India: the Final Chapter

Varkala, India (map)

In this blog: a relaxing end to my time in India

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Varkala beach

The tasty last bite. You know, that little habit of making sure the last forkful of your meal is a nice one to remember? A friend recently introduced me to the idea of doing this to countries as well, so that the last few days give you a favourable memory of your time there. So at Varkala - my final stop in India, I got my fork out and did exactly that.

The best accomodation in ages

The starting point of this mouthful of pleasure, was to go to a nice place - Varkala, a coastal resort about a hundred miles from the most southerly point of the country. I arrived to find a string of well kept hotels and restaurants, lining a crumbling red clifftop above a nice stretch of sand. It has a touch of class above most of what you'll find in Goa and other Indian resorts, being slightly less commercialised and noisy, and lacking the package holiday makers and hippies. Next in my metaphorical mouth came the hotel - a smart place on the cliffs above the beach with a grass lawn outside, marble floors, a comfy bed, balcony, bath, hot water and a sea view - most of which sounds like fairly normal things but have been mostly absent throughout my travels in India. Finally, I spent a bit more on food and drink than normal, dropped anything that might be considered cultural, and just relaxed for a few days. A perfect final bite.

And because of all this, I've not really got a lot to say about my time there for once. I managed to fill most of my time on the balcony, beach or hotel restaurant. I did a bit of reading, swimming in the sea, interneting, or music listening, and caught up on some phone calls. I sorted a few chores, including washing even my rucksack and shoes, which hadn't had much love for a while. I did some planning ahead and looking back, and spent a day catching up on the blogs, including spending a bit of time reflecting on the four-and-a-half months I'd had in the country - as you might expect there was a lot to write, so more to follow soon.

All the local hotels and restaurants' in Varkala seemed to be run and jointly owned by Nepalese families for some reason, so for once the Indians were generally sidelined - an interesting sight. Being the end of season - Christmas and new year peak time - things were pretty quiet generally, and the mostly-female shopkeepers desperate for business. As persistent and irritating as this could be, it actually worked to my favour as you could strike some pretty good deals on local crafts. And after not buying a lot throughout India, I reluctantly did exactly that one afternoon, knowing I might appreciate it one day.

Varkala beach

I can't say I really met many other travellers for once though - a mixture of it being quiet and me being a bit lazy. But I did have a chat with an African-American couple, who are living and teaching in an international school in India for a couple of years and told some interesting stories, then another day to an English/American couple who had just turned up. I had to laugh when they told me about the train journey they'd just taken - their plane arrived at Mumbai, and they took a night train south to Varkala which was due to arrive at 11am. On the train and nearing what they thought was the end of the journey, they checked with staff that their stop was coming up, to be told it was actually 11am the following day, and therefore they actually had another 24 hours more on the train! Imagine that feeling.

Keeping it cool

Over the three days I did manage to go for a couple of short but pleasant walks along the coast, where I met a few interesting locals. On one walk, I passed a young Indian lying in the shade by his motorbike, who lazily demanded some water from my bottle, unsurprisingly I shouted back 'get your own'. On another, I relaxed watching fisherman prepare their small boat at a quiet beach nearby, and one of them purposefully came and said 'hello, smoking?' to try and scab a cigarette. The last day, another fisherman asked me to help drag his boat in, before telling me he'd caught very little, had a wife and kids to feed, and therefore could I give him money please. He didn't make much of my not-too-out-there suggestion to go fishing again instead. Even at a resort as westernised as Varkala, you can't escape India entirely.

A Dramatic Final Scene

The three days flew by in a blur of both busyness and relaxation, and was the perfect closing chapter to the Indian tale that I'd hoped for. But before I knew it, that was it - the end of both my time in Varkala and indeed, India as a whole. And a dramatic ending it was. With darkness descended, twenty minutes to go before I had to leave I sat in the hotel's outdoor restaurant for a drink. A few raindrops started to fall. A few minutes it started coming down faster, and next thing, there was thunder, lightening and very heavy rain,mall with little warning. I hailed a rickshaw and headed for the train station. Huge puddles had already formed, and rain sprayed in from both sides, getting us wet. The palm trees along the road were constantly silhouetted by flashes of lightning, adding to the effect even more.

At the train station, the power had gone out and I sat on the gloomy platform waiting for the as-usual delayed train to arrive. It departed almost as soon as it arrived, which meant without realising it, I was able to finally achieve one of my Indian dreams - just like in the movies I had to run alongside and jump onto the train as it moved away from the platform. Perfect timing. I looked out the window and smiled, pondering whether the thunderstorm was the Hindu gods saying 'thanks for coming, we held the rain back as long as we could', or more like 'we've had enough of you now, get out'. Whichever, it was as dramatic an end as you'd expect from weird and wonderful India.