Varkala was to be our place of rest, a holiday within our travels and we wanted to have a little base here for a while before moving on within Kerala. The train journey from Kochi was pretty good, we got there in about 4 hours, the only down side was that we didn’t have a seat where our ticket said our seats were.

This is because on sleeper class during the day people just sit anywhere regardless of whether they’re ticket says so or not. In our actual seats there were around 12 people crammed onto the lower beds. We opted for the upper deck with the bags and hid away, the plus side of this being that no-one tried to sit next to us. It was a hot and fun journey but we were more than happy to be getting off at Varkala.

We got a rickshaw to the North Cliff, under the impression that we would be staying at Shiva Garden Guesthouse, who had offered a free pick up. The only thing we had to do was make a call from the station area to get them to pick us up, we couldn’t find a phone anywhere and people were not very willing to help. So we just made our own way there and were pleased we didn’t get them to pick us up as we decided not to stay there after all. We wanted something a little nicer, after all we were on our holiday time! So we moved on and had a look at a few places in that area at the top of the North Cliff and settled for a 800rs room at the Clafouti Resort, we thought we’d do one night here and then move on. The room was nice and the location not too bad but the owners are not the most hospitable and we wanted to be on the quieter side of Varkala cliff.

Varkala wasn’t quite what we imagined it to be, it had been over-rated by fellow friends and travellers we’d met along the way. We now realised that we actually had it quite good up in Palolem. It’s a busy cliff resort full of bright signs, craft sellers, hotels and resorts, most of the restaurants cater for the tourist with western menus and the beach, hmmm! Still we thought we’d give Varkala time to grow on us. The first thing we did was grab some food at Clafouti restaurant, with a nice cool breeze coming from the wild ocean below we enjoyed a massive mexican meal, we just wanted a light lunch! We then ventured out to find another place to stay for the rest of our time there. We had read about Varkala Villas on South Cliff and so went for a stroll out along the cliff to the area.

En-route we passed a man demonstrating para-gliding as he was attempting to take off on the section of cliff between north and south. We helped him untangle his kite strings from a car and then he was off with the birds watched by several Indian tourists in amazement. We found Varkala Villas on the South Cliff and negotiated to stay with them for 3 nights at 1500rs/night for their lovely bungalow overlooking their beautiful garden. The owners are very accommodating and friendly with it which helps.

After we moved to the bungalow we spent much of our time relaxing, decided not to take breakfast with the owners (500rs extra) we did our own in the form of curd (yoghurt), fruit and muesli. We’d been carrying the muesli with purpose since buying it in Kathmandu when we first got to Nepal, we HAD to use it! Plus it meant we weren’t spending so much money on food every day plus they had a small kitchen with a fridge we could us too. We enjoyed the hammocks in the garden and would spend time in the middle of the day on the beach. When we were on the beach we were surrounded by other tourists and backpackers taking the time to soak up the rays. We rented an umbrella each time for 150rs and picked our spot where we would read in between dips into the ocean and naps. It’s a hard life!

The sea at Varkala beach is a little wild, you can’t really swim out very far as the currents are strong and the waves fierce. On our first swim Helen got a little scared as she kept having to dive under massive waves and was getting further and further away from Dave. But after time we both over-came wave-scared moments and enjoyed them like they were roller coasters, often washed up and tossed around. The North Cliff end of the beach is where most tourists gather and so this is also a prime spot for local male onlookers having a good ‘perv’ at the girls in bikini’s. It’s quite off-putting and at the same time laughable but they don’t ever see so much flesh on show so who can blame the?!

We took 3 yoga classes whilst we were there, one with the local ayurvedic doctor who’s Hatha style session was a little un-rehearsed, Dave was urging Helen to take over. The main problem really though was the language barrier as the next 2 days we attended an intense Ashtanga Yoga class with a teacher who’s English was much better and his practice was very focused. This second class based with Namaste on the North Cliff in front of Juice Shack was much easier to follow, although we ended up in buckets of sweat each time.

We followed our yoga sessions with a very good omelette and juice at Coffee Temple a few doors down. Although it took over an hour one day to receive the omelette it was very good and they do a fantastic chai-latte too. As Varkala grew on us we ended up staying 6 nights in the end and enjoyed our little routine during the day. One evening we went to the Varkala annual festival along with what felt like thousands of others. The atmosphere was building and building, with dressed elephants, musicians, dancers and folk in tradition costume. The only thing was not much was actually going on. There was a problem with the amount of people on the sides of the road and traffic was making it’s way through at speed, so much so that at one point one of the locals was hit by a passing vehicle which didn’t stop. It was quite a moment, being witness to a hit and run accident and how it was dealt with afterwards. The police went off after the car whilst the injured man was quickly rammed into the back of a van, we assumed he was being taken to hospital. Crazy times!

