Varkala: a must miss

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On the day of leaving Kottayam, George insisted on taking us to the central train station to make sure that we got off safely. We had decided to spend a few days in Varkala, which is located on the coast an hour north of Trivandrum. We had been in two minds about going. First, we prefer places where there are not too many tourists. Second, it would be pure relaxation which isn't really the purpose of our trip. However, since we were a bit behind on the blog writing, mostly due to exhaustion, business and, occasionally, a lack of motivation, we saw Varkala an an opportunity to get writing.

Train to Varkala
The train journey, all three hours of it, was rather hectic. Initially, we were unable to find any free seats; it seemed like a lot of pilgrims were travelling to the southern part of Kerala. There are quite a few places that attract pilgrims. Varkala itself has a 2000 year old temple and temple goers commonly use the nearby beach to sprinkle dead relatives' ashes.

Indian trains are another place where there are health and safety issues. All doors tend to be open with at least one person voluntarily hanging out of it by the tip of his fingers; death always seems just around the corner in India. On the train station people will cross the rail tracks in front of arriving trains or just stand between tracks whilst trains are passing through the station.
For the first hour of the journey we were confined to the part of the carriage where the toilets are; we can reassure you that a blind person wouldn't have a problem finding the toilet on an Indian train.

Eventually, we both got a seat; Mort still next to the toilets and Sarah in the proper seating area amongst a group of pilgrims with whom she would share words and fruit. Meanwhile, Mort was keeping an eye on the rucksacks watching in horror how every now and again an Indian almost disappeared through the door of the fast moving train.

Arriving in Varkala
According to Rough Guide, Varkala's “tourist scene is still relatively low-key” (October 2005 edition). A lot must have happened in a year. When we got off the train, we got the first sign of something rotten in the town of Varkala: we were approached by a rickshaw driver the second we got off the train. This is common in touristy places, but this was the first time we experienced this branch of aggressive touting. The rickshaw driver and his friend were very friendly though, but they clearly had contacts with a particular hotel, which they offered to take us to, and from whom they would probably receive some sort of commission.

We told them that we had already booked a room at Hotel Clafouti for Rs. 500. They strongly advised us against our choice; the hotel was, according to them, set much too close to the cliff edge, and there would be a risk of it collapsing into the sea. Obviously, we insisted on being taken to the hotel we had chosen. After having walked across two sets of rail tracks we arrived at their rickshaw. Initially, they had wanted Rs. 60 for the shortish trip up to the cliff. Having a feeling that Varkala was a place for overcharging Mort insisted that 60 was too much. They budged and accepted Rs. 45. It may sound ridiculous to spend time trying to save what amounts to 20 pence, but it is in everyone's interest, at least tourists', that prices stay at an acceptable level. By overpaying, the price level will rise too quickly, especially if there is a surplus of customers for the rickshaws.

Several times on the rickshaw ride the touts tried to sell their hotel to us, but to no avail. When we arrived a Clafouti they insisted on waiting outside in case we weren't happy with the room we were offered. Howver, even though the room wasn't exactly appealing there was no way we would go back to the rickshaw and ask to be taken anywhere else.

Hotel Clafouti
In Rough Guide the hotel is described as having “spotless tiled rooms arranged around a courtyard, all with private balconies; the more expensive ones have sea view”. It is hard to compose a criticism of this quote in a diplomatic fashion. The first part, “spotless tiled rooms”, is untrue. The room was unclean. However, the bed and pillows were the most comfortable we have experienced in India. Unfortunately, the room was, even with the fan on and windows opened, too hot and stuffy even when the temperature was pleasant outside.
The second part “arranged around a courtyard” is a truth with modifications. The courtyard is roughly two by one metres and since it is enclosed at the top and unusable other than for satisfying people's wish for seeing a few plants indoors, Rough Guide should qualify its quote.

The third part, “all with private balconies”, is, to say the least, an imprecise quote. To us “private” means a place where you have privacy. The balconies at Clafouti are ground level balconies of the type where you can't avoid waving, smiling and saying “hello” to the many people who pass by. The word private should be substituted with “exposed”.

The fourth part, “the more expensive ones have sea view” is again a matter of definition. Being able so see an inch of sea in the distance through a building located in front of your balcony hardly qualifies as “sea view”.
The only other criticism of the hotel is that we had to catch two palm sized cockroaches in the bathroom. As a consequence of the cockroach risk we left the light on in the bathroom constantly the three days we stayed there. One light bulb blew after two days and the other one a few hours before we left.

All in all, we can't, despite its cheapness, recommend Clafouti.

So, what is Varkala?
Varkala is, like Munnar, a town of two parts: the lower part, which is where the station is and the local population live, and the cliff part, which is a couple of kilometres up the road. Most of the hotels are located on the cliff so it is hard to avoid going there though.

