Marari Beach
We arrived at Marari Beach Villas, after hearing about a deserted beach, on our Auto-Rickshaw (tuk-tuk) in the early afternoon and was greeted by Raju, the owner.
Marari Beach is known for being very quiet and not very well known, hence the appeal and high prices by Indian standards. We managed to find a place that was quite reasonable in comparison and seemed great on first impressions.
A really big room with high ceilings, large bathroom, only a few years old, good reviews. Ticked the boxes.
Then Raju, after making sure we had settled in, explained, rather proudly, how breakfast and dinner was served in the restaurant situated on the roof. Wow, on the roof? We'd better wear our good clothes.
So, after unpacking (take backpack off back and shove in corner) we headed off to the beach, which had about six people on it, way off in the distance, and was beautiful.
After sunning ourselves...after Alex sunned herself and I sweated a bit, we headed back to relax in the room and eventually get ready for dinner.
On closer inspection the floors were a bit dirty and there were quite a few bugs, which is to be expected being around nature an' that. I did my usual better-check-to-see-what's-going-to-petrify-Alex check and found something a bit 'different' looking on the curtains. It looked like mud, well formed mud about 2 inches by 1 inch thick. They looked empty to my expert eye but the truth is I didn't want to find out, I'm fairly good with bugs but I'm not Steve Irwin for gods sake. So, I did what any respectable man would do... I kept this information to myself hoping Alex wouldn't notice when we got back from the rooftop restaurant.
Got ready and made our way up, hoping we didn't look too casual, to what can only be described as a car park. A car park with four wallpaper tables, some chairs and a gas hob. Not quite what we'd expected but the food was good so can't complain.
Not that we had much choice, mind, as there are only two other restaurants in that area and one costs £150 per head.
This money burner is called Marari Beach Resort, a huge place with sixty five villas, swimming pool, lake, tennis courts and starting from only 35,000 rupees a night! £450!
Got to be rich or crazy to stay there...as Paul McCartney and Heather Mills did a few years back, fittingly. Raju said he met Mr McCartney at the time and spoke in length about his experience. I was more interested in how Hev got on on the sand?
Advantages : doesn't burn your feet as much.
Disadvantages : you only have one leg.
Meanwhile back at the room, after evicting a Gecko some Mosquitos and a Spider, I felt my work was done. Just as my eyes were closing I heard "what the devil is that?" Or words to that effect. My secret was out and after playing dumb for a minute or two I admitted to the Alien sighting attached to the curtains. I hadn't even spotted the mud cocoon in question. I tried to reassure Alex and explain that it was probably best to let them be. She obviously wasn't having any of it and was preparing to sleep outside (until she saw the stray dogs surrounding her).
Using the cup and paper technique, I have now perfected, I scraped them off and ran like a girl to lob them outside. Such a hero.
That was the most excitement we had at Marari Beach.
Visited an Elephant festival at a temple, met a rickshaw driver on the beach at night who invited us in to meet his family....yeah, Marari Beach, done.
Now Cochin then Mumbai."