We arrive to Trivandrum with Kingfisher Airways very early in the morning of December 21^st after a sleepless night in Bangalore and watching the most beautiful sunrise up in the air. Finding a hotel is not as easy as we thought, but after about one hour of looking around and asking we find a room in the YWCA, very close to the secretariat of Kerala.

Vera’s smart guide, recommends us to visit the village of Kovalam, which is supposed to have some beautiful beaches at the Arabian Sea. We are very much looking forward to finally lay on a beach with smooth sand, sea water and the Indian sun above us. We are told to take bus 111 from platform 9 and learn that people in Trivandrum have a weird way of numbering their bus platforms, starting from 10 to 12 and then from 7 to 9. Luckily, everybody in the bus station knows what tourists are looking for, when they are having that lost look on their faces and show us the right way.

After a 30 minutes bus ride we arrive in the tropical paradise. It is the most beautiful place we’ve seen until then. The village looks already very cute, but very touristic. The walk from the bus stop to the sea was almost like Christmas, when you see the gifts in front of you and can’t touch them yet. After five minutes walk, we reach the Ashok beach at the Arabic sea, a beach like I have never seen before (Vera remembers that from her holidays in Australia 9 years ago). The very smooth sand under our feet and the warm sea water is almost like foot massage in a Thai spa saloon.

The beach is not too large though and we’re permanently approached by locals whether we’d like to have a boat trip or we’d like to buy something. The later one had more success with us and we bought some beautifully colored scarfs from an Indian seller, who even spoke some words in German (perhaps there are more Germans coming to that beach). Afterwards we decide to walk a little bit around and admire the beautiful palms with coconuts, which are very many in this area, we drink some coconut water and eat some coconut flesh. They sell coconuts here on the street, like in Romania melons.

Before we get back to Trivandrum, we enjoy a Lassi and some lemon soda on a terrace near Hawah Beach, where we could watch a little bit of sunset. We don’t know what happened, but the sky was pretty cloudy since we got to Trivandrum, something that is not supposed to happen in India, at least not in our perception about India.

So we’re in the very south now, will spend some days here and will head to the north slowly. We will eventually arrive in Mumbai shortly after new year.