I stayed in Varkala another 4 nights as I loved it so much. Everything was so easy there, plus I spent a lot of time in the evenings with Noel and Hannah, the couple I mentioned in the last post. Once or twice we stumbled back at around 3am, which is very, very late here. The restaurants don't really close until the last people leave, so those times involved us sitting in almost complete darkness with only a candle for light, while the staff slept on tables at the back! I can't imagine the staff in The Salisbury being quite so accomodating somehow!
I left Varkala early yesterday morning for Kollam to get on a boat trip through 50 miles of Kerala's famous backwaters to Allepey. I was somewhat aprehensive about the 8 hour journey as I could imagine myself becoming a bit bored, plus the previous night had been one of those described above! The aprehension deepened when I clapped eyes on the slightly dilpadated 'cruise boat' and it's rows of plastic patio chairs for seating, and really sunk into an abyss when the first whiff of the backwater water hit my nostrils. And I do mean 'hit' because the reek nearly knocked me over!
We chugged away on time by Indian standards - only 10 minutes late, and gradually my worries evaporated. After a few hundred yards we had left the stinking dock area and the journey from then on was a delight. We crossed large lakes with a welcome breeze and went through narrow winding channels where village life was going on all around us. There were big chinese-style fishing nets and little fishing boats, hired house-boats cruising and tiny settlements on even tinier strips of land with women washing clothes, teenagers swimming and kids running along the bank shouting "give me one pen please!" to us. We stopped for lunch and tea (NB. to all you northerners that's - the brown stuff in the cup, not an evening meal!) with a fried banana, and a lovely, peaceful day went by almost too quickly.
We docked in Allepey around 6.50 pm and I headed for a place to stay I'd read about in my guidebook. It was a bit ropey really but clean enough and the people who ran it were friendly. I had a quick look round the town that evening, but it too looked a bit ropey and there was a conspicuous gap where the 'things to do' section usually is in the guidebook! I thought I may as well move on the next day so (after a rickshaw/train/rickshaw/ferry/rickshaw journey) as I write this I'm sitting on the island of Fort Kochi, part of the town of Kochi which is one of Kerala's biggest.
I left Varkala early yesterday morning for Kollam to get on a boat trip through 50 miles of Kerala's famous backwaters to Allepey. I was somewhat aprehensive about the 8 hour journey as I could imagine myself becoming a bit bored, plus the previous night had been one of those described above! The aprehension deepened when I clapped eyes on the slightly dilpadated 'cruise boat' and it's rows of plastic patio chairs for seating, and really sunk into an abyss when the first whiff of the backwater water hit my nostrils. And I do mean 'hit' because the reek nearly knocked me over!
We chugged away on time by Indian standards - only 10 minutes late, and gradually my worries evaporated. After a few hundred yards we had left the stinking dock area and the journey from then on was a delight. We crossed large lakes with a welcome breeze and went through narrow winding channels where village life was going on all around us. There were big chinese-style fishing nets and little fishing boats, hired house-boats cruising and tiny settlements on even tinier strips of land with women washing clothes, teenagers swimming and kids running along the bank shouting "give me one pen please!" to us. We stopped for lunch and tea (NB. to all you northerners that's - the brown stuff in the cup, not an evening meal!) with a fried banana, and a lovely, peaceful day went by almost too quickly.
We docked in Allepey around 6.50 pm and I headed for a place to stay I'd read about in my guidebook. It was a bit ropey really but clean enough and the people who ran it were friendly. I had a quick look round the town that evening, but it too looked a bit ropey and there was a conspicuous gap where the 'things to do' section usually is in the guidebook! I thought I may as well move on the next day so (after a rickshaw/train/rickshaw/ferry/rickshaw journey) as I write this I'm sitting on the island of Fort Kochi, part of the town of Kochi which is one of Kerala's biggest.
2 comments:
Hey Scotty,
I've just read your blogg after i sent you that e-mail. It sounds like your being a bit of a wimp and you being ripped off at every corner. Now you've been away for a few weeks you need to put your bartering cap on and get evrything as cheap as possible as they will rip you off as much as possible so you should try and do the oposit. Saying that if you've got the cash why not get taxi's and stay in 5 star hotels if you can afford it. it'l be alot cheaper than if you did that in a western country.
Catch you later
Doug
Hello mate,
I said people keep trying to rip me off. Don't worry, they're not succeeding. I've developed a good dismissive wave of my hand which seems to be well understood as 'F off I don't want to buy any of your tat'. I'm also absolutely ruthless with tut tut and taxi drivers and hotel staff.
And yes, I have been enjoying some luxuries here and there, a nice hotel room is still much cheaper than a dingy travel lodge at home, so I occassionally splash out the extra fiver for one!
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