Mar 4: Crazy India

We thought we'd seen everything - the cruise our grand finale.  Our driver asked us on the drive down if wanted to see a Hindu festival but we declined cos it was so hot and to be quite honest - all templed out.  But after he picks us up from the boat he again asks us, and we learn that the festival is in his own village, so we relent under his insistence and assurance that we will never have seen anything like this in our lives!

He wasn't wrong.  The villagers have a holiday for this festival.  He speaks very little English so couldn't explain what was going on.  In fact he just pointed us in the right direction, told us to take our shoes off, take as many photos as we like and not to pay anyone any money without his permission.  

What we saw was lots of people in colorful dress, much blowing of big curved bugles, beating of drums, clanging of cymbals, general milling around, and these 3 huge elephants, highly decorated and heavily chained.

Sooo sad for these animals.  We later learned that these elephants are worked intensively during the festival season.  These three will be chained up all day under a canopy in the heat, with a cacophony of noise around them.  Fireworks too, in fact one huge "banger" was let off while we were there.  Frightened the living daylights out of us!  We thought it was a bomb, or cannon, and in these days of terrorist alerts we thought the worst!

The poor elephants though, have to put up with this day after day.  Chained up all day with their only exercise being the three times they must walk around the shrine at the climax of the festival. They get very bad tempered and often run amok in the mayhem of festivals, killing people in their path.  This is why they are so heavily chained.

Now THIS has been the grand finale!

Tomorrow morning early we leave India.  So sad.  Our tour company is named Enchanting Travels.  Enchanting is one of many words encapsulating India, I've got a few others: crazy, surprising, shocking among them!

Mar 4: Kerala Backwaters

It's hot and steamy so the prospect of the overnight cruise on a luxury houseboat is very welcome.  Again, we are informed that no alcohol at all is available on the boat!  We're not desperate ... But ... Nothing cuts through heat and thirst like a cool beer ... and we are Australian after all!  

We can take our own on board, so we charge our driver with the task of finding us a wine and beer outlet on the way there.  There are government-run liquor shops where the sale of alcohol is controlled and much cheaper than the wine and beer shops.  The first one we stop at has a long queue, and although there is a designated tourist counter, the shopkeeper won't open it for some reason.  So we leave empty handed.

We drive to a privately owned shop which the driver locates, hidden away, anyone other than a local wouldn't know how to find.  We're beginning to feel surreptitious in our desire for booze!  But it's ok ... We have beer!

Ah, but we need a drop of Indian rum too (it's delish!).  So on again to another government shop - same queues but success this time.  It's definitely a mans world - Julie and I remain in the car while the men wrestle their way through the throng - emerging triumphantly with a promising shape in a brown paper bag!!

And so now we can start on our last adventure in India.

The houseboat is not as luxurious as I have experienced before, but it is quaint, and just perfect and fitting for Kerala.  It's a converted rice barge called a kettuvallom, made from coconut rope and planks.  The exclusive vessel has 2 double ensuite bedrooms (darned uncomfortable bed with an aircnditioner that blasted freezing air directly down on to the bed) and staff of four totally devoted to us.  We had a little dining area and day bed at the front of the boat where we lounged around watching the world go by as the local villagers went about their daily tasks.

We finish the day with sunset drinks of course!  

What a blissful existence - it was so relaxing and calming after the craziness of our Indian adventure!

Mar 3: wierd

No other way to describe this evenings entertainment - a traditional Kathakali dance performance.  The first half our is taken up watching the actors apply their makeup on stage.

The nex 40 minutes was the really wierd bit.  A man dressed up as a woman gave a demonstration of traditional face expressions used in the dance.  They were mainly rolling of the eyes, then went on to facial grimaces and contortions, and one awful one where his bulging eyes, puffing and sucking up f the cheeks led me to believe he was about to vomit!

Then came the actual dance where the man dressed up as a woman performed with the heavily made up guy.  They stood still, or at the most turned around on the same spot.  The climax was to be the slicing off of the woman's breasts!  To be followed by a surprising finish we were told.  In the end the breasts weren't sliced off and the man dressed up as a whole man stuck her long hair into her mouth and ran off the stage screeching!

We were then invited on stage to have photos taken with the stars.  Well, why not?!  If that's what they want!

Most of the audience left after that.  A few in the audience had been given tickets to stay on for an extra half hours special performance.  So we stayed on, with only a couple of dozen other people and were treated to a dance my a young Indian girl, which was more like what we expected.  This was followed by a display of a martial art form called Kalaripayattu.  This was the best of the lot, with much banging of sticks, swirling metal rods, flashing knives and some contortionist action from 2 very athletic young men.

Again, an invite to have photos taken.  We almost felt obliged to go up on stage because no one else seemed interested!

Mar 2: Cochin

Thank goodness - everyone's back to normal.  We meet up with Julie and Terry again in Mumbai and after a full days traveling arrive at the holiday region of India, the state of Kerala.  Beaches, resorts, tourists traps selling souvenirs, palm trees.  We can picture ourselves lounging around the swimming pool with exotic cocktails, or at the very least - a long cool Kingfisher.  

