Beep beep beep 5.50am. B and I get up and make our way to say good bye. Sad to see everyone go but I am glad we made the effort.
We all go back to bed and sleep, or try to, until about 7.30. Read a bit, pack. We have arranged via Eugine for a minibus (another friend) to pick us up at 11 and take us the the Gateway Hotel in Varkala for our final days.
Rather than eating in the hotel we decide to go to Waves, the German bakery (again!) for breakfast and have a good breakfast looking out over the breaking waves and swimmers and get back to the hotel just before 11.
The minibus turns up as expected and we cram the bags in with help from the hotel staff and the driver. It is a tight squeeze. 2 hours later after one stop at an ATM we are back in Varkala and the Gateway. The minibus has its underside inspected by a mirror to check for bombs …. apparently this has happened to N&L a few times but is the first time I had seen this and a reaction to the Mumbai incident a few years ago which happened to the Taj Hotel there. The Gateway is also a Taj group hotel.
The hotel is quite obviously a step above anything we have stayed in so far in India. The staff are better trained and more fluent in English and the whole reception airy and welcoming. You can see the sea but more importantly as Tim says ‘the pool is enormous’. Well it is pretty good size and bigger than the pools we have had so far.
Nick and I try and book the driver of the minibus to take us back to Trivandrum but we find out he is going to Kochi… So that is why Eugine knows him and we have done him a favour by paying for some if not all of he journey. Well it worked well for all of us.
We have got the rooms we wanted with gardens but need to wait until about 2 to get into the and so decide to walk to a restaurant on the cliff and the first one we see and leave the main bags in reception. We end up in a cafe called Peace and have a good lunch. Adults all eat Dal Makana and the kids a mixture of Pad Thai, Spag bog, lime juices and lassis. We get a tuk-tuk back it is too hot and a 15 min walk back. It might be quicker to walk down to the beach and get the the cliff that way. We’ll try tomorrow.
Our rooms were ready on our return – rooms 101-104 all at one end of the hotel, all with gardens, nice beds, good bathrooms and very welcoming. we run up and down deciding who gets which room. Adults end of with identical rooms and the kids with ones which are the same size but decorated a bit differently. Apparently all the rooms are being or have been redecorated by 3 different designers and one of the rooms had fresh paint on a patch on the wall!! It was dry before the end of the afternoon.
We potter about, kids to pool, B unpacks, etc. The afternoon passes quite quickly and we meet for a drink in N&L’s room to drink some of the remainder of the beer left from that we bought in Kochi for the Christmas party which never happened.
Dinner was on the terrace overlooking the pool with an excellent buffet, the best for days probably since Vanilla County and a bottle of voignier white wine from Grovers. It was on them menu as a Sauvignon Blanc but there was none and it had been replaced by the voignier. The waiter was quite confused when we said it was not the right one but understood when we pointed out the grape name.
We all retire to bed and the most comfortable beds so far in India.