Reading the previous blog I signed off with
– I was off to the morning meditation session “Powerful Ragas”. It was powerful and loud, not what I
was expecting. The two musicians played non-stop for one-hour, one played the sitar (looks like an elongated guitar) and the other played the tabla (two small drums).
Our final day in Kochin we went on a car
ferry. Luckily we made it to the
other side of the ocean because the cars were packed so tightly we couldn’t
open the car doors. Leaving the ferry we drove through
what seemed like one continuous village for a half hour to arrive at Cherai
Beach. There we witnessed a Kali
puja being performed by a tribe from the Kerala Tamil Nadu border. It was shocking to witness. The high priestess and six women worked
themselves into a state by chanting, smoking cigars and drinking brandy. The high priestess cut the throats of
two live chickens and drank their blood.
The women then took turns hitting themselves on the head with a sword
till blood appeared, they were then dunked in the ocean and turmeric (I'm
assuming for its medicinal properties) was applied to their injuries. After an hour of this frenzied behaviour we left
as the chanting and
the dark side of the ceremony were a bit too much to bear.
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| The high priestess |
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| Familiar sight throughout Kerala |
Alleppey was a short drive (1.5 hours) from
Kochin. We boarded the houseboat
in Alleppey at 11.30am and disembarked the next day at 9am. It was a peaceful and relaxing afternoon
cruising the backwaters. We watched
the locals swim, fish, bathe and do their laundry all in the same waters. On board there were us, the captain, the
mechanic and the cook. We stopped
at a shop along the river and bought prawns as an extra to go with dinner. The food was fantastic. We had a couple of vegetable dishes we
hadn’t had before and the fish for lunch was cooked whole with a crunchy
coating. At night we moored along
the river outside the boat owners house so the boat could hook up to the power. Lucky because the cricket was on the
TV, I know TV on a houseboat!!!!! After dinner Jim and the crew watched
the cricket while I read. All the while in the background there was music being played on loud speakers from the local Hindu temple and bangers (firecrackers) going off. It was another Hindu ceremony day. There are many.
I asked
the captain how many houseboats there are in the area and he said one thousand,
not sure if something got lost in translation but you could believe it looking round the mooring area. Thank goodness we were in the low season and cruising around with only a dozen or so boats.
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| Cruising into the sunset |
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| Moored for the night |
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| In line cruising back into harbour |
From the houseboat we drove a half hour to
Marari Beach. It was a long beach
with a beautiful setting of coconut trees and white sand. Shame the ocean was not great for
swimming. The waves were large and
dumped straight onto the sand making it a struggle to swim. Jim was more adventurous than me and
had a swim.
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| Marari Beach home stay looking out to the ocean |
We only stayed one
night before heading back to Lighthouse Beach (our home away from home) one day
early because there was nowhere to eat within walking distance and I had run
out of books (real books) to read so we were fighting over the iPad. Jim wanted to play games and I wanted
to read the final book I had downloaded before we left Australia.
Hari had to drive us down to the main road
for food and even then it was difficult to find a restaurant where English was
spoken. We finally found a place
to eat but the menu was in Malayalam, the local dialect. I saw masala dosa on the menu which I like. I think I have mentioned them before,
it is a Southern Indian favourite; rice pancake filled with potato and Jim had
chicken fry, the waiter understood us enough to order chicken.
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| Look how big the masala dosa is |
Our breakfast was included in the
home stay. It was a typical Kerala
breakfast of steamed rice pancakes with pea curry, strong coffee and oranges, it was provided by the home stay owners.
I gave Jim my orange as he was not keen on the pea curry pancake. I had seen it on menus and was keen to
try it so for me it was a bonus but I to admit having vegetables for breakfast is a cultural thing. I think I'll stick to pineapple pancakes.
Now, we are back at Sea Flower with
Riju and JC and enjoying the ocean and the familiar surrounds once again. We are here till Saturday morning (April
20) when we fly to Delhi.
