We left Alleppey around 10 am after our breakfast in Alleppey and headed through the potholed roads, southwards. The roads are extremely bad and the monsoon performed its part. During traffic hours, it gets worse. The 104 kms stretch approximately took us 4 hours to reach, because of the road condition. Finally, with a number of tea/coffee breaks, we reached varkala at 3pm. The moment we reached, the view and the sound of the wild sea from the cliff brought back all our energies. We walked past the cliff lined with all the cafe, eateries and stay places.
Varkala is very similar to any other seabeach in India, the shops with dokra, cheap clothes, small artifacts and traditional Indian shops. There are huge number of Kerala Ayurvedic Massage centres which offers a good range of massages in a very good price. The places to stay on the cliff overlooking the sea are expensive one, but as we take the by lane, there are a large number of places to stay, comfortable and affordable.
As I always go by the Tripadvisor and Lonely Planet, I kept looking at the ones that are recommended. in one of the by lanes, we found Mummy’s Bamboo House, a small yet sparkling clean place. We got our rooms in the ground floor at a price as low as Rs.400/- per day. The room is spacious and a big washroom. The building looks as good as new. The Best part are the hammocks outside the rooms. When I spoke to the host, Rani, she said that it was 9 years old. Wow!! What a beautifully maintained place. Rani had been by far, the best host we have come across. Warm and smiling. She gave us amazing tea/coffee and great Kerala lunch and coconut pancake in the later day. The surprisingly best part of Varkala is that every place is Wi-fi enabled.
Once we got the place to stay, we headed out for lunch. The Little Tibet caught our sight among all the Casa Del Sol, German Bakery, Buddha Cafe and the others. We ordered Thupka, Mutton Momo, pancake and Sizzlers. The food tastes amazing here. The prices are relatively low. The a little time the took to serve us was because the food is fresh and steaming.We hanged around in cliff that day for sometimes and went back to our den. We rested the early evening in the hammocks and finally decided to retire fast that day after our dinner in another hangout called Caffe Italiano. A good looking attractive place that looks like a library and is filled with artificially woven cobwebs. The ambiance is beautiful. The Food was not upto the mark. The cocktails served were good, but the pasta was sauce less and dry, food had no taste at all and the seafood was extremely expensive for a sea side.
The next day was the day to look around the varkala town after our English breakfast and pancake time at Casa Del Mar, We visited a Vishnu temple, a Sivagiri Maath and the Kappil Beach outlined with the backwaters. The Kappil Beach is the flat beach with a tremendously rough sea and beautiful backwaters. Its and experience. We spent about 2-3 hours there and got back to Cliff. After freshening up for the evening, we spent time, shopping and walking by the cliff. Post that, we went for the most recommended Kerala Ayurveda Massage. A good 60 minutes relaxation was really good.
We had our dinner in a place called Sky Lounge. The food was great there and extremely inexpensive. The pepper chicken, Thukpa and the Pancake was amazing and the cocktails again were the best. We also ordered steak in pepper sauce and that too tasted great.
The next day was our day to depart from Varkala. We limited our breakfast to our B&B menu of appam and curry from a place round the corner from Mummy’s Bamboo house. Our Lunch was the definitely no to miss Kerala meal and coconut Pancake.
As we packed up, we saw the Anchuthengu Fort,the Varkala Lighthouse and the Varkala Tunnel.
Nice account..enjoyed reading it... the pictures are beautiful... :-)
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