Varkala beach

The final part of my holiday was another trip south by train. Slightly less fun this time - the novelty of travelling on Indian trains rapidly wore off. They are incredibly old and very slow and rather grimy. It's incongruous to sit in a carriage that is like something from the 1950s with plugs for mobile phones and laptops! I read in the paper that the Keralan state is in the process of buying high speed trains from Japan to run on the route I took. It's estimated that this will displace nearly 5,000 households along the track.

So I was pleased to arrive in Varkala, a beautiful beach resort. It has sacred associations and many families bring the ashes of their loved ones to scatter here. It's also home to an odd collection of tourists, hippies, ayurvedic practioners, yogis, tibetan refugees and Kashmiri traders. Compared to the other main Keralan resort of Kovalam, it's much more unspoilt. I hope it can stay that way.