The coal has to go ;-) :D (Day 53 of the world trip)

October 27, 2019

After a mosquito-free night (!!!), we received a Whatsapp message from the surf school this morning, stating that the pick-up time would be 8 am instead of the usual 7:20 am. Okay!

Shortly after, we received another message stating that "she" should pay today. To make sure we understood correctly, we asked, but the message wasn't meant for us^^ But it seems that there is no guarantee that I can ride in the tuk-tuk as a "mere observer," as there are already four participants and four is the maximum number of seats in the vehicle :D I offered to walk to Black Beach, of course. Since I'm not paying, it would be fine :) However, we found out that we would be going to Edava today, so walking wouldn't have been possible :/ Jonas suggested that I could sit on his lap, and that settled the matter^^

Just before 8 am, we went outside and met two French girls who were staying in the same hostel as us (although we had never seen them before...). The four of them squeezed onto the back seat, and I sat on Jonas's lap. But Krishna, who was sitting in the front with the driver, decided that he and the other participant (who is from Delhi, by the way) would follow on a scooter. How nice! They could have just said that I didn't fit, since I'm not paying. It would have been a shame, but I would have accepted it. It was really kind of them to find a solution <3

During the ride, Jonas sat in the front with the driver, and the two French girls and I sat in the back. Jonas chatted with the driver, who seems to like both of us ;-) and I chatted a bit with the two girls. Fortunately, we spoke English even though my French is rudimentary :D :D One of them has been in India for a year, in Pune to be precise. Her university has a partner university there, and she is doing a year abroad (or maybe even a whole degree?) there. The other girl is a friend who is visiting her during the semester break, and they are traveling the entire state of Kerala.

They have already been to Alleppey (which we might have visited too, if we hadn't spent half of the time at the bungalow^^ - although it was more pleasant than you might think!) and they both have some surfing experience, so the atmosphere today was different from Gal's yesterday. The book with the consent forms wasn't there. Surprise surprise :p Maybe they only use it occasionally ;-)

When we arrived in Edava, the situation was different from yesterday. The fishing boats were there again, but there were hardly any fishermen. Today is Sunday, and it is also Diwali, one of the biggest Indian holidays - at least in North India. People put lights out, exchange gifts, and visit their families - just like Christmas :) It is not celebrated as much in the south, or rather, it is used more as a party night :D But anyway.

Although the two French girls had some surfing experience, Krishna took the time to give them a refresher. Meanwhile, Jonas and the participant from Delhi were already in the water! The other big surf school already had about 15 participants in the water, and the conditions looked great again! Many waves, but the current wasn't too strong. And the waves often went straight ahead :)

I took out our camera, ready to chat with the pro again, but then I realized that the battery was dead :O Oh no! Last night it still showed four out of four bars!! Weird -.-

Without the camera, I was able to fully concentrate on observing. It didn't rain this morning, so I could just sit on a towel and watch :) Jonas and the other participant tried to choose waves, paddle towards them, and then surf, but they struggled a bit at first. They have mastered the basics of surfing now, but the second part is much more difficult: getting a feel for the "right" wave ;-)

After about 15 minutes, Jonas managed to surf a wave properly for the first time and looked visibly relieved :D After that, he had a streak of successful waves. He received some tips on how to "steer" better or stay on the board for longer, and yeah. Even though he's not a pro yet, it looked very confident from the outside :) And since he had complete freedom, he looked satisfied and was having fun, which is the main thing ;-)

I went swimming in between and spent the rest of the hour observing, as I mentioned earlier. Behind the surfing students, there were the pros again, riding huge waves all the way along instead of just going straight on the foam. Some even did tricks like spinning around on the surfboard or paddling together and then jumping onto one board. Not bad!

After the surf lesson, we had chai again (which I didn't notice this time :p), and we each received a deep-fried banana. The sight of fried food still triggers unpleasant memories for me, but I was hungry enough to try it and managed to eat it without feeling sick. It was actually super delicious. The problem was only in my head :D

While we were standing there, we asked the guy from Delhi where exactly he lives and which metro line is closest to him, so we could get a better idea. He thought for a moment and then laughed: "It's a bit embarrassing, but I really don't know. I just live there and drive by car."

He also found it surprising that we, as tourists, used the metro. Looking back, we actually hardly saw any tourists (or at least ones that were recognizable as such) in the metro. It was always just Indians! Tourists probably prefer to travel above ground by tuk-tuk, Uber, or tourist buses ;-)

Well. After the snack, we went back to the hostel, and since we liked him so much and were grateful for the ride, we gave the driver a 100 rupee tip. He was happy and immediately asked if we might need him for further travel, but we apologized and told him that we already had a shuttle.

Nevertheless, we didn't have such a nice driver anywhere else in India, I believe. I can't really pinpoint why we liked him so much :D But he was cool :)

After showering, we had a small breakfast, watched Youtube, and then, as has become our routine here, we went to have lunch^^ Since I only completed two out of the five surf lessons, but we have the cash for all five hours, we now have about 3,000 rupees left that we have to spend in the next two days! :O

We thought about how we could invest the money wisely (changing it might be an option, but that generally involves losing out...). Well, I'll probably buy a book and maybe a dress tomorrow. I also think we need a small peeler so we can eat something other than bananas :D :D (it's not very clever to eat the peel in these countries, even if you rinse it with drinking water...).

And then, yes, then we're going out for BREAKFAST tomorrow!!!!! I'm so excited to eat yogurt with fruit, maybe a croissant with jam, and yaaa... <3 Investing the remaining money in food seems very sensible to us :p (we already bought chocolate cookies, but our luggage space is limited^^).

Today at noon, we tried out the restaurant "Clafouti," which is mainly known for its seafood (or at least that's what the waiter told us ;-) ). I had another pizza, and Jonas ordered vegetable from the tandoori oven. In my defense: Indian food always contains onions, and it doesn't always work when I ask them to leave them out^^ But the pizza was safe for me :)

By the way, Jonas's vegetable looked really cool and tasted great too. Fortunately, he is much more open-minded than me. I'm working on it, but if I can anticipate that I won't tolerate it, I often say no :D

In the afternoon (with two packets of chocolate cookies), we went to the beach. It was completely cloudy but oppressively humid. The lifeguard had a lot to whistle about, but when Jonas and I went into the water, he seemed to have a blind spot :p We didn't get whistled at once - unlike most Indians strolling there.

The puppies were also there again and were used by a man as an excuse to approach. Two young women were lying near the bushes where the dogs live, and when they watched the puppies, the guy came over and lay down next to the towel of one of the women to start a conversation. Not a bad move, because he stayed there for at least half an hour ;-)

We went back around 4:15 pm because the weather wasn't that great and it looked like rain... We took the opportunity to wash all our towels and swimwear one last time, and then, to spend the money, we went out for dinner :D

We tried a trattoria that advertised homemade pasta, but we both ordered something Asian :D Jonas had chicken tikka masala with roti (bread that we know from Rishikesh), and I had sweet and sour rice <3

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Varkala :O As mentioned above, we will probably spend the day spending more money, and did I mention that we are going OUT for BREAKFAST??? <333 :D Those who know me know why I'm so excited^^ We're excited as always ;-)