Refreshed after five days of luxury for Christmas in Nusa Dua Bali we headed north for a day and a night diving the wreck of the USAT Liberty in Tulamben. (more dive pics to come off Alexis' camera) We spent a rain soaked night in the flooded town of Kuta Beach while waiting for a plane and then flew out to Kuala Lumpur for three nice nights in a Sheraton leading up to New Years Eve. We sopped up some Malaysian cuisine and picked up some new cooking tips along the way.
Doing by far the most outlying planning to date on this trip, Alexis and I booked tickets to take us to the very Southern tip of India and, ten days later and from the far side of the state of Kerala, to return to Kuala Lumpur and continue on to Vientienne, Laos.
The state of Kerala, in India, proclaims itself 'God's Own Country'. Accordingly we can determine about God that {she, he, it, they,∅, ...} loves sunshine, bright colors, spicy food, Communism, long walks on the beach and incredible sunsets. We can also tell that God could really use a hand cleaning up and taking out the trash every now and again.
We stepped off the plane at around nine A.M. on New Years Day and instantly realized several things: we had no guidebook, no idea where we were going to stay, it was probably a public holiday. We soon learned, at the first three hotels we tried, that it was also high season for local tourism and the town of Trivandrum was jam packed with visitors. We weathered it well though. We found a hotel, got some sleep and then got out to eat real Indian food and explore our strange new environs.
It didn't take us too long to find our backpacking stride again. We spent our first night in Trivandrum. Feeling that the town was just a bit to rustic and unfamiliar with foreigners, we left early the next morning to head to the "upscale" tourist beach in Kovalum. After a day on the beach being hassled and ogled, we got gutsy and hopped on the bus back to Trivandrum. With a little help from some friendly locals we found our way onto a low fare bus headed north, and a hop-skip-and-$2.50 later we found ourselves in Varkala. This little town on a cliff edged felt just right to us. A little bit reggae, a little bit backpacker, a whole lot of hippy meets guru.
Here we've practiced a little yoga and found a very low frills cooking class. Add in a little time on the beach and you've got perfection.
Next: on to the Kerala Backwaters for a raft ride.
-- Jeff
