Varkala, Kerela is about an hour North of Trivandrum. 

Lonely Planet described this Resort town as the hippie equivalent to Kovalam. I think that is relatively accurate, though it is also definetely a resort town. It actually seemed more developed to me than Kovalam, but the themes were decidedly Hippie. After finding a nice small room (I mean truly nice) -  Actually the first clean room I stayed in in India we wandered along the cliffs. 

The unique aspect of Varkala is the cliffs. A long stretch of cliffs overlooks a sandy beach, and open ocean. The resorty places (restarants, hostels, hotels) are up on the cliffs. This (and the tide really) keeps the beaches peaceful (relatively free of vendors, and commerce). 

One of the accomodations we came across was called the “Tribal Village”. For $300 a night (compared to our $18) you could stay in traditional Tribal house made by Tribal people from the North (I didn’t think that was anything special - alot of the buildings in India are built by “traditional tribal people” - usually they don’t make enough to live in them). Anyways… In the tribal Village you could live like a traditional Tribal person, of course with Wi-fi, and flush toilets, and maybe about 10 times as much space, and someone to REALLY clean up after you)…….but anyways. So I guess Varkala had a kind of nauseating hippie theme, but other than that it was just gorgeous.

The unique physical aspects of Varkala are the cliffs, and the fact that it is a kilometer down from a small fishing village were the villagers continue to fish early in the morning, and have grown accustom to tourists wandering through their work. The beauty of Varkala inspired me to get up early, and walk. I was lucky enough to catch the fishermen at work….a huge line of them on one net. There was one other foreign woman up who started filming them. This triggered a bit of teasing on their part. They invited her to join in their work. She didn’t really get it. To avoid this kind of play I took a picture from afar. It’s amazing to see this kind of activity still going on so close to a resort town. I imagine Varkala (the resort) is great business for the fishermen, and Kerela seems like a much happier, and fairer place than Tamil Nadu. Still I wonder how much it effects their lifestyle.