2019 India – Kovalum
February 2nd 2019
Next stop was a week at Paradise Gardens Beach Hotel near Kovalam. This was more expensive than most of the hotels we stayed at but it looked very special and it was still around the same price as a modest hotel in Europe. The hotel sent a taxi to pick us up from Varkala which was just as well because it would have been very hard to find for someone who didn’t know the place. We were a few miles from the hotel when our driver called the hotel manager to let him know we were close. The road ended in the middle of nowhere and three young men were waiting for us. They carried our heavy bags along overgrown paths and uneven ground until we arrived at our hotel. When I say “hotel” it was actually just two, two-bedroomed houses, so their maximum occupancy was eight people. 
The manager showed us around our two-story house and explained how it all worked. There was no restaurant, so whenever we wanted food we rang a little bell which he never failed to answer within minutes. There was a menu but if we wanted anything else he would get it for us. We had our own sunbeds and umbrella at the entrance to the deserted beach but Federika liked to be close to the sea. So every morning they took the sunbeds and umbrella as close to the sea as possible. 
There was another hotel further along the beach but that was on top of a cliff and it had its own swimming pool where most of their guests stayed. Some of their guests did go down the many steps to the beach which was just as well because there was a lifeguard on duty for their benefit. The sea was very rough and it was quite difficult getting in and out so it was reassuring to have the lifeguard there who kept an eye on everyone. Judging by his concern every time someone went into the sea (including us) the waves were not to be messed with. Sometimes I timed my entry badly and the wave hit me so hard it was like being hit by a truck. Once we were past the breaking waves the swimming was great but sadly there was a lot of plastic floating around and we couldn’t swim more than a few strokes without coming into contact with it. Every morning the staff went to the beach to clear up what they could but it was a never-ending task.
At lunchtime I sent them a WhatsApp message with my order. When it was ready they messaged me back and we walked a few metres to our table at the entrance to the beach. Nothing was cooked from frozen and if we wanted anything in particular we had to tell them the day before so they could go and buy it fresh from the market. We asked for fish one day so he got up at 6 am to greet his fisherman friend and got us especially what we had asked for. Federika liked coconut juice with her breakfast so every morning a coconut with a straw was delivered to our room with the breakfast. One of the boys climbed up a nearby tree to get it so we asked if we could go with him one morning to watch him climb the tree and cut the coconuts. The tree was very high but the boy climbed it with nothing more than his bare fit. 
The house was strange in that it had no windows and whilst it was ingrained in me to be concerned about security, I was assured that there was always someone around keeping an eye out. I doubted that but we felt safe enough and it was lovely having the gentle breeze coming through the places where windows should have been. There were five members of staff for the two houses and the couple that were using the other house left halfway through the week so we had the whole place to ourselves.
There was even a nice little story about how it all started. A German man was walking along the beach below and got talking to a 17-year-old Indian boy. They became good friends and decided to go into partnership together. The German bought the land just above the beach where they had met and the Indian boy helped him build the two houses and managed the property.
One afternoon we were sitting on the beach when a lot of crabs appeared on the shoreline. They were about the size of a hand with light shells and big eyes that looked like they were stuck on poles. There were dozens of them and we saw one of them was holding onto something while the others were trying to take it from him. I managed to get close enough to see it was a fish they were fighting over. The crab managed to hold onto the fish and eventually got it onto the dry sand where they all lived in little holes. He was only a few inches away from his hole when a crow came swooping down and stole the fish from him. You see this kind of thing on film but rarely in real life and all from the comfort of our sunbeds.
There were always dozens of eagles flying around the trees behind us and they would often glide past only a few metres away which was quite a sight as they had such colourful feathers on their underside. Sometimes one of them sat by the shoreline for a while, deep in thought.
The only excursion available was a day trip to Kanyakumari on the southernmost tip of India, so we booked a taxi to take us. The distance was only 77 kilometres but it took three hours to get there through torturous traffic. The worst place was in a town where a tree had fallen and was blocking the road. We had to pass through two different areas and at the border of each area we had to stop to pay some kind of tourist tax even though we were just passing through.
On the way, we stopped at the Thanumalayan Temple in Suchindram which made a welcome break. It was worth the visit and memorable for the long corridors with speckled light coming through the wooden shutters and the Hindu temple around 2000 two years old, carved in stone. It was Magnificent for around 15 minutes.
When we finally reached our destination Kanyakumari we had hoped to go to the island where the Vivekananda Rock Memorial was but it was very windy and the sea very rough. When we saw how much the ferry to the island was being thrown by the waves we decided against it. 
There was a tiny beach at the very tip of India where three oceans meet, The Indian Ocean, The Bay of Bengal and The Arabian Sea. Like most tourists we had our photo taken while paddling in the three oceans with Vivekananda Rock in the background. 
Swimming would have been difficult as apart from the rough sea there were a lot of rocks around. After lunch we planned to go to another temple but we would have had to wait another hour for it to open. By then we were tired and couldn’t face another temple so after a walk around town we called our driver and made our way back to our lovely house.
For our last night the manager put our table on the beach not far from the shoreline and built an open fire. All we had to do was pay for the firewood. They brought dinner to our table and we ate as the fire crackled beside us, the only people on the beach. After dinner we sat next to the fire with a glass of white wine throwing logs onto the flames when they threatened to go out. We stayed there until there were just a few glowing cinders left glowing in the dark. The perfect end to an amazing week. 
It was hard to imagine a place so perfect and we were determined to go back one day although we knew we never would. So many places to see and so little time.
2019 India
