Kovalam, beach for Hindus and tourists

Nora had suggested that instead of going directly to Trivandrum (the old name) / Thiruvanamthapuram (the difficult to remember modern name), the capital of the southern state of Kerala, I would spend a few days in Kovalam, just sixteen kilometers away South of the city. It is a small coastal town, where I could enjoy the sea breeze and some rest to recover from the trip and pass through four time zones, five airports and fourteen hours of flight in less than forty-eight hours.

But now western tourists almost have the fingers of one hand and, where they stay, they all turn black on the sunbeds, rent surfboards or body boarding at Lighthouse Beach. The current, by the way, is treacherous and should not go too far from the shore: lifeguards, in blue uniforms, have to repeatedly use their whistles to admonish the most daring (or unconscious) bathers.