Varkala

Christmas break had started and I was over the moon with excitement! Do you know why? I was going to go to Varkala. Varkala is a small town in Kerala. I was going there for a surfing trip. Varkala is situated on the coast of the Arabian Sea. I normally surf in the Bay of Bengal. In the Bay of Bengal, the waves turn right, but in the Arabian Sea, the waves turn left. Hence it would be a new experience for me. I just couldn’t wait!

Finally, the day of the great trip arrived! Our flight was at 4 am. So I had to wake up at 2 am! I was immensely tired as I got ready to go to the airport.

After an immensely tiring journey, we reached the Trivandrum Airport. We had a 1-hour drive to go to Varkala. It was a scenic drive to Varkala. The sandy beaches looked serene as the teal waves lapped against the shore.

In the car, I dozed off only to be woken by Mom to have breakfast. We had breakfast in a remote place where I tried Kerala-style ice cream called Dil Se. Dil Se comes in a heart-shaped box with two different flavours in each half. It tasted lovely. I had Red Velvet and Vanilla and my dad had Butterscotch and Chocolate. This restaurant was the only restaurant which was up and running at 7 o'clock. Normally, in Varkala, all the restaurants open at 8:30 in the morning. So we were very lucky.

After breakfast, my dad got a call saying we could only check into our hotel at 1 pm. So my dad decided that we should surf first and then go to our room. The surf school in Varkala was the same Surf school we go to in Chennai. It is called Surf Turf. Surf Turf rented a small space in a beach resort on the cliff called Marine Pride. It was on the Edava beach.

The waves were just perfect for me to learn how to turn left and the weather was wonderful. There was a cool breeze blowing. One thing that surprised me was how clean it was. The beach and even the ocean didn't have even a single piece of plastic in it. The water was clear, unlike the murky water on the beaches in Chennai.

My coach taught me how to turn left. It was pretty easy and I got it in a jiffy. After warming up a bit we entered the water. I caught nice waves and even my coach was impressed because it was my first time surfing left waves.

After a really fun session, I prodded back to shore and plodded onto the nearest chair. I was really tired. My mom ordered some lemon juice for me. It was truly delicious. They gave us straws with umbrellas on them that we could open and close. I sipped on my juice gratefully and looked up at the sky. Just then I noticed that there were a lot of eagles. My coach told me that they came for the fish that the fishermen offload from their boats.

After freshening up, we went to check into our hotel. We were staying in a hotel called Villa Sasha by Elixir. It was a sea view room. It had a large balcony overlooking the sea with a sofa to admire the view from. There was a big blue pool which I never used because who uses a pool when you have the ocean just next door to you?

After chilling in the room for a while, we decided to explore the cliff. The cliff was a beautiful place filled with many shops, restaurants, cafes and a fabulous view. We ate lunch in a place called Sun Francisco. It is a very unique name. Instead of San Francisco, they wrote Sun Francisco. I figured, that they wrote that because, in the afternoons the sun was shining bright.

I ordered a lemon juice with soda and some beef and fish fingers to go with it. When I was waiting for the food, I noticed some beautiful murals. There were some portraits of Freida Kahlo and her dog that looked like a poodle. Even the menu had a picture on it. Some of my other favourite restaurants are, Abha, Clafouti and Darjeeling Cafe.

The food was scrumptious, and the lemonade was so fizzy, sweet and was very hydrating. We went for a walk, admiring the view, and looked at all the shops and restaurants that we crossed. All the restaurants were closely packed. Some of them were shacks unlike the restaurants in big buildings in Chennai. At that moment, I knew that this holiday was going to be a living paradise.

Time flew by very fast and all too soon, it was time to go back to the room. I was exhausted. I plopped down on the extra bed that housekeeping had set up for me. I got comfy into the covers of my bed, my mom had downloaded some new books in my iPad. I spent the rest of the evening chilling and reading books.

Then we went back to the cliff for dinner. The sea was mesmerising and the cliff was glistening with all the lights and music. Found a very good ice cream parlour there that served tasty ice creams and homebred goodies.

The next day, we surfed again. the conditions were better and I caught more waves. I thought those waves of mine were thrilling and fabulous. This time, since the conditions were really good. My coach thought of a fabulous idea. He said after one or two hours of surfing, I can eat something and then come back to surf again. At 8:30 my mom went to the hotel and got me breakfast. She got me some carbs like sandwich, an egg, a doughnut and thin slice of beetroot cake (they were delicious). I thought all that would be too much but it was just enough to fill my stomach, as I was super drained out.

We followed this process everyday. We went to some really cool places as well. We went to a place called Mangrove Park. We took a ride on a countryboat and went across long and short, big and small mangroves. Other people, on different boats chose to jump in for a swim, but I didn't want to. After the sun died down, it was an even better experience. We took some photos and went back to the Mangrove Park. That was an out of the world experience. I hope I can do it again sometime.

One day, we went to the Indian space organisation called ISRO. We weren't allowed to bring any electronic items. Oh! Wait! I forgot to tell you the reason why I even, going to ISRO. I was going to see a trial rocket launch of rocket Rohini 200. but first, we had to go and see the museum, it had models and different parts rocket. They explained everything, including the history of ISRO. It was really interesting.

Next, we went to see the rocket launch. We took a bus which I think was rocket powered or something because it was super fast. Then we had to walk a mile in the hot burning sun. It was skin peeling. When we got there I was thankful to see an area that was covered with a rooftop to provide us some shade while we wait. Since we had to wait for a while, I drew some images about what I saw in the museum. Some children randomly started yelling and screaming when they saw aeroplane. Seriously? After that, the countdown started, it went like this.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

POOOSH!

It flew into sky, very few people saw it as it was very fast. I am glad that I saw it. It was so cool. The trial rockets always fall into the water. That is why it was situated near a beach. The part of the beach where it falls into is banned from human use and I think that's a really good idea. Otherwise people can get hurt really badly. Imagine a rocket falling in your head when you are swimming. And that's not the worst part.. it can emit chemicals that can be hazardous. It was a really cool experience.

I visited the Padmanabha temple in Trivandrum. It was very different from the temples the we see in Tamilnadu. This temple is supposed to be having a lot of treasures in its vaults.

I visited the Jatayu Earth Center. It is a park on a hill near Chadayamangalam. We can reach there by walk or by cablecar. We chose to take the cable car ride. There we saw the world’s largest bird sculpture,which is of Jatayu.

In Ramayana, Jatayu tried to rescue Sita when Ravana was trying abduct Sita to Lanka. Jatayu fought valiantly with Ravana, but Ravana soon defeated him, clipping his wings,and Jatayu fell onto the rocks in Chadayamangalam. Rama and Lakshmana while on the search for Sita, chanced upon the stricken and dying Jatayu, who informed them of the battle with Ravana and told them that Ravana had headed South.

There is temple there for Lord Rama. The foot print of Lord Rama and the un-drying pond are still preserved in the temple premises. There are lot of monkeys there and they are periodically fed by the officials there. Think it is something to do with Lord Hanuman.

I tried something new called Watsu, in a place called Happy turtles, Varkala. In other words it is called water therapy. It involves stretches, massages and acupressure in water. It was done in a heated pool and is very relaxing, calming and made me get into my own world. I really liked it. All the soreness I got from surfing went away! I would like to do something like this again. Things like this are very unique and I bet no one has ever done this before.

All too soon, the trip was over. We had to go back to Chennai and I definitely didn’t want to. This is one of the best trips of 2023 for sure!