Other things did come of the festival though in the form of fire crackers and fire-works, they were so loud we could feel the ground shake, and they continued on throughout the night. We found solace at Oceano, an Ayurvedic resort who also offer a great menu of what we found to be delicious Keralan and other Indian food. We ended up eating there 3 times in the end as the food was so good and it was very rarely occupied. Oceano is on the South Cliff next door to KR’s Guesthouse. (Whilst this was our favorite jaunt for food we did also have an award for Cafe Del Mar’s smoothies on South Cliff).

Halfway into our stay in Varkala we met Andy and Lisa who through the power of Facebook were introduced to us via a mutual friend back home. We were staying 30 seconds walk away and so it was easy to meet up with them and we enjoyed beers, food, smoothies, yoga and beach time with them too. Next door to where they were staying at Villa Jacadera is Absolute Ayurveda a clinic that had been highly recommended to us by the family staying in the bungalow next to us. I knew they had to be good as Katrin is an ayurvedic practitioner back in Germany.

Based on her recommendation we chose a day package (it’s actually 2 hours ish). For 2700rs we enjoyed a full body massage, a chidroreah treatment involving 45 minutes worth of buttermilk, honey and other medicinal things being dripped onto our forehead. This was followed by a herbal wash (for Helen) and a facial for the both of us. Bear in mind that you are completely naked during this kind of treatment aside from a very small cloth thing! We both felt really good afterwards though an our skin felt amazing. Any of these treatments back home would cost a fortune so we figured we may as well do it in the home of Ayurveda.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8, Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

The 3 tier non-AC sleeper was very basic. The windows provided plenty of ventilation and it actually got a little chilly, however a lack of curtain deprived any kind of privacy and no sheet on a plastic covered mattress completed the uncomfortable set. Non the less we did get some earplug assisted sleep and awoke with only 1hr until we were due to arrive  in Kannur, our first steps in India’s laid back state of Kerala. Breakfast was bought at the train station in a vegetarian restaurant and we devoured Masala Dosa’s (thin crispy bread, spicy potato filling and curry on the side) and Masala tea – 25rs, amazing value at 30p each.

After researching on the internet we discovered Kannur Beach House Home-stay which looked great and got very high ratings from previous guests. An 8km rickshaw ride south of Kannur to the beachfront of Thottado Beach and we arrived at the guesthouse situated on a stretch of backwaters. An annual Kerelan festival was taking place called Theyyam, it is local only to Kannur and takes places between October to May across each temple in the area. We caught the tail end of a 48 hour ceremony visited and observed the local population taking part and utilising traditional costumes, amazing facial painting and some trance (not the hard-house variety) based ritualistic dance.

Heading back to the home-stay we explored beautiful hidden beaches with golden sands, palm tree shade and then retreated to some well deserved hammock action. It did not take long to see why people love this home-stay. The food was some of the best we have ever eaten and we have eaten a lot! The 2500rs per room fee includes breakfast and evening meal which are Ayurvedic Kerelan home cooked in variety and you can have lunch for only 100rs each extra. The owners were equally accommodating and loaned us yoga mats as well as being able to observe their chef in action in the kitchen. A family of 4 and very close to each other they used to work in IT but have now built this lovely home-stay which attracts repeat visitors year in year out. We could see why.

Our fellow travellers also appreciated the surroundings and the food, it was really great to share this experience with Ture & Revital (London based conceptual designers/artists) and three graduated doctors from the UK. We cannot speak highly enough of the food. Each meal was a buffet selection, eaten outdoors frequently with the hosts and family and all washed down with herbal water and hot tea. To use a Master Chef quote… Vegetarian food does not get better than this! Yum!

