Janice's Beach Adventure-Monsoon Style

This weekend I decided to get away from the center and head south to the beautiful beaches in Varkala. Because it is the monsoon i knew that swimming was out but figured it would be nice to see anyway and off season so few other people around. The general plan was to leave after Hindi class on Friday, catch a rickshaw to the train station and get into Varkala before dark. I was raining heavily all day Thursday and into Friday, I caught my rickshaw but 5 minutes out of town hit my first obstacle-the road was flooded, at least 3 feet of water covering a good 20 feet. For a moment I thought the driver was going to gun it(rickshaws are open vehicles). But instead he turned around and began shouting in malayalam and gesturing wildly which I took to mean either "there's no way to Chennganur we have to go back" or " you better start clenching your ass cheeks because I know a really insane, suicidal back road". My patent response in these situations is to smile and say "okay, no problem". so off we went on some of the most beautiful and torn up roads that I have been on so far. Off-roading during monsoon in an auto rickshaw. Until we hit the next road block, this time a utility pole fallen across the road. I thought we were definitly done but my driver was unbelievebly tenacious and found a third way which deposited me rattled, wet but alive at the train station, just in time to miss my train.
The train stations here are dirty smelly and extremely crowded-kind of like the NY subway system. Not a pleasant place to wait. Especially when a very eager indian man(who might not have been all there) decides to practice his english over and over again to you. Fortunatly a group of sari clad women noticing my discomfort and inability to get rid of this man and tugged me backwards into the center of their group surrounding me. I ended up sticking with one of them on the train and had a wonderful time. This was my first time riding unreserved (cattle class) something i never would do on a long journey but I thought I could handle anything for 3 hours. (and at 32 rupies!) The train was packed and we ended up standing for most of the way each time someone looked like they were going to get up everyone made a mad dash to get their seat. No rules apply here and the men have no qualms about pushing women, old, young or foreign out of their way to get a seat.
Varkala is one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen. The beach is at the bottom of these red cliff, reached by steps from the clifftop. The hotels and restaurants are along the clifftop. The place was practically deserted which was wonderful. I'll post pictures as soon as i can get the computer to cooperate.