Here it begins...

Hey everyone, I hope all of you who are going through this post are doing absolutely fine. This blog is all about my experience of 'God's Own Country' aka, Kerela (a state in India). I was fortunate enough to visit the Southern State of India on a few of the best days of the year i.e. 31st December to January 9 (2022-23). This blog contains the experiences of Varkala, Vagamon and Munnar. I'll be sharing my experiences about my trip and also the advice(s) (if any) that might turn out to be helpful to you guys in case you plan to tour Kerela.

I visited the places with a couple of my friends (Vansh and Vivek). We set off for the journey on the eve of 30th December from one of the Bangalore Railway Stations (SMVT). The train departed from the station at around 7pm, and guess what, we're all set. Initially, when we planned our journey, we decided to get down at Kottayam, Kerela (a place in the middle of Vagamon and Varkala), but after getting into conversations with the people on the train, we decided to change our drop station to Kollam. One thing I would like to add here is that the locals of a region have a lot of information which can be useful at many points during a trip.  Always try to connect with the locals to get some additional info which might not be easily available on the internet.

My entire journey of Kerela was very exciting, and there were many new experiences about to unfold for me on this trip, but one thing I would like to say that whatever rumours you (anyone reading this blog) might have heard of regarding how North Indians get treated in South India and all, spreading that word is very bad without even coming to South India. The people of South India are very helpful in nature and obviously very kind-hearted. There were a few instances where we thought that we might have trusted the wrong person or get cheated with our money, but trust me, there was nothing as such. People who can't adjust their behaviours as per the situation usually end up getting treated bad, and then they spread the wrong word.

So coming back to Kollam city, from where we took a bus to get to Varkala, which took us around 1-1.5 hours to get there. Kerela is a beautiful state, and among those few states of India, that contains both hill stations and beaches. The weather of the hill stations is fantastic, but when it comes to Varkala, it was hot. 

We reached Varkala, headed to our stay, got fresh quickly, changed and headed towards our lunch and then to the Varkala beach. Now, I don't know how many of you guys have been to a cliff-side beach, but Varkala cliff was one of the best experiences I ever had at any beach which I experienced on the last day of 2022. Bright Sun, blue sky, big coconut trees and a completely blue ocean in front of my eyes. It was truly mesmerizing and amazing.

These pictures can give a little idea about how awesome the view was. There were a lot of foreigners, locals, young and old people, and kids. To summarize, it was a great afternoon. Such views made us forget the tiredness of the overnight journey that we finished just a few hours ago. That afternoon we roamed on the cliff, went to the beach, did our photography kinds of stuff, played a small game of beach football, and explored many small cafes for food. Actually, all three of us are pure vegetarians, hence we always need to search for our food options wherever we go. To follow up with this beautiful afternoon, was one of the most beautiful sights of sunset. Beach sunsets are themselves pleasing to watch, but the cliff here made it even more beautiful. 

Post the sunset, we reached our stay and started to get ready for the New Year celebration. We booked tickets for a musical eve near Varkala. Everything was set, but there are transportation issues within Kerela. I would suggest you guys to not show dependency over cab/auto booking apps in Kerela. 

A few thoughts about transportation experience that I would like to add are:

• First of all, the applications for booking a cab/auto don't provide their services there as of now. 
• Second, it is difficult to get auto or a cab there,  also they charge very high rates.

The locals say to opt for local buses and trains (basically public transport) for commuting within Kerela so that it doesn't costs you much on travel, also few thoughts that I heard was that the bus drivers in Kerela often do rash driving, so you must experience that once you go to Kerela.

Coming back to the 31st Night, luckily we got a auto after searching a lot, and we got his phone number to call him back at mid-night. The auto-vala was so kind that he came back to pick us up at 1:30 am in the midnight, and all three of us were really impressed by that gesture of auto-vale bhaiya. 

Next day, i.e. the New Year Day (1st January), we woke up little late, and then quickly went for breakfast. We discovered a very decent veg cafe - Lumuma cafe. The vibes at this cafe are just aweme. What we enjoyed here was: the peaceful atmosphere inside the cafe, the view from the cliff, the food was pure veg and the staff was really good. Also, there was one more musical experience here, which I'll describe in a while.

Post having a great breakfast at the cafe, we moved to the beach. We took bath, enjoyed the sunlight, read ebook and chilled out in the bright afternoon. After this, we decided to get back to Lumuma cafe in the early evening as we had a good experience in the morning with that place. Lumuma cafe keeps organizing KIRTAN, we didn't had no idea about, but luckily we were on time for that small event. We had small evening snacks in the cafe and thought to join the Kirtan as we were already tired after the raoming and resting in the sun for the whole day. To our surprise, this Kirtan was one of the best experiences that we had on the trip. The Kirtan was basically about chanting of sacred mantras along with a few musical instruments. That was so peaceful and magical, and it was so energizing. It was one of those experiences that I would definitely like to experience even more than once.

Post this, we got back to our stay, got ready for dinner, had a dinner and soon went to sleep as the next day we had to pack our bags to Vagamon.

But, but, but, before reaching to Vagamon, we spent a few hours at Munroe Island, which was a worthy experience in itself. Guys, if you had been never to the back waters, then you should definitely consider taking this once in your life. About a couple of hours in a small boat sailing over waters.

I hope these pictures give you some idea about what I wanna express. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I guess I can't say much about this place and experience. All I just want to say, experience this once, this experience can't be expressed in words. Munroe Island is a hidden gem of Kerela, about which very people know.

Also you guys can checkout more pictures from my recent travels at my Instagram handle : @my_cam.era .

So after this breath-taking experience, we continued our journey to Vagamon. I think this blog is going to long, hence I'm deciding to break this down in three parts. The first part, i.e., the Varkala has been covered in this post. I will break down the experience of Vagamon and Munnar in the other upcoming posts to follow. I hope you liked the way I've demonstrated my Varkala experience in this post, please share your valuable feedback, because I cannot get to know how I've written if I can't to know about your reading experience. All kinds of feedbacks (positive or negative) are welcome in the comments. Positive feedbacks will encourage me to write more, negative feedbacks will help me to improve. So please, share your views. 
I hope this and my upcoming posts will help you in your life at some point of time. Thanks for your reading. Bye-bye.