Signature Residence Varkala

בוקר ואני נוסע לי מאלפי לוארק 88;לה. כבישי קראלה הידיד 93;תיים ר...

The tharavad was built by Bhaghwaldas's (who runs it now) great great grandfather in 1794 and is very traditional in style with courtyards which keep the whole building naturally cool. The rooms are quite small and dark but the main covered area at the front had some cushions and was cool enough for playing cards and chilling out. Their daschund...

Phoebe’s 9 today - how amazing. She is really pleased with her presents particularly her pashmina and its great that Karen and Kirsten come and join us for breakfast and pancakes which the cook has really kindly made by special request from Phoebe. Phoebe had received lots of special birthday cards from the children at Beula Matric when we...

The school is really well organised with over 600 pupils and a very smart tartan school uniform (taken from the picture on a Walker’s shortbread tin). At assembly the headmaster said a few words about us and then asked me to say a few words. Then amazingly nearly every single child gave us a flower and a card they had made as a way of...

We leave Red Hills later than expected and I realize that Phoebe’s birthday is the day after tomorrow so Ooty is a good stop for presents. VJ recommends the Kashmiri gift shop and I get Phoebe a pashmina, a bracelet and a heart shaped pot - she has been saying to me that she doesn’t think she will get any presents so hopefully she wi...

After the spiritual intensity of Amma's place, a new friend and I decided that a couple of days at a beach resort was the order of the day. We found a guest house called 'Divine Bliss' which seemed rather apt in the circumstances! Varkala is a lovely stretch of sandy coastline with an array of shops set up on the cliff path above but it has beco...

an unserem letzten tag in kanyakumari fuhren wir mit dem boot auf die vorgelagerte insel mit dem vivekanda memorial. die boot haben ihre beste zeit auch schon hinter sich, aber jeder passagier bekommt eine schwimmweste verpaßt (auch nicht der neueste stand), sodaßnichts passieren kann. das memorial ist im stiel einer kleinen kathedrale auf den f...

We arrived in Varkala at 2.00 p.m. after a long car drive and reached our booked hotel: Krishantheeram. We showed them our reservation and we were told to wait for 20 minutes for our room. We gladly waited in their beautiful garden overlooking the rolling waves on the beach and sat down to have lunch. After lunch we were told that our room is 5 ...

Back in Madrid I wrote a post about Naomi, a Belgian I'd met on her way back from 5 weeks in the Moroccan countryside who was (and still is) the most hard core traveler I've ever met.

Hana, a Kiwi on a protracted tour through India and SE Asia, wasn't anywhere near Naomi's level in terms of her travel history (not that it was anything t...

Another 13 hours on a train later and I find myself in Alappuzha, Kerala. Kerala is a small state in the south of India, and in recent years has become the place to hire a rice barge and discover the backwaters Indian backwaters. It was of course monsoon season in Kerala still and true to form it was throwing it down for the entire time I was th...