South end of Varkala beach, "Papanasham", is manned by locals. This is because it's closer to the temple and steady procession of devotees make their way fom temple to the beach. A dip here is said to purify mind and body.

Ceremony is in progress. I think.

The northern end of the beach is a different story altogether. Almost all people are westerners. It came as a bit of of surprise, walking right into it. But a quick visit to the top of the cliff behind the beach sort of explains it. There is a commercial alley which is all geared for tourists, with its coffee shops, knick-knack stalls and mobile merchants. Actually it was still rather nice and in no way agressive. Everybody seemed to be unusually respectful of your right not to buy stuff.

Picture from the cliff toward south end of Varkala Beach.

And to the north.

Coming back to the beach, we noticed that there is a high proportion of obvious old hippies with their minds a bit off somewhere, dancing under the sun to a music inaudible for the rest of us mortals. And an almost equal proportion of new aspirants into the hippie world, young, long haired, bearded and inked. There must have been about two "mainstream families" in all. Whatever the composition, the atmosphere was very pleasant and easy-going.