Does This Bus go to Varkala?

We put this trip together on our own, which means that while we stole itineraries shamelessly from high-end tour companies, the actual arrangements were made by us.  And our itinerary is still pretty loose.  So we arrive in Udaipur, for instance, where we will spend about four days, and move on to Jaipur.  How we actually get from point to point is still a mystery, though.  And we have about a dozen such mystery movements coming up in the next two months.

Our first movement was Kovalam to Varkala, and we kind of considered it a shake-down cruise for what’s to come.  It did not go well.

The distance is only 83 kilometers (a quaint unit of measure used throughout India, I think), but it can take a long time.  Oh, yes.



Indian Tuk-tuk



We had it on good authority (the starched uniform of an official at the Kovalam Tourist Office, by Jove, sir!) that there was a single direct bus that left for Varkala at 7:30 in the morning.   So Linda and I were there in plenty of time at the taxi/bus/tuk-tuk stand.  We started getting a little nervous when nothing showed up but at about 8:00 an old rickety bus backed into the stall.  “Does this bus go to Varaka?” I asked.  The driver looked down and shook his head with the infamous Indian Head Waggle.

 

The Head Waggle (deserving of its own posting later on, I’m sure) is a method of nonverbal communication that has many arcane nuances that we have yet to master.  It can mean “Yes”, or sometimes it can mean “No”, depending on the inflection.  Or it can mean “I have no idea what we’re talking about, but I really like smiling and moving my head this way.”  So I ask again.  “Varkala! Yes!” he said , verbally this time. So we got on the nearly empty bus and off we rumbled.  A British couple we had met the night before had taken the direct bus FROM Varkala and said it was quite nice.  This bus was not quite so nice.  And when the ticket taker came by and I said, “Two tickets to Varkala, please” and he said “No Varkala.  Trivandrum” (referring to the capital city of Kerala state), I started to get suspicious.  Could this possibly be the wrong bus?  Could we have misinterpreted the head waggle?

So Trivandrum it was, honking through the four lanes of crowded traffic designed for two, where we arrived at the Central Bus Station, a chaotic stable of belching battered buses with a small office for “Enquiries”.  There was no one in line.  We would soon learn why it is a little-used service of the Kerala Bus System.

“When is the next bus to Varkala?” I ask.  “That bus THERE, sir!”  When does it leave?  “NOW, sir!” he says in a tone both earnest and urgent so Linda and I grab our packs and jump on the bus as it bounces out of Central Station.  The bus is even a little seedier than the first.  The ticket-taker came wobbling up the aisle and I again said, “Two tickets for Varkala, please.”  And Again.  “No Varkala.  Annacannatunam.”

“I think we’re on the wrong bus,” Linda observed.

“Well, it’s not like this is MY responsibility,” I said defensively.

“I kind of think it is,” she smiled sweetly.

So off we were to Annacannatunam, deeper into the Keralan countryside, and we arrive at the Central Bus Station and the buses are little more battered but the din a little less chaotic.

“When is the next bus to Varkala?” I ask at Enquiry.

“It is THAT bus sir,” he says, “and it leaves NOW!”

So back on the bus, which this time actually WAS going directly to Varkala, now only 12 kilometers  away but it was a local that stopped every 500 meters or so.  It now occurs to us that they were being as truthful and helpful as possible.  Every bus heading north out of Kovalam DOES go to Varkala, in the same way that every bus heading north out of New Orleans goes to New York City.  Eventually.

We finally got to Varkala Central Station a little after ten, and a short Tuk-Tuk ride took us directly to our hotel. (The tuk-tuk—pronounced took-took—is a Suzuki motorcycle encased in a brightly decorated open air shell that has room for a driver and officially two passengers and will almost certainly be the subject of a future post.)

Our next move comes Wednesday with a tuk-tuk, a train, a tuk-tuk, a ferry, and a tuk-tuk.  Wish us luck-luck.

Varkala, like Kovalam, is a beautiful laid-back ocean resort on the Arabian Sea and our hotel is magnificent.  We have said nothing so far about the exotic beauty and charm of these places, but that comes soon—along with pictures.