Jickys Room Varkala

... and hard. The locals say that the rainy season is in fact over, but the weather has become unpredictable. The local beach shops are suffering and in return, they beg the few tourists to enter their shops. Some unblushingly use their children to lure in customers. With nothing to do, we casually stroll the cliff side, pausing to sip hot chai. We decide to try out reiki and a hot stone massage in order to align and open up the chakras. Persuaded by the man that this will ...

... commiserated with good food, a few drinks and sister even got to boogie on the dance floor much to brother's embarrassment. <br><br>And No I don&#8217;t want a massage, t-shirt, train ticket, dinner, drink, email, foreign exchange, rickshaw, room or any other tourist town paraphernalia

... out in the heat to the cliff side stretch of restaurants to have a frappucino (with background Bob Marley to set the right atmosphere) and watched the local Indian families play in the waves on the beach (the women in soaking saris).  Initially, Maddie and I were hesitant to swim in our bathing suites on the beach, though there are westerners, particularly in the north part of the beach, that do, risking the oggling by the ...

... in party dresses were asking parents for balloons and toys from the stalls and people were getting around chewing sugar cane stalks as they joined in the festivities. Rooftops were overflowing with spectators. Everybody was dressed in their finest clothing and in a jovial mood. A parade streamed in through the entrance gate and we ran along next to the giant decorated elephants with tusks, drummers, costumed dancers and other folk dressed as wacky birds. There was ...

... The eleph*nts were gi*nt m*les with tusks *nd did * couple of l*ps of the temple grounds before being blessed in front of the temple entr*nce. The whole event w*s * bit of * buzzy *dren*lin rush with so much going on *t the s*me time. The festiv*l w*s to go on *ll night with K*th*k*li perform*nce. Th*t night we met *n interesting doctor, Ann from the Netherl*nds who knew the Dutchies *nd we *ll t*lked some more cr*p over dinner with the crew just for something different ...

... little city from where you can access the backwaters. Being Sunday afternoon in a predominantly Christian area it was also dead and after a delicious mutton curry with parota for dinner it was strait to Bed. The next day we devoted the good part of our morning to searching for a particular Bazaar (who's name I cannot recall which is terrible considering it occupied us for about 5 hours). This Bazaar was described by the lonely planet as a busltling array ...

... with that we took pictures of them. Also many poor people get such a satisfaction from that we take their photo and show it to them on the camera. They just love it! And such a genuine joy from such a small thing is, I think, very admirable. Now we've already started to head back north and are in Kollam in Kerala. We were actually very lucky to arrive here just yesterday. Our hotel receptionist mentioned something about an elephant festival, but that time we didn't pay much attention ...

... celebrated Rachel's Bday) then caught a midnight train bound for the secluded Gokarna beach. While the girls were staying in Kochi for a few days, I was chomping at the bit for some alone time and couldn't wait to get on that train. It's also easier to meet new people when you're solo and I was ready to meet new people. Thankfully my second overnight train experience was uneventful compared to my first one, as I went right to sleep with a family that were in my section.

... who this family was. So apperently this family is the owners of the biggest newspaper in Kerala called "Malayala Manorama", own the biggest tire producing company in India and a bunch of other smaller companies. They are probably among the 100 wealthiest families in India and now I was suddenly going to meet them and attend the wedding the next day (the fact that I had only been invited by Raj, and not the family hosting the wedding didn't really seem ...

... they do get to you so it's not fun every minute of every day, and that's probably true of this kind of travel generally - it's very different from a 2-week holiday where everything is about relaxation and fun. We've seen so much though, and really experienced a country that's so different from our own, and that's been really amazing. We feel like every day we're storing up memories for the future and that's brilliant. (R)