Varkala Beach, Kerala. February 2010
Notes from the Kerala Holiday:
After finishing the famous Kerala Backwater tour on a traditional houseboat in Alleppey, we were slowly making our way back down to Trivandrum where we would catch our flight to Singapore. Varkala came highly recommended as an alternative beach destination to the over-developed Kovalam Beach we had visited earlier in the vacation. Brian was done with taking trains, so we found a car and driver who would take us all the way back to Trivandrum with a stop in Varkala along the way. I believe we took our lunch there with a lovely view of the Indian Ocean.
Imagine large, eroding cliffs and an enticing beach below and that was Varkala. The place was actually idyllic. Along the cliff edge were a series of small hotels and cafes that were slowly being consumed by the drop-off as it inched inland. The views from those establishments were breathtaking. The place almost had a "Malibu" air to it. We were initially impressed until we realized that all those small hotels, cafes, and restaurants were throwing their garbage over the cliff edge. As can be seen in the photo, the whole cliff is strewn with trash. We were shocked and saddened. I assume the owners of those places felt "out of sight, out mind". Never mind that the lovely cliff was marred and the beach below was just littered with trash - the area in front of each business was clean. I assume the idea was that it would all eventually wash out to sea.
We walked down to the seaside which actually was beautiful (garbage aside) and a much better beach than the more famous Kovalam. We looked back at the cliff face strewn with human refuse and were saddened.
Varkala is simply too unique to end up being a garbage dump forever. At some point the government of Kerala will enact building codes and provide better garbage removal services. The cliff will be cleaned up, too. After that, even at the expense of some aggressively inappropriate development, the place stands a chance of not only being nicer, but actually becoming one of the premier beach towns of India. Towering cliffs, a wide strand, great hotels and cafes overlooking the sea - such beauty cannot forever go unnoticed.
We got in the car and continued the drive back to Trivandrum on a crazy two-lane road dodging huge trucks and speeding buses.
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