Our Christmas Family Fun

We had quite a bit of help celebrating christmas which all started before we'd even caught up with Dave and Fiona. As you do we had to have a welcome drink to Varkala so we stopped in at one of the many cafes along the clifftop to have a Kingfisher.. The only catch is that we had to drink the beer from mugs and hide the half empty bottle away from the roving eye of the local police sergent. We understand that the cafes need a special licence to serve alcohol which is too much hassle so just keep your beer by your toes..
It was at this cafe we met Pia and her father Neil from the Sunshine Coast. So we spent the afternoon refreshing our welcome drinks before catching up with Dave and Fiona. Pia, Neil and wife Lolly were in Varkala to celebrate Christmas, this was only the first aussie family we met as it wasn't long before Fiona was introducing us to Brenton (aka trouble) another Aussie waiting for is brother and parents to join him for Christmas. Two days later we meet another Aussie family from Freo.. Varkala the family holiday destination...
We tore off back down the beach for a quick swim before sunset and found out how quick a swim it'd be.. the Aussie trained lifesaver ushers everyone out of the water at sunset so we can get ready for our night of great food, great friends and a few more welcome drinks.. The beach is where it all happens, its full all day and those with a little too much sun return for sunset where there's people from across the planet chatting whilst listening to a saxophonist from Spain or watching fire twirlers practice.

We had an abundance of choice for meals with Thai, Tibetan, Itialian, fresh seafood, Chinese and south Indian dishes. Our favourite had to be the Thai cafe though.
Varkala also has one or two watering holes which aren't shy in serving as long you're ordering. We just had to watch out for the locals getting a little juiced up on the firewater with a blue breaking out on more than one occasion. One fella was brought back into line by his mates who decided a good dose of thong (flip flop) slapping was in order.. All the restaurants are decked out for the Christmas celebrations some even bring out the Christmas elephant to draw the patrons.. The Funky Arts Cafe received a fair slice of patronage with just a few Long Island Iced Teas being ordered.. the drinks seemed to have a strange effect on Fiona and Brenton... Each night a place along the cliffs takes the lead in being the spot of choice and this night it was Coconut Grove.. A place at the end of the walking track where a local DJ with an Aussie girlfriend was playing some good house, the beer was coolish, a rope swing was up and swinging there was a tall bald fella in orange pants showing us all how the dancing was done..



Oh yeah Christmas... We had a great Christmas eve with Gali from Isreal, Christmas eve was also the birthday of an Irish girl named Christmas, yes Christmas.. So as you can guess more celebrations, more long island iced teas with funny drunk waiters and the latest in Bollywood dancing by some of the locals. Christmas eve rolled into Christmas morning with more swimming, lazing and Christmas lunch. Shaz shared her Indian lunch with Dave and Neil and I shared a pizza with Pia for a bit of much needed comfort food...


Luckily we are here for a little while so we'll head back south to take an overnight float on the Kerala backwaters, one of the must do things we missed 'cause the beach was sooo good..

To all the people we met over Christmas all the best to you and hope you have a fantastic 2007!!