Varkala Beach, Kerala

Varkala is one of the awesome(est) beaches I've seen. The sun,sand, sea and cliff. The cliff actually overlooks the beach and so in the evenings you can see a beautiful sunset from any of the various restaurants situated on the cliff.It is an ideal place to just sit and laze. However, if you HAVE to do something, there are various places of interest in and around the town of Varkala,like the Varkala Tunnel and the 2000 year old temple. There's also paragliding on the beach. As for me, I like to spend the entire day on the beach topped off with some delicious cocktails in the evening. Varkala is A four hour drive from my place and so we generally set out on the weekends. Once, when I was having breakfast in one of those open air cafes, my waiter pointed out to a school of Dolphins on their way to Quilon :) It was funny, but it got me really excited.One other time I almost caught a jellyfish but then it drifted away with the waves. There are many migrants from Karnataka who have set shop here and I made friends with one of them. It is amazing that these people can speak properly accented english and french, but not the language of their country. It is probably to lure the foreign tourists. Anyway, I like going to Varkala for pure R&R. Take a book along with you and you wont need anything else.

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Collinpur and Kurma Dera beaches

Situated at around 30-35 km from Port Blair is a beautiful,sandy,shallow beach called Collinpur. Since its situated a little away from the city, the beach is cleaner and quieter. Its covered by dense vegetation and you wont know that you're near the sea until you actually see it. Its a long stretch flanked by a hill on one side and since the gradient is not steep,its ideal for swimming and sunbathing. The main attraction for me was however, another beach called Kurma Dera. This beach is situated a little farther from Collinpur and is more deserted and quieter. The car couldn't go upto the beach and we had to walk nearly 2-2.5 km to reach the beach. The walk was through a very muddy and slushy path along a creek andd I expected to see a crocodile pop out any second. In fact, the second time we went to these beaches, we heard of crocodile attacks on the same day corresponding to our visit. Kurma means shells and I found the most amazing shells on this beach. And what surprise

Kasavu Saree

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Uruli, Cooking vessel

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