Following yet another hairy bus ride round cliff edges (this time with a driver who likes to drink whisky at the wheel) we thanked our lucky stars and got to Varkala - backpacker haven!

The rickshaw drivers at the station thought it was their lucky day when we arrived and we were bombarded with "maam - you want Rickshaw?" a thousand time! We eventually got a taxi (who claimed he drove a rickshaw) and arrived at our beautiful guest house right on the beach...but right in the middle of no where (not great for finding your way along the cliff face in the dark).

We dumped our stuff and were invited out to a village street festival - we took a ride from our host on the back of his motorbike (along with his 2 year old daughter) - very exciting! The children of the village were performing traditional dances about marriage and Deb was invited to take "pride of place" as the bride - much to Sarah's amusement! Everyone there was so friendly and welcoming and little girls gave us flowers as gifts. Back at the homestay the chef (with 12 years experience!) cooked us an amazing Khorma with coconut rice mmmm (Debs favourite dish so far!)

The war of the cockroaches........AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! KILL THEM!!
Two flying cockroaches invaded our room and our English girly instincts told us to run away and find the nearest man to deal with it! We heard them squeal as they died in the corner of our bathroom! We thought it would be best to put up the mosquito net that night to save crunching on one in the night!

The next two days were pretty chilled out - we walked to the Varkala north cliff where we found all the shops, cafes and restaurants - we did some further shopping, trying to find the perfect Alibabas (baggy trousers) and bartered over 50p! Definitely different to shopping in TopShop - they think we have so much disposible income that they want us to buy anything we look at - very annoying especially as we can never make any decisions!

We did our first bit of Indian sunbathing and exposed the legs at last - we now officially have tan lines! The sea was lovely and warm but the current was too strong to swim!

Overall we really liked Varkala and its chilled out atmosphere and friendly people!