Sea, Surf et Yoga à Varkala

This post is also available in: French

Varkala, we went there for the first time 8 years ago but since we live in Bangalore, we strangely forgot a bit about this place. Varkala has everything to tease you though. The sea first is a rare deep blue in India, something that even Goa could be jealous of. The waves then, which are allowing you to imagine to practice something quite unusual in India… surfing! And then of course, the famous redish coloured cliff which dominates Varkala’s beaches and where stands numerous cheap guest-gouses and restaurants favorited by back-packers.
But this time, we discovered a part of Varkala that we didn’t know thanks to a friend from France visiting us : the rightly named “South Cliff” which hosts a handful of hotels slightly more exclusive than their counterparts of “North Cliff” and which are also the gateway to an almost deserted beach.
We stayed at “Soul and Surf“, opened and managed by a group of English who left everything for a surfing world tour and finally ended up there. More than surfers, they were also designers and you can really feel it in this perfect place where everything is well thought and of good taste. A bit of a dream for a western hipster in India… almost making us jealous of not having it done ourselves: an old English bungalow renovated and decorated with indian antiquities, a pink Ambassador and green Jeep to transfer the surfers, café et pizza nights, surf lessons in the morning and yoga ones in the evening. We’ll just make our French by saying that the food is average but it’s actually a good thing because it’s forcing you to exit this place and try the grilled fish and other delicacies at North Cliff restaurants. The other problem is that this place aims almost exclusively English people, so you’ll have to pay in pounds before coming (and rates are of European standards) and once there you’ll feel like in a langage school trip, surrounded by Brits with highly perched accents (or really impossible to understand for us more used to the Hinglish).
Concerning the surf, we were a bit disappointed at first to have to surf on Varkala’s main beach but understood then that it’s a great spot for beguinners like us. Those two days gave us motivation to come back to continue to improve and discover other spots on this shore. We also experienced that yoga could be more than an additional catch for Soul and Surf as those two practices are really complementaries.

We’ll go back to Varkala to surf and maybe we’ll go back to yoga in Bangalore… or leave everything to start our own cool restaurant-guest house on the Indian shore 🙂

PS : and let’s celebrate this post being our 100th one! we’re also celebrating here our 3 years in India!