Head north along KTDC's Ashoke Samudra Hotel for around 3 km, pass through a few fishing hamlets before eventually arriving at a point where the sea merges with the backwaters to form a salt-water lagoon. Although only 30 minutes' walk from the hotel, the sliver of white sand dividing the two, known as Pozhikkara beach, is a world away from the headlong holiday culture of Kovalam.
The tranquil village of Pachalloor behind the lagoon, is a good alternative base to Thiruvananthapuram or Kovalam. Two guest-houses, including the original, idyllic and now upmarket Lagoona, where its six ensuit rooms open onto the water. The other guesthouse at Pachalloor, the Beach Lake, lies across the water lagoona Davina on the beach side, and has five rooms but no restaurant and little atmosphere.

SOUTH OF KAVALAM : VIZHINJAM
The unassuming village of Vizhinjam, on the southern side of the headland from Lighhouse Beach, was once the capital of the Ay Kings, the earliest dynasty in South Kerala. A number of small, simple shrines survive from around ninth century and can be made the focus of a pleasant afternoon's stroll along quiet paths.
They are best approached from the village centre, beyond a fishing community, rather than via the coast road. However, if you do walk along the coast road from Kovalam to the north side of Vizhinjam, you can't fail to be struck by the contrast: from the conspicuous consumerism of a tourist resort to a poor fishing village, with a large pink mosque on' promontory overlooking a bay of tightly packed thatched huts. On the far side of the fishing bay, in the village centre, a small unfinished eighth-century rock shrine features a carved figure of Shiva carring a weapon.
The Tali Shiva Temple, reached by a narrow path from behind the government primary school, may mark the original centerof Vizhinjam. This simple shrine is accompanied by a group of snake reminder of Kerala's continuing cult of snake worship that survive from pre-Brahminical times. The grove known as Kovil Kadu forest) lies near the sea, ten minutes' walk from the main till village. Here a small enclosure contains a square Shiva shrine rectangular one dedicated to the goddess Bhagavati.