We were up at 09:00 hrs. and we performed our ablutions with a reluctance to touch anything and thus become contaminated by it’s grubbiness. We went into the fierce morning sun with little hope of finding a good establishment for breakfast.
Imagine our surprise to find the excellent “Indian Coffee House” where, in a clean environment, we were served proper coffee by a clean uniformed waiter in an elaborate fan-topped turban. After a bit of initial misunderstanding/order anticipation game we also got a good breakfast of egg on toast.
We collected our bags from our accommodation, and due to a breakdown in communication we got away with paying only 25 Indian Rupees for our triple room. We walked through the darker-skinned sarong-clad crowd to the bus stand and joined the fighting mob battling to get on to the Kovalum bus at Stand 17.
About 30 minutes later we were in paradise! We discovered that Kovalam in Kerala, near the southern tip of India, was a calm fishing village clustered around its crescent beaches and backed by a sea of cascading palms. The “Sergeant” led us from the bus, through palm trees and tapioca plants, passed the paddy fields to his lodge, the Sreevas.
We filled in the hotel registration book over a drink in a nearby café and the Sergeant gave us a rundown of the do’s and don’ts in this exotic location. He warned us about theft, dangerous drugs and dodgy undercurrents in the bay (people had been drowned). He told us where the showers and laundry facilities were.
We paid for 10 nights in advance, which cost us 77 Indian Rupees each. Quickly we got organised in our hut and set off down to Lighthouse Beach, which was 50 metres away. Lighthouse Beach is widely regarded as the best beach in the State of Kerala and has an iconic 30-meters-high lighthouse, standing on rocky platform on the southern end of the beach.
“We came in search of paradise” in the words of the Bounty advert (Bounty is a chocolate bar manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. The chocolate bar consists of a coconut flavoured filling -Desiccated Coconut (21%) - coated with milk chocolate. It was introduced in 1951 in the United Kingdom and Canada.) and we found it on Kovalum Beach.
Beach cafés did not corrupt the white sandy strip, framed between two rocky promontories, and dotted liberally with palm trees. The area was being commercialised rapidly but was not too bad at present. A number of new buildings were under construction, so give it a couple of years…
Scantily clad and totally naked women took our interest as they swanned about, while their male counterparts sported sarongs (a table cloth affair wrapped around their loins) and looked as if they thought they were lifeguards.
The local trade seemed to be rock quarrying and breaking up large lumps of rock into small bits for road construction. This was achieved by a lot of mainly women with hammers. On our journey in, as the bus approached Kovalum, the road was lined with palm woven sunshades protecting the locals from the intense sun, who sat hammering melon-sized rocks until they had a basket full of walnut-sized lumps.
On the beach we were quickly spotted as new arrivals by the local traders who descended upon us offering sarongs and peanuts (“monkey nuts” in shells). We resisted these persistent blighters and went swimming in the sea in a shift system: one of us would watch the valuables while the other two gambolled in the surf.
It was great. The warm, salty water seemed to wash away all our troubles and the “contamination” of our travels in India. Our spirits soared as the waves smashed around us and we sat on the sand drying in the warm sun.
We went to the Volga Restaurant as it was totally free of other Westerners, to have a drink and get respite from the harsh sun’s glare. Loud Western rock and pop music blared to compete with neighbouring establishments, and we had to bellow to get the owner to turn down the volume.
A wander into the next bay revealed that the Lighthouse Beach was the best because this beach was not as picturesque and seemed to be patronised by the freakier element of beach bums. By the central outcrop of rocks that divided the two beaches crude fishing boats, looking like Viking longboats, were hauled up onto the beach.
Fishermen had their nets spread out on the beach to dry and 4 chattering girls carried dry palm fronds in bundles on their heads. We returned to our room in Sreevas Lodge and moved on to the Shangri-La Restaurant for supper. I had an egg curry and a beautiful rice pudding with all manner of exotic tropical fruits in it.
After eating we started out on a walk into Kovalum village but didn’t get very far, ending up sipping black coffee (“milk not possible”, we were told) in a posh hotel. A native band with electric guitars played Dire Straits song “The Sultans of Swing” followed by “The First Cut is the Deepest”. We took our leave when they stopped for a break.
Earlier in the evening we became re-acquainted with the “Cinderella Sisters” from Chitwan. Back at the Sreevas I had a cooling shower before joining the others in a fairly restless night on the punishingly hard beds.
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