Despite being extremely late to bed, we woke up reasonably early on Saturday. The wedding reception was to happen only by evening, so we had plenty of time to explore Kovalam. Our stay was at a property overlooking a rocky beach. After searching various breakfast options through Google Maps, we finally settled on the in-house restaurant. The restaurant overlooking the beach gave us good views and a pleasant breeze as we savored the Bread-Omelette and coffee. As usual, me and Niranjana went for coffee while Pro and Varsha went for tea. And also, as usual, Varsha wasn’t satisfied with the tea.
Soon after the breakfast, Pillechan and Govind joined us. They had taken the morning Vande Bharat from Kochi. All of us then got together and searched for places to explore in Kovalam and eventually decided to visit the Lighthouse Beach which was at a walkable distance from our place. We walked through a beach road for about half an hour to reach the lighthouse. The black sand beach definetly had a character of its own. The red and white painted lighthouse at the edge of the cliff was a splendid addition to the already beautiful scenery. We didn’t have anything else planned for the day so we took our sweet time exploring the beach. The sky was relatively cloudy today with a few sporadic drizzles now and then. This brought down the temperature to favorable levels for our noon-time beach exploration.
We got into a beachside restaurant eager to try some seafood for lunch. The food was delicious and perfect for the ambience. As we had lunch, the sky started getting darker and a storm was brewing up near the horizon. Luckily it didn’t rain, just another mild drizzle. After lunch, Nandu joined us straight at the beach. He too had taken a train from Kochi. We spent a couple of more hours on the beach playing with kites, buying souvenirs, and eating beachside snacks before finally heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding reception.
The reception was to take place at Al Saaj Auditorium, about 40 minutes from our hotel. We reached the place reasonably on time and joined Nandakrishnan and Punya for the festivities. The reception was a comparatively relaxed program spread out over a few hours, thus giving us enough time to talk with the newlyweds, enjoy the food, and socialize with other guests. We stayed in the hall till the end of the function and were the last to leave.
Nandu, Govind, and Pillechan planned to head back to Kochi the same night. So we bid our farewells before heading back to our hotel. As for the four of us, we were to start to Bangalore early morning the next day. As we got back to the hotel, the beach had acquired an entirely new character. The waves had gotten stronger, the winds chillier, and the moon gave a silvery touch over everything it shone. We stayed outside the hotel staring at the sea for a long time. The feeling was surreal, and part of me wanted to stay there all night.
Read.Reflect.Repeat 