Totally addicted to... Varkala

I did promise pictures - but alas, not today.

Every day Nechama and I tell eachother we're leaving Varkala the following morning. It's time to go. Really, we should move on. We were supposed to leave this paradise on Sunday, onwards to Periyar (a wildlife sanctuary and surrounding tea/spice plantations) but our itinerary keeps changing with the weather. What keeps us here at Varkala? The weather has been pretty awful - heavy rains and grey clouds and milky seas and some more rain. The beach isn't as calm or as inviting as Goa - the waves crash above our heads and after five minutes I'm ready to get out and sunbake (in the few minutes of sun we have). The current is very strong and I feel that I have just completed a work out each time I attempt to swim. The shops that line the promenade (if you can call it that - perhaps a boardwalk made of rock that hugs the cliff face) are filled with the same junk as every other one we pass over. Colourful bags, sequined shoes, bedspreads, pashminas, trinkets galore - same stuff, different store. So why the hell are we here? Still? After more than a week?

It’s the people, man. And, as they say, it’s the people that make the place.

When we arrived to Varkala, the village on the cliff was quite empty. We recognized some of the regulars, some people I remembered from Cochin… We enjoyed the sunshine – although during the hottest times of the day, I would bury myself in the shady cool of internet cafes and cafes, striking up conversations with the random Indians that worked there. But now, after a week and a half, we seem like old timers, waving to shopkeepers and waiters and other tourists. Regulars. Ha.

Each night we agonise over what we feel like eating for dinner - Thai? Italian? Keralan? One night we opted for a cooking class in the Kerelan style of Thali - and ate our products for dinner! Curried vegetables, Tuna Moli (a sweet vegetable gravy with fresh tuna), Coconut Cabbage and a fried vegetable which is only known as Lady/Witch Fingers? A little like zucchini. Mmmm. Man, that's all I ever do is write about the food. One restaurant makes incredible Thai food and Nechama and I keep going back for more - last night we were so ravenous at 9 30pm we raced to the cafe, didn't even bother sitting down or looking at the menu and ordered ourselves a great dinner. We've become a little too 'regular' in this place as well, making friends with the Nepalese Hebrew-speaking waiters - it's hard not to, since the village is so small.

Talk about routine. After dinner we meet up for drinks with a gorgeous British couple, an Assyrian Swede, an Irish couple, and a Kerelan journalist who now works in Dubai. It varies from night to night, but each day we keep telling each other that yes, tomorrow we'll leave, tonight's our last night - but we end up staying, can't be bothered packing up - lethargy at large.

I think we might leave tomorrow. Or the next day. Who knows.