Nope!

The hotel doesn't even have a bar!  No liquor license!  There's a wine bar around the block we are told, so we get changed and head out in the evening heat in search of the elusive refreshment, only to discover that the first of every month is a "dry day".  No alcohol can be bought or sold anywhere!  We're beginning to feel like rather sad desperate alcoholics!

We come to terms with the loss of our vision for the evening, and instead take a stroll to the beach and paddle in the Arabian Sea.  The water is tropically warm, and the idyllic atmosphere tainted by the backdrop of petroleum chemical works the other side of the inlet.

We choose to eat at our hotel, and then discover one southern India's delights - the cuisine!  So very different from anything we've had to date.  Not heavy curries, but a delicate fusion of Thai and Indian, spicey, yes, but with generous use of fresh herbs, and you can taste individual spices too, rather than the heavier masala sauces of the north.

The next morning we set out for a full day of sightseeing around Cochin.  Beginning with a harbor  cruise.  Fishing is obviously a major industry, and the traditional boats and Chinese fishing nets make for colorful pictures.  But Cochin itself is the most modern city we have encountered in India.  Good roads, modern pastimes, very little rubbish, and although rubbish bobs on the water, it's clean enough for the Dolphins we spotted.

We looked over a palace museum and synagogue, both extremely interesting but we were not allowed to take photos.  It was very hot, 34 by 11 am with high humidity so we were relieved to back to our hotel, to slide into the pool, even without that elusive beer!

Feb 28: repercussions of a dubious lunch

Our fears confirmed, that lunch yesterday had repercussions on Alans tummy!  

Alan dozed most of the day.  Not a bad place to hole up though.  Obviously fit for royalty because I dined at breakfast at the table next to the Duke of Wellington!  Interesting ... the waiter donned white gloves to serve him!  I'll know in future how to recognize royalty in a restaurant!  (Cos I wouldn't have known him otherwise)

Our balcony has a swing where we can sit and watch croquet on the lawn!

And when you're sick red roses are sent to your room!

Alan only rated a measly 5 stems ... Terry had 14 sent to him!!!

Feb 27: 3am pick up!

3 am pick up, that meant 2am wake up call.  We actually managed a few hours sleep, but oh boy, did we feel groggy for the rest of the day!  Even then, because of all the security procedures we had to run to catch the final call for our 5.15am flight!

It was only a one hour flight, and by 8am we were being picked up from the hotel for the tour for the day: Ellora Caves, carved over a couple of centuries between the 9th and 11th centuries I think.  Pretty impressive.  The centerpiece is the worlds largest monolithic sculpture, carved from the.top down.

Mind, there's only so much "culture" you can absorb in 38 degree heat.  When our guide suggested lunch and a cool drink somewhere we sighed with relief with visions of a nice long cold beer and a light lunch in air conditioned comfort.  What we actually had was a vegetarian cafe on the tourist strip with plastic table tops, overworked ceiling fans and toilets with a rating of 2.  

Oh dear ... is this a good idea?

Still feeling hot and tired after our 2am start, we are treated to one more sight:  a mini Taj Mahal: a mausoleum for the wife of the grandson of Emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal.  Much was made of plaster and was crumbling.  I'm afraid we couldn't appreciate it in the extreme heat of the middle of the day.  We also felt a little uncomfortable being somewhere off the beaten track for tourists and were openly stared at!

Some of the local tourists made interesting pictures though.

Again we were asked if they could take photos of us, and I took one in return.  Try as I might I couldn't get them to smile: this was serious business!

We return to the hotel absolutely knackered to crash out on the bed.  After a decent siesta we headed for the bar for that longed for beer.  It was goooood!!

As we pass through the lobby on the way back to our room one of the staff proudly informed us that British royalty was checking in: the Duke of Wellington.  Not that I would know him from a bar of soap!

Back in our room we find that the pile of dirty washing we left strewn over the couch had all been neatly folded, included dirty socks!!  And proudly sitting on the coffee table was an elephant elaborately created from towels!

Oh dear how embarrassing!  We'll have to behave in a more royal fashion from now on!

Feb 26: Elephant Island caves

We had a 1 hour ferry ride to Elephant Island and by the time we arrived Terry could barely walk he was so ill.  We needed to climb 120 steps to the caves so we parked Terry in a cafe close to a toilet block while the rest of us continued on.  What rotten luck for him to be struck by the dreaded tummy problem.

Can't say the effort was worth it.  There's only so much you can take in of looking at ancient sculptures.  We enjoy the people watching as much as anything else.

The ferry departs from the famous India Gate.  It looks so much smaller in real life!

An old ferry lies to rest on the foreshore of Elephant Island.

Terry's recovery was slow so the decision was made that Julie and Terry remain in Mumbai while we continued to Aurangabad.  We'll meet up with them against Mumbai airport before traveling on to Cochin.