Our journey to christmas

Well we may have had a winter christmas this year but it was much more like an Aussie Christmas than a white northern christmas. We decided to split from the craziness of Mumbai and spend a few days relaxing at a beautiful beachside villiage called Varkala in the state of Kerala about a 1&1/2 hour flight south of Mumbai. Ahhh bliss.. We thought we may have to jump over to Thailand to find a place to chill out and relax, but Varkala has it all, beautiful beaches where we could swim or just sit in the sun, fresh seafood, great restaurants, massages and accommodation right on the rocky cliff top.

Ah yes, this beautiful place became more beautiful thanks to the journey we had to get there.. and to stay true to our adventures to date this one should be no different. Booking air travel on the internet was a killer with Indian nationals favoured over the lazy traveller... So we thought we had booked a good ticket only to find we couldn't pay for it with international credit cards. The next 12 hours was spent chasing emails and phone calls which repeatedly disconnected to book the tickets. Finally we had our e-tickets for 5.30am from Mumbai to Cochin. What the..?? Cochin?? oops Thiruvananthapuram Airport was closer, quick change the flight... Too late and too much drama, so we decided to add to our adventure by taking a 140km train journey to Varkala.. We packed the bare essentials the night before, set the alarm and made it to the flight on time. Now 140km by train may not sound far and it's not when you have personal space. We bought our tickets sleeper class 120rupee (about $3.40 AUD) We sorted our train number and watched as the 15 or so sleeper class carriages rolled by absolutely chockers..
So on we get, trying to find a place to sit amongst the many families and getting looked at like we were the circus passing through town.. After stumbling through two carriages we found some space in the cooking car and held up there for a station or two until we got a chance to trek back through to find a space.
It was a big space for a few seconds then we were shoulder to shoulder with the locals. We smiled and shared their biscuits, played with the kids and kept close to the widows for the next few hours as the South Indian countryside slid by over the next 4 hours..
We travelled to Varkala to meet up with David and his friend Fiona. Lucky they were already there as Fiona who's a tour leader with Travel Indochina booked a Bamboo hut just behind the clifftop shops. Fantastic spot! The lights were out and there was even a litter of kittens in the 2nd hut we stayed in. It was just so beautiful to be beachside and be absolutely lazy about it feeling very satisfied that we could return should we feel the need.. but next time the kittens will be cats and we'll fly to the right plane station..