We didn’t really want to leave but we were tied into a train ticket, although only costing around £2 so we could have easily discarded it, but at the same time we had a little bit of momentum going and didn’t want to settle just yet. On our last evening we enjoyed a longish walk along the quiet stretch of beach which just seems to go on and on. Some of the locals were out sorting out fishing boats and so on, whilst others were out to enjoy the views like us. We stopped for a group photograph with some girls from Kannur before making our way back for our last night of fantastic food and company.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Today was to be our sightseeing day with a half day stint at the Grand Palace. We took the boat again to Tha Chang stop not far from the Palace area and followed some of the Lonely Planet’s walking tour for the area. We followed the first part of the route to the Bangkok’s Fine Art school which is located opposite the front gate of the palace, what a great place to study art and be inspired! Unfortunately there weren’t any exhibitions on so we sat in the courtyard for a while people watching and photographing the area. We crossed over the road to the Palace and as we passed through the gates were told we would both have to queue for longer length clothes to cover arms and legs all the way to our shoes. Helen thought she would need something but Dave’s passed the knee cropped trousers didn’t make the cut either so we both had to queue for half an hour for an assortment of sweaty shirts and skirts that had been worn by other tourists earlier that day. Nice! The annoying thing was that it was so hot, it was difficult wearing simply shorts and a vest let along trousers, a sarong and a shirt!!

Once dressed we continued onto the ticket office and purchased 2 tickets costing 350 Baht each. It is a very impressive sight indeed starting with pagoda’s, temples and shrines that glisten and sparkle in the sun. Vibrant golds, emeralds an ruby’s dominate the area with intricate gold leaf descriptive paintings along walls. You can’t go into the actual Palace or residence but walking around the grounds and visiting museum rooms, enthroning rooms and various formal occasion temples is pleasant enough if you don’t mind queuing with the many tourists who are also there. We watched the changing of the guards and after about 2 hours we decided to move on. It’s on a similar level to the Grand Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in terms of decadence, architectural design and intricate detailing.

There is a market around the corner from the Palace near to the ferry stop which we wandered through and people watched as they bargained for small collectible amulets. We also explored some back alleys where we got a glimpse of old Bangkok, houses on stilts on the river side and children playing in the narrow streets. After the long queue’s and heat of the day we’d had enough of sightseeing already and decided to head back to the hostel for a few hours as we were planning to make tracks on the sky-train later on to check out the night market and get some food.

We got a taxi to take us to the Ratchathewi sky train stop and from there took the sky train to Nana. This is the stop for the Paptong weekend market, perhaps an area that should be described as Bangkok’s red-light district! Although since 2004 Helen has noticed that things have been toned down a little and although there are many ping pong shows available it’s perhaps not thrown in your face as it used to be. We had a little wander through the streets and then got back on the sky-train for one more stop to Asok where we had planned to find a Tapas restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. We decided this would be our date night and we would spend over budget for our meal. The Tapas restaurant is located next door to Suk II hostel, a place Helen has stayed at many a time when she has been in Bangkok before. So we had a look around after enjoying a buy 2 get one free deal at the restaurant, it didn’t really soften the final bill but we did enjoy some lovely western food for a change. The main reason we didn’t book to stay at Suk is that they’re prices are now quite high starting at 700 Baht for a double with shared bathroom, we were paying 430 Baht a night at our hostel with our own bathroom.

On our last full day in Bangkok we went off in the direction of Siam, the business and shopping district. We directed our attention onto buying a few items for our camera gear, and purchased a tripod and a small camera bag from the MBK shopping mall. We also bargained for the first series of The Wire as well as experiencing their food hall which is a must-do if you’re having a long day shopping in Bangkok!

We had a few galleries earmarked on the map that we were intending to visit, the main problem being that we couldn’t find 2 of them, one was in between exhibitions and one was housing a small photographic exhibition. So Wooden Postcards at the La Lanta Fine Art Gallery was the only one that was open.

After this slightly disappointing search for off-the wall Fine Art we promptly found a taxi and decided to head back. Our taxi driver had only been driving for 2 weeks in Bangkok and didn’t know where we were heading to, but he was determined to get us there so we gave him a chance, he made a few calls and got on the right tracks. It started raining heavily too so we were happy to be out of the down pour. We couldn’t get dropped off at our hostel as their was a problem with a demonstration taking up the top end of the Phitsanulok Rd. We thought we would walk right through it on our way back and were amazed by the amount of demonstrators there were, it seemed to be a peaceful demonstration taking place outside government buildings and the UN building. We managed to pick up on something to do with the release of Thai Nationals, but we couldn’t get this confirmed. As soon as we stepped out from under cover the rain came down hard and we were drenched by the time we’d walked 100m back to the hostel. The rain halted our plans that night so we stayed at the hostel and caught up on the blog.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We arrived at 8am in Hue after a bumpy overnight sleeper journey. The bus was packed with westerners which made a change from those our travels in China, but it was nice as Helen befriended a South-American Fashion journalist and watched a few episodes of Arrested Development. When we got to Hue we took our bags off the coach and were pointed towards the Google Hotel, here we had a quick pick me up in the form of some fruit and coffee and then went off to see a few sights before our onward bus scheduled at 1.30pm.

