After 12 days in the blazing heat of Rajasthan (did we mention it was hot there?) - this is a welcome sight! Our first view of the Kerala coastline from the plane.
In India they call Kerala 'God's Own Country' - we can't argue with that! This place has it all as you'll see over the next few blogs. But first stop was getting to the coast and in the Arabian Sea!
This is the beach at Varkala. It's a beautiful sight, dramatic cliffs, golden sand and git big waves - big enough to do some of my (Keith) world renowned 'body surfing' which was going well until one wave really got hold of me and 'rolled' me in the sand. It was like being in a tumble dryer full of gravel! (as anyone in my family will know - my sister Paula is also a very accomplished body surfer!! - it runs in the family)A little story about segregation! On the beach at Varkala there's a small 'police' presence and their job is to keep the Indian people to the left of the beach and the tourists to the right! We were slightly confused at first but we found out why. Indian men aren't used to seeing women's bodies! Even when Indian women swim it's usually with the full kit on - so when Indian men see Westerners wearing nothing but a piece of string they often just stand and gawp!! It's actually called 'gawping' and the police are known as 'gawp control', their job is to keep a comfortable distance between the 'gawpers' and the 'flesh flashers'. One Indian teenager swam underwater and appeared in the 'Western' section, he was quickly spotted by gawp control and whistled at and ordered back, you could almost read his mind when he looked to the Western side and here are all the young girls in bikinis, then he looked over to his side at a load of middle aged woman covered from head to foot!
After a fish dinner (blue marlin caught that day- mmmm) there's a lovely cliff top path that we walked along and here's a few shots along the way.
We had two nights here, we could have easily had more but we had some other fantastic places to visit. For the full 'cooling off' experience we were heading for the cool climate mountains and as we are writing this retrospectively (oooooh!), I can tell you them thar mountains were spectacular. Next stop Periyar and then Munnar, said to be the most popular tourist destination in South India. For a free scone, what's the major crop that's produced at Munnar and exported all over the world (not so much in America though!) . So the next blog's coming from somewhere seriously above sea level - unlike this little paradise!
Cups of tea shenanigans: Elvis' sari is 5 metres long. Outsourcer, a cup of tea to you - spot on girl. Now FIL (Dad Elves) you're getting a cuppa too as when the sari was originally bought it was 6m long and a metre was cropped off the end to make the 'blouse' so you're technically right too!
Our Paula - you've won a scone!!! FIL (Father-in-law) asked how many cakes has Elvis consumed - you said 200, which I reckon is about right, although Elvis sheepishly muttered... 'more like 400' !!
4 comments:
OHHH MYYYY GIDDIE AUNT....Im first... I think your rite keithy the rest of them must of thought it was the last of yer blog....well me i dont care about cups of tea & scones with yer finest clotted....Red wine wins hands down every time.....XXXXXX
Could it be Assam tea which is produced in munnar....Google came up with a few items...cardamon...rice...cashew..ill let someone else have further guesses.....as ive mentioned tea schme.......................
My guess is G strings. The idea being .... export the kind of kit we can't wear here with the hope that tourists will wear them when they visit, and we can gawp at them.
But I think Schmenny is right cause Americans don't drink tea much and when they do, they make it in utterly ridiculous ways! They'll bring you a cup of warm water with a tea bag, and if you drink that and you want a fill up, they'll actually ask if you'd need a new bag!!!
Finally back to my kind of photos....I love oceans!
PS Weeeee's the giddy aunt?
Didge says..the beach at Varkala is just like Cat and Dog Steps minus the dogs(I think not) It looks pretty spectacular yer knar(Mackem speak)
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