Rest Day in Varkala
Daily Run 0km Total 50km
Ha! Another sleepless night. I thought it was a wedding with a really bad disco, playing mantra chanting all night long, punctuated by random rockets and firecracker salvos. I've since discovered I'm accommodated right next door to the 2000 year old Janardhani Swami temple, a major centre of Hindu pilgrimage. Open 24/7 too it seems. Pilgrims pay for the fireworks. I'm not a temple person myself, but it scores highly on Trip Advisor so I may as well go and have a shuftie. The monotone chanting is literally non-stop and is really starting to grate. Why didn't I hear it the first night -because my ceiling fan only works on the highest speed setting. Not only does this blow the sheet off the bed, dry your laundry in 5 minutes, and keeps the mozzies grounded due to high crosswinds, but it also generates enough noise to drown out a fire works party. Unfortunately, I decided to leave it switched off last night. |
| Apparently even the sea water in this bay is holy, so swamis have set up shop to 'baptise' the pilgrims |
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| It just seems wrong to go for a swim now, especially in my lightweight touring 'speedo's |
Monday evening and it's eerily quiet around here. I was planning to visit the temple after dark but it shuts on Mondays. Earlier I visited an Airtel agent to check out why my SIM card hadn't activated. It turns out it can only be activated from the within the state where you gave your address, for me that was Mumbai (Maharashtra). Now I'm in Kerala the only option was to buy another one.
I was interested to read about the shooting of a tiger near Ooty that had allegedly killed 3 villagers. I'm passing through the National Parks around Ooty and have just decided the tent might just stay in my panniers.
Enough idle chatter, the alarm is set for 06:30 and I have a plan to clock 120 km tomorrow. I've pre-loaded with calories.......1 litre of Kingfisher, tandoori fish (and chips) and fried banana and ice-cream.
Burp! Pardon.
Have a safe trip Dad. Keep away from those tigers- they'll play havoc with your cat allergy. Kerala is currently top of my honeymoon list (though it changes daily) so your blog with have to persuade Sam or scare me off. Could go either way. Just remember the Vaseline (and your passport) x
ReplyDeleteIve commented twice before Mike but it failed to come up . . . well, if Rebecca can do it so can I so here's having another go !
ReplyDeleteI've really enjoyed the pictures so far . . .you seem to catch the Arabian Nights atmosphere pretty well. I think the beach picture is the Arabian Sea . . looks very enticing. I will be following you as and when you publish. Stay safe 'ol Fella . . . you are amazing, but that's because you come from good stock !! (o;
Thanks, and give yourself a pat on the back, it finally worked!
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