This post is about how to escape from the cold, grey, winter months in Northern Europe via Marari Beach, Kerala, India. It takes place in December and early January. Let’s begin with my general observation. The Christmas holidays in Kerala are quite busy (the state was converted to Christianity by the disciple Thomas in AD 57) however, Marari Beach seems spared much of the mass influx of local tourists when compared to other locations in the state.
The Beach Busy & Not Busy
The rest of the beach areas (the majority of the beach) is only accessible by tiny paths catering to foot, scooter or tuk-tuk traffic. This is also where you will find homestays, beach bamboo restaurants and fisherman (boats and markets).
Total Cost Range of this Activity is: $$
We booked a $50 a night villa with attached bathroom, a pool and full breakfast. We also ate on the beach (tourist pricing) for around $10 pp while off the beach at local restaurants (called Hotels for some unknown reason) the same meal would cast around $2. Location, location, location.
Beach Life
We visited for a week and stayed in the lovely Marari Beach Green Villas. The location also provided a short walk to the secluded beach and restaurants and the free guest bicycles allowed us to extend our exploration to include the local temples, canals and yoga spots.
Watch The Video
This was the prefect sun and fun location for turning our Vitamin D deprived skin a golden brown. The beach provided endless long sunset walks, virgin Mojitos and fresh seafood dinners.
The Beach Life
Bicycle Exploring
But it was not all eating and drinking on the beach or laying in the pool. We did make use of the bicycles to explore the local. This included two Hindu Temples (which are in the minority since giant Christian Churches dominate the coastal road at one-to-five km intervals). The Hindu temples (Mararikulam Sree Mahadeva Temple and Korthusseril Temple) were quite deserted compared to the churches so we took our time listening to changing, instruments and watching rituals.
The places to explore included the morning fishing market where the locals bring their night’s catch to buyers (and hungry cats). These are the small-time business dealings that have taken place for thousands of years. Locals sell small quantities of fish from bicycle mounted coolers on street corners, competing with the local fruit sellers and chi shops. The simple life still works.
Excursions
We also decided to do a few day self-directed excursions using Uber taxi services.
Fort Kochi Walk
One of Fort Kochi’s main attractions are the Chinese Fishing nets which date back thousands of years, basically four splayed bamboo polls spread out of a net that is suspended by a counter-pole on a fulcrum. Lower net into water, wait, lift net up, harvest fish. The technique still works.
However it was clear that the alternative of throwing a cast-net is still popular as are coastal small and large fishing boats and even a few people using modern fishing poles. Clearly fishing in a shipping channel is a popular pastime.
Kathakali Mandapam
The other big draw in Fort Kochi is the shopping, restaurants and the Kathakali Mandapam performance, a traditional costumed story dance that is practiced for the tourists all over Kerala. Naturally we purchased a ticket and watched the pre-show (applying the makeup and costumes) and the actual musical performance. One of those things you have to do once in life to remove it from the checklist.
Alappuzha to Kottayam Ferry
Our other big outing was to take an Uber taxi to the government ferry port in Alappuzha where we boarded a local ferry to Kottayam (3 hours for 28 Rs). Basically a local hop-on and hop-off bus on the water zig-zagging around the backwaters and canals ferrying people where roads don’t go.
It was a beautiful cruise, the sun was shining, the people getting on and off were interesting, the local life picturesque and the bird life plentiful. However, Kottayam is a dirty and busy town with poor train service back to Marari Beach so after a meal we hooked up with another Uber taxi for a sleepy round-about ride back.
And no mater what we did each day, it all ended the same. A walk down to the beach to drink a virgin mojito, wiggle our toes in the sand and watch the sunset.
And then the time of decadence was over. Next up was a visit to an ashram for a body and soul cleansing.