Varkala, Kerela. 

David and I spent 3 days in Varkala (much longer than expected) just getting up early, and wandering down the beach…farther each day. It was amazing how few tourists wandered more than a kilometer off the main stretch.

The last day we walked about 4 kilometers, and ended up in a coconut grove. Happy to be alone we sat down, and played a little bit of music (me on ukelele - David on a little drum). Within about 15 minutes we realized we weren’t alone. A man appeared, climbed a coconut tree (actually shimmied up a tree - watching this was pretty amazing), and cut coconuts for us, pretended not to understand that we didn’t want all of them, told us a ridiculous sob story in broken English (not quite containing a smirk) and then demanded we pay an inflated price for them. It was clear that he was lieing, and it feels bad to pay a liar, but at the same time he probably doesn’t have much, and my money is worth alot more in India than it is in the country I made it in. He and I both know this, and that is what he is playing on. It’s a complicated game. There are no right answers; only a handful of wrong ones. It pays to be level headed, and getting cheated a little is alot better than getting cheated alot (or even worse robbed). Anyways, in the end I broke, and bought the coconuts. And, I guess, I also unwittingly paid for front row seats at the coconut picking show. 

On our way out to the coconut grove we saw what looked like it was once a fancy resort in ruins. It looked ancient, but there was a sign on it that had a cellphone number, so I realized it wasn’t that old. I wonder if it was hit by the tsunami.