A Varkala night to remember

There’s little about Varkala  in Kerala that’s not written about, as a tourist spot, as a coastal town and as a cliff-laid beach land. Even so when writer Anees Salim wrote an article called A town by the beach, in a newspaper two years ago, people picked it up and loved Varkala all over again. He then brought out his novel Small Town Sea, set again in Varkala, but without mentioning its name. The way he wrote it, the way two young boys walked through a sleepy town and made stories together, Varkala became dear to the readers who never went there. Let’s see what it’s like to go there, to the cliffs, without a lot of planning and spend a night.

Varkala has a railway station and most trains stop there, so reaching there is not problem. If you are in Thiruvananthapuram, like we had been, and came up with a sudden plan, you may want to take a bus. Volvos come every half hour or so at the Thampanoor Central Bus Station till 4 in the evening. Better make it to one of those.

Getting down at Varkala, you have a lot more to travel if you are aiming for the cliff, with auto rickshaws charging you more than a hundred bucks for the ride. That’s one thing you learn, because it is touristy, everything is overpriced — what the shops sell, the services, and so on. You might want to look up the room rents before you go. Airbnb rooms are more affordable, but it is important to check the location safety. There are dingy paths, a little away from the main line of cliffs and it’s not easy to get back too late in the evening.

Reaching early, you can afford to spend some time at the beach, by the sea before getting up to the cliffs. Once it gets dark it is not easy to go down, there are few lights. But then there are a series of cafes and restaurants on the cliff that give a good view of the beach below. With slow music and yellow lights most of these provide a perfect ambiance for the evening hours. Food lovers can also experiment with cuisines from various countries, with Tibetan food being the favourite of many.

Then there is the evening sky that changes colours from blue to red to deep blue and stays there on some nights as a pretty palate of all these. Night stay at the cliff side is also a beautiful experience, the sound of waves a few metres away. Even if you don’t book a stay in advance, it is not hard to find an affordable place unless it is the tourist season. September is a good time to visit Varkala.