Happy Christmas !!

Wow....Happy Xmas everyone, although does not feel one iota like Xmas at all, I (G) got sunburnt today having woken up and saw lovely 4 footers rolling into the beach I have spent most of the day in the water (only body-surfing however as the lifeguards would not allow people to hire out boogie boards as the surf was so big!!).

Happy Christmas love from Jo!!! We are thinking of everyone at home!

Anyway, back to the 21st Dec. After the Keralan backwaters we headed to Kollam whereby the plan was to canoe into the backwaters away from the main canals to experience some village life. However everything seemed to conspire against us and the lack of places to stay, (apart from an ayervedic treatment retreat which we stayed at for one night), meant that we decided to move on to Varkala for some beach relaxing and our overall plan to spend Xmas on the beach....

Ayervedic retreat was v peaceful. We didn't actually have any treatment (ayervedic is traditional herbal medicine and preventative treatments) but enjoyed staying in a cottage with a hammock outside that backed onto a lake. Also was able to handle a glow-bug, amazing thing we found outside our room, its ass just glowed!!

On to Varkala - very nice beach with loads of backpackers everywhere, massively touristy but nice to spend Christmas with other people. Groups of young Indian men come on day trips to the beach to stare at tourists in bikinis! Lots of restaurant and shops up on the cliff-top overlooking the beach. In the evening each restaurant displays its catch for the day - blue marlin, tuna, barracuda, squid, shark, red snapper, butterfish to name a few. We have eaten some fantastic fish curries for about GBP2 each (150 Rps).

We stayed in Sea Pearl Chalets which is perched on the cliff edge.... the government wanted to close the Chalets down because the cliff is crumbling into the sea (it is especially dangerous in the monsoon). Luckily the owner chucked a load of money at the authorities who then withdrew their threat - hmmm, comforting. Bribes seem to get you anything in India.

On the 23rd managed to secure some fins and a boogie board so had an awesome session in 3 foot clean waves. And no one else in the water either....

Hired a Royal Enfield for a day on Christmas Eve. A great bike, 350cc, a classic look, they used to be built by the brits when we colonised and after we left the Indians continued to build them. We headed down the coast and found some proper tropical paradise beaches with no one on them except the local fishermen and really sweet children. We came to a Catholic area and everyone was shouting Happy Xmas to us when we were riding along. The villages were preparing for Christmas Eve parties with music blasting out of loud speakers and people dancing in the street. (G helped the local fishermen pull in the net - spot the yellow hair.....)

Bumped into some pals who we met in Ooty and decided we wanted to experience a proper Indian midnight mass so we headed out to a massive Catholic church at 11:30pm (after a few too many G&T's). Varkala is a Hindu town so took taxi to nearest Catholic village. It was massively full-on, 2 hour service all in the local dialect with amazing singing and a lot of kneeling on the floor. At the end Santa appeared dancing and swinging his hips and paraded in a procession around the church.....all in all it was a bit like a weird acid trip, but the locals were very friendly as usual so it was a great experience and at the end everyone wanted to shake hands with us and wish us Happy Christmas.

For Xmas day we are staying in a 5 star hotel, paid for by mum and dad (G's). Thanks Roger and Sue ;-) Its an amazing hotel right on the beach and it will be a while before we see such luxury again. We have had a wicked day on the beach and by the pool. Had fishie Christmas lunch and just about to head out for a fishie din dins (wary of the turkey curry option!).

Happy Christmas! Love from Jo and G xxx