There is not much to see in Varkala apart from the Janardasaswamy temple, dedicated to Vishnu, which is said to be “thousands of years old” and connected with some interesting legends involving Vishnu, Krishna and Brahma. We didn’t have time to go and see it, or perhaps we were templed-out, but we were told about it by Gary from Malvern who we met in the cafe. He was in Varkala for the surfing and yoga. Varkala is the sort of place you can enjoy without doing anything because it is located in a jungle with beautiful trees and flowers, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.
The next day the friendly Christian taxi driver came for us at 9.30 and drove us the 78 miles to Allapuzha which is the centre of the “Backwater” area of lakes and rivers. Mr Raj had booked us onto a houseboat for a three-hour cruise through the Backwater with lunch and dinner included.
There is an election for the State Assembly in Kerala where the ruling Left Democratic Front (an alliance of the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party Marxist) is expected to increase its seats from the current 99 out of 148.
The Member for Varkala standing for re-election.
There are many of these weird trees which look like a collection of roots
Candidate for Allapuzha
The driver of our boat
Our bedroom