Hue is quite small so it’s easy enough to walk across the river and over to the main sights. It was raining and quite humid, and we passed by a war museum so stopped to take a look and saw some old American army tanks before taking in an exhibition on the Vietnam war. It’s not that big an exhibition but was a good introduction to the developments of the Vietnam war. As we left along very slippery paths we walked to the Imperial Palace which is probably the main attraction in Hue. It only cost 10,000 dong each which is around 33p so we forked out the cash and went inside along with several other tourists. After a brief stop to feed the fish we continued to walk around the Palace grounds and ruins, the site is mainly made up of old Palace rooms, some have been preserved to their original use whilst many others are still as they were since being bombed in the war. Tiled floors still form the ground to many rooms but only have wooden structures and the odd wall that show where the walls would have been.

After taking in the Palace grounds we walked to a Vegetarian restaurant on our way back to the hotel to meet the bus. We chose a few local dishes along with some rice and really enjoyed it. We then made our way back to the hotel and got the bus at 1.30pm as scheduled bound for Hoi An. We arrived there at around 5pm and went to find a hotel, we had provisionally booked one place but en-route were offered a cheaper and quite decent room so we opted for this one, breakfast was included and the room was a good size with en-suite. After checking in we went to explore this picturesque river-side town, as we ventured towards the riverside we became enveloped by old quaint houses, tailoring shops, restaurants and souvenirs. It is a very pretty town indeed and almost felt like a stage-set at times, perhaps a little over the top in terms of restoration and just oozed hundreds of western tourists on every street.

We opted for the Morning Glory restaurant close to the riverside but not on the river front for our evening meal. This came in the form of Vegetarian curry, salad, soup and grilled aubergine, each dish was bursting with flavour so based on this we decided to book ourselves onto their cooking class in two days time. Back to the hotel via some more quaint streets, tailoring shops and light displays. before an much needed early night was had.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We packed up and were ready to check out at around 11am. We’d read that we could leave our bags in luggage storage at the MTR station at Kowloon’s Hung Hom so that we could make the most of having some more time in Hong-Kong. Getting there is fairly easy on the metro with a few stops and walking distance. There is a little problem in that when you buy a through ticket to Hung Hom from Causeway Bay you’ll have to go through an unpaid walking zone to reach the connection to the western line. You wont find this out though until you’re ready to change lines at Tsim Shu Tsha and the machine takes your ticket and you have to buy another one way to Hung Hom!! We tried to explain that we didn’t know about this but they didn’t really want to know and told us we would need to buy another ticket to get there!! So we lost some more dollars on this and gritted our teeth in fury! Well Helen did but the moment soon passed and we found ourselves at Hung Hom with a decent one off fee of 20 HKD per bag for the day which isn’t too bad.

We walked across to the main strip in Kowloon via the Hollywood stars walk along the sea front. It was good to have clear views across to Hong-Kong Island and we enjoyed this along with several other tourists. The sun was out and it was very pleasant indeed. As we wandered through the streets and endless shopping malls we found ourselves a good little knife shop and bought us a wee Christmas gift in the form of a Swiss army pen knife. Sad but these things do make your lives a little easier when traveling and having those practical items to hand. It didn’t stretch the budget too much either which was a nice bonus.

After the excitement of buying our little present we went on the search for some food before our over night bus journey. We found a street that had a mix of establishments and chose Red Ant, which appeared to have some nice rice, noodle and soup dishes. The food was average with Helens particularly bland. Not what you expect really but it did the job. Afterwards we made our way back to Hung Hom station, collected the bags and went for the next train to Shenzen. It’s a much cheaper method of getting to and from Hong Kong than using the Kowloon express from Guangzhou. For 33 HKD each we got the MTR to the furthest stop on the line Lo Wu, from here it was clearly signposted to get to Shenzen and the bus station, there are exit and entry points from Hong Kong to back into China and the whole process took around an hour and a half from leaving Hung Hom. When we arrived at the bus station we had another hours wait, so we proceeded to play some more card games. We thought we’d lost our other pack and managed to pick up a new pack of cards for around 20p! Bargain! The bus left at 7.30pm and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the bus wasn’t as bad as the reports we’d heard and also seen on the roads. We didn’t realise but this was the luxury bus and not the cheaper 3 tier sleeper option. The bedding was clean and fresh on and it was only a two tier bunk bed layout with only a handful of people on there. You need to use the seat belts as you’ll get jerked around quite a bit and there were a few stops coming out of Shenzen before we were well on our way.

