Surfing in Varkala, Kerala

Unspoiled Edava beach.

I think it’s testament to Varkala’s charm that we planned to stay for five nights and ended up staying for two weeks. This made me wonder whether, although we call ourselves travellers, we may well be settlers after all.

Our first full day there was Luke’s 30^th birthday, so the night before I had to dash out in a panic to find him a few presents in the limited range of shops. I got him a sarong (he was always borrowing mine to put on his head) and a little drum, which I may regret. Then I came across a French guy called Simon who runs Tata Surf School and I decided to sign accident-prone Luke up for a surf lesson or two (sorry to his mum, but I promise he didn’t break anything).

Kerala is best known for its beautiful backwaters but Varkala beach has huge, crazy waves to the point where you can be in at knee height and still get thrown over. We went with Simon to nearby Edava beach which is a fishermans’ beach but you can catch a good wave there. The fishermen used to work from Varkala beach but got moved on when it became touristy, so it’s important to their livelihood that this doesn’t happen again.

Luke was a skateboarder in his youth, so he was a natural and managed to stand up in his first lesson. I, on the other hand, was a bit more of a challenge. I have surfed before – only last January in Newquay – but the crazy waves of Varkala are on another level. It took all of my effort to just get the board out far enough, on my way in I kept getting thrown over and washed back to shore.

Luke catching a wave on Edava beach, Kerala.

Thankfully Simon was patient teacher and towards the end of the lesson I was managing a crouching stand but, as he kept saying, I needed to TURN MY HIPS! A great moment came when Simon paddled the wave on the back of my board and steadied it before telling me to stand just at the right moment – I then made it to shore on the board and on my feet. That's kind of surfing, right?

Simon lives in Varkala for five months of the year where he runs the surf school from Amantha Restaurant which turned into our home away from home. It’s run by a lovely family – mum Amantha, dad Nars and son Munet – who churn out tasty homecooked food served to the background of reggae beats. Every morning we’d go down there to get muesli served by a sleepy Nars who always made me smile. Also, their vegetarian thali served on a banana leaf was a tonic after a morning of surfing.

Munet, Simon and Luke (look, he's bought a vest).

Amantha and Nars.

Another reason we stayed in Varkala so long was because we met up with our friends Danni and Katie, who were there for a bit of a health and wellbeing break at the swish Soul and Surf. We spent New Year’s Eve together at a crazy little party at the Chillout Lounge which was playing a fun mix of western and Bhangra music. My only gripe would be that pre-midnight the drinks were 150rps, then just before midnight they went up to 250rps and as midnight struck they jumped to 300rps – typical Indian opportunism.

Danni, Luke and me getting a bit merry on NYE.

As well as a lot of lazing on the beach, we also did a boat tour of the backwaters with Danni and Katie which was a ridiculously relaxing day spent ambling up and down the lush green backwaters. The house boats are traditionally made with thatched roofs over wooden hulls and are pretty slow – I think we covered about 4k in eight hours.

Pretty views from the houseboat on the backwaters near Varkala.

Our guide for the day was a character called Murali who drove up in a lovely white Ambassador car and ferried us to and from the houseboat in a little speedboat. His wife cooked us a lovely lunch of South Indian cuisine and, although tasty, the lunch is memorable in the fact it was the first meal we ate with our hands. In India most people don’t use utensils and instead use their right hand, the left is saved for dirty things...such a wiping your bum! I’d managed to avoid the dreaded hand-eating thus far, but Murali insisted we eat with our hands and, I suspect, got a kick out of seeing it. Luke struggled because of the limited mobility he has in his right wrist (he broke it a few years ago) but Murali didn’t understand and at one point was force-feeding Luke with his own hand! I’m glad I tried it but I don’t think it’s an experience I’ll be repeating – too messy.

Lunch on Golden Island. This is us happily smiling before our hands got involved.

Varkala was also where I had my first visit to an Indian hospital. I thought I had water in my ears but, after six days of not being able to hear properly, I started to worry it could be more serious. I went to Mission Hospital and registered for 20 rupees (20p) and paid a 100rps (£1) consultation fee. I then waited 15 minutes before I saw a very nice doctor who looked in my ears before exclaiming: “They’re full of wax!” He swiftly started extracting it using a sucker thing and kindly showed me any large chunks he got out. Luke was watching and I think now loves me a little bit less. I paid him 300 rps (£3) for the treatment and 24 rps (24p) for some tablets and drops. I have to say that the Indian hospital system was surprisingly swift, cheap, and effective.

We’ve been travelling for six weeks so I thought I’d write a list of things we’re beginning to miss – it’s an eclectic mix.

1. Friends and family (of course).

2. Sunday dinner.

3. Marmite (me).

4. Football (Luke).

5. A good cup of tea – Indian chai is milky and sickly sweet.

6. Full-length mirrors. God knows what we look like half the time.

7. Washing machines. We’re handwashing everything and it’s starting to show.

8. Brushing my hair. I lost my hairbrush two weeks ago and, again, it’s starting to show.

9. Not speaking in Pidgin English – I’m even starting to speak to Luke like he’s a child.

10. Not work. Hahaha!!

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT VARKALA

Surf lessons: Surfing is a relatively new phenomena in Kerala so there aren't loads of schools. Simon runs Tata Surf School from Amantha Restaurant set back a short way from North Cliff, in between Akhil Hotel and Nikhil Hotel. For a three-four hour lesson it’s 1,700rps (£17) each and he doesn’t take more than three people a time.Call (+91) 9895219157 or 8129356239 or search Tata Surf on Facebook.

Getting there and away: We flew from Bangalore Airport to Trivandrum International Airport with Indigo and paid approx 8,000 rps (£80) each. From there we got a taxi (300rps) to Trivandrum KSRTC Bus Station and got a bus to Varkala beach (1 ½ hours, 100 rps, so £1). To get away we caught a sleeper class train from Varkala Train Station to Alleppey, also know as Allepuhza (2 ½ hours, 80prs).

Accommodation: We scoured the North Cliff area to find the cheapest place for NYE (most places wanted 1,200rps minimum) and managed to find a small place called Ananthalekshmi which only wanted 600rps. It’s clean and basic and unfortunately not online – to find it ask to go to Shiva Garden and it’s bang opposite.

Eating and drinking: It’s got to be Amanatha Restaurant in North Cliff, one road back from the main beach road. It’s cheap (a thali costs 100rps), tasty and friendly. We also liked Little Tibet and Abba (good for western food) on the main beach road.

Houseboat: We paid 6,500rps (£65) for the day including lunch and had the boat to ourselves. Murali's number is (+91) 9746968794.