The layout of the cliff top is pretty simple: next to the drop there is walking path, a few kilometres long, and slightly inland are the many restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops. On the paths you'll find scantily clad tourists, a lot of Russians and Germans, whose main purpose for going to Varkala seem to be to get a tan. The most shocking specimen we saw was a woman with a white, wet skirt (see through) wearing a thong between her wobbling buttocks. Paradoxically, some of these people are probably amongst the anti foreigner brigade in their home countries who want foreigners to adapt to their new homeland's culture, whilst at the same time these tourists undress in India where exposure of skin is generally seen as inappropriate. At one point, enjoying a fruit juice in a restaurant overlooking the sea, and the path, a woman dressed only in bikini walked past.
On the photo above, the cliff top doesn't actually look as bad as it is. And it wouldn't be quite as bad if it wasn't for the touts. In front of every single restaurant and shop there is a tout who will smile and add the obligatory “good morning”, “hello” or “good evening” before inviting you to buy his stuff or eat his grub. It doesn't make any sense to buy the stuff because it is overpriced compared to places where there are fewer tourists.

The sellers are usually Kashmiris or Tibetan. Apparently, tourists attract Kashmiris like flies to shit. South Indians are a very small minority at the cliff top.

The only shop we actually went into (apart from a small supermarket where we got biscuits, batteries and cigarettes) was a book shop. Sarah needed a book. The book shop had a couple of good book, but they were all damp, second hand and with low quality print . The new price, printed on the back cover of the book that caught her interest, was Rs. 295. The book seller wanted Rs. 200 for the book. We fell over the cliff in shock.

The only redeeming factor of the cliff top is that the fruit juices and croissants are good and that it is possible to sit in the restaurants during the day, with a view over the sea, reading the paper.

The view is one of those things. When you look at photos from Varkala it looks quite stunning. In reality there is not much to it. It is, pretty much, the opposite of Munnar, which doesn't look of much in photos, but is amazing in reality.
We only went to the lower part of Varkala once in the three days we were there. We dipped our feet in the very warm sea water, and got splashed up to our knees (the waves were erratic), and went for some food in the only South Indian food place in Varkala.

The special Varkala cuisine
After having eaten South Indian food for nearly a month our conclusion is that well cooked South Indian food is hard to beat. The problem is that the quality of the meals is inconsistent. Since South Indian food wasn't available on the cliff top, we decided to go down to Shri Padman which in Rough Guide is described as: “this grubby looking café might seem unpromising, but the veg food is cheap and delicious, and the location is very atmospheric, with a large rear terrace affording views of the temple tank.” Again, it seems like Rough Guide's sources are worryingly unknowledgeable. Shri Padman does indeed look unpromising and the food is cheap, but the quality is poor. The thali we had was easily our worst South Indian meal to date. Also, the atmosphere on the not so large rear terrace was somewhat muted by the strong smell of urine from the outdoor toilet.

For the rest of our stay in Varkala we stayed at the cliff top, and for dinner ate bland, westernised North Indian food. The quality was well below the average Indian take-away in the UK. For breakfast we had to resort to German style chocolate croissants, i.e. more bread than croissant but quite nice. At least we were able to avoid the places, and there were many, that supplied the guest with the latest hits of Dire Straits, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams as an unwelcome accompaniment to the food. The poor quality of the food is another paradox of Varkala. The place is renowned for sporting some of the best yoga schools in India, plus now a large number of dodgy ones, but the people attending these places can't easily get healthy food which is an essential part of proper yoga.

Animals
There are an incredibly large number of stray dogs in Varkala. They tend to hang out in groups in their designated territories which typically are defined by the perimeters of one or more restaurants.
In the evening they will find a friendly looking customer and wait to be fed. At night you can lie in your hotel bed listening to the dog gangs fighting each other for food and territory. The dog situation in Varkala is not ideal. There are too many and they are reproducing freely. There were plenty of pups around; Mort can testify that their teeth are exceptionally sharp; he managed to be bitten by a playful one. Luckily, the bite wasn't penetrative.

When we walked down to lower Varkala we saw these two resting next to the busy road. The next moment the puppy ran across the road and only just escaped been fleeced by a fast moving vehicle.
One day, during a terrible down pour, a male stray dog (male dogs are generally less friendly than females) came on to our balcony to seek shelter from the rain. We let him stay since he looked quite miserable. Soon even the balcony was engulfed in water, and he started to move towards the door to our room. He then came and sat looking at the rain for a while.
Eventually, he felt secure enough to take a nap on the floor next to the bed. He stayed there for a couple of hours.
There are plenty of lizards in Kerala. This one was hanging on a bush in front of our balcony.
So what is good about Varkala?
We didn't find any good reason for going to Varkala. The only good thing about the place is that it is falling into the sea. As is visible from the photo below some measures have been implemented to postpone the inevitable: a feeble metal frame is the only reason this part of the cliff is still attached. On the shop photo above, it can be seen, in the distance, that another part of the cliff is perilously close to dropping off. Unfortunately, this just means that people will be expanding further inland.
If we, for some unimaginable reason, had to go back to Varkala, we would stay in the lower part of Varkala.

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This entry was posted by pundabee, on Sunday, December 03, 2006. You can leave your response.