Our destination was Guilin and we were told the bus would get in at around 6am, but we were way ahead of time and arrived at 4.15am. Luckily the station was very much anticipating the arrival of the buses so we weren’t alone at the drop off. It was a little confusing but we walked out of the station, found ourselves a taxi driver who knew where we were going and landed at the Wada hostel at around 5am. The hostel was all locked up and in the dark but eventually someone came out to let us in, fortunately the room was available and she checked us in at no additional cost. This is one thing that we’ve found to be really helpful in China, you can arrive at pretty much any time of the day/night and get into your room as long as the date is the same as your check in date then there’s no extra charges for getting your room early. So we were able to get some sleep and set the alarm for 10am.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Our train left Tunxi at around 11pm so it was a long wait at the hostel until this time. Even in a quiet town there will always be lots of people waiting to get trains. It was pretty smooth as when we boarded the train most people were already sleeping so we found our bunks and got off to sleep. The next day was quite a long one, we weren’t due to arrive at Huaihua until 4pm but the train was delayed by two hours which meant that we got in at 6. There was a heated debate with our fellow Chinese passengers as to whether we would be able to make it to Fenghuang that night. Some were saying we wouldn’t make it, the roads are too bad, the buses don’t drive safely at night etc…One lady offered to help us barter for a taxi to get us there as this would be the safest option given the circumstances. We thought we’d try this option as it would cost us a lot to stay for one night in Huaihua.

She was very true to her word and managed to get us a taxi for 280RMB, although she couldn’t speak any English we managed to get by and she took down the taxi drivers phone number in case there were any problems. We soon realised this was not going to be a short trip, after an hour or so we were still a good 40km away from Fenghuang. The roads were terrible and the rain kept coming down, we decided to give him 300RMB because the trip was a lot longer and more difficult than we had imagined. After 80km we came to stop…there was a road blockage up ahead with no way of getting around it, a group of people in a small shack were communicating information across the area and we st with them for a short while before deciding we would have to turn around. The lady who had helped us was pretty distressed and her friend who spoke English was on the phone apologising on her behalf and saying they have arranged one of their close friends to help us find a hotel in the next town. This was 30km or so away!

We eventually got to the hotel after several phone calls going back and forth between the taxi driver and our Chinese helper and met Mr Wu. It was getting late and the hotel informed us they only had business suites available at 400RMB. Some cheap night this was turning out to be!! A few minutes later another man appeared on the scene, he took us to one side and showed us his police badge, he was trying to get us to go with him. We had no idea what to do or whether he really was a real policeman. There was a lot of chatting on phones and not a lot of doing. We tried ringing the hostel in Fenghuang but the number on hostelworld didn’t work so we were stuck. After a lot of debating and a little panic from Helen we finally got a room and the policeman had managed to get it for us at half price. They said they would meet us at 9am the following day to arrange for us to get to Fenghuang. Another thing we would like to point out is that the email address for the hostel we had reserved was also incorrect as we received no response back from them!!

We managed to get some sleep and then the morning came along with a 9am knock at the door from Mr Wu. He took us to the bus station but here we found out the buses were going to the area of the road blockage but then we would have to get off and walk across to get taxis. We weren’t convinced so we decided the best thing to do would be take the bus back to Huaihua and get the next available train to Kunming.

After a 2 hour bus journey we got to the station and luck was on our side. We bought tickets for a sleeper train leaving at 2.40pm that afternoon!! YES!!! So off we went to buy snacks for the train and get a hot meal before leaving. This is where things started getting better for us. The food in a local eatery was really good, we simply pointed at our phrase book saying we like fish, tofu and vegetables and that’s what we got with some good flavours all for around £4.

We picked up our usual noodle snacks for the train and then got ready for the next leg of the journey. Around 18 hours later and we arrived in sunny Kunming. This was a very nice feeling to be walking into the sunshine capitol of Yunnan. We found Cloudland our hostel via a bus journey and some instructions from The lonely Planet, checked in and chilled out.

In the space of around 48 hours we spent a total 40 hours on two trains, a taxi and one bus. We spent money we didn’t want to spend and only saw the rain and landslides in Hunan province. But like we always say this is all part of the experience and adds to a good story at times.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)