the beach below. I found a path from the beach up the cliff. Over half way up, the climb became dangerous, and as Chloe was carrying a bag bigger than her entire body I decided to bail out. Thats when two young Indian lads saw our plight, ran down to us, grabbed our bags and ran to the top. You get this in India, you're busy being angry at how infuriating they can be when they show unbelievable generosity to challenge your opinion of them. The lads worked at the bar/restaurant on the cliff edge and we repaid their kindness by going there every night.
Incredible nights we had there too.
Their bar opens at 7am and at about 10pm the dancing starts and continues until the sun comes up. The guys we met there seemingly get 2-3 hours 'sleep' a night. In those 2-3 hours they are in the company of any female tourist they can pick up. They are big characters in Varkala. We met up with Alison (from Hampi) who introduced us to Ashley and Jason. We also bumped into a kiwi couple, Andy and Donna, who we had briefly met in Hampi. Together we got very drunk and danced away with our Indian friends to 90's European dance music. One Indian was in his element. He was demonstrating some incredible moves for hours on end. None of us had ever seen anything like it. Not even me. It was a memorable night.
We loved Vakala. It was a very relaxed place. We could have spent more time there. We didn't go in the sea in Kovalam or Varkala though. The sea is rough with dangerous rips and Indian men (gawkers) stand around staring at white girls in bikinis. Sometimes trying to take a quick picture too. Its wrong, but you get used to it. I didn't but most people do. We also spent an afternoon using the pool of a 5 star hotel. A great tip picked up from Alison, Ashley and Jason.
Finally, some classic (and cringey) traveller chat, the sunsets and night time star shows in both Kovalam and Varkala were incredible.
