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English is not our native language, so we apologize in advance for translation- spelling- and grammar errors.
This morning we leave at 8 o'clock. Nice ride through the mountains! We stopped at a lookout point. Here the view over the mountains is beautiful. The weather is sunny, but also a bit hazy. We see a lot of monkeys.
En route we stop at a brickyard. We walk a little ashamed at the site. Young but also very old men and women are at work. The women earn about 1 euro 50 per day. Particularly hard work! Walking back and forth, sometimes with 13 stones on the head!
Just before the end of the ride we pass the border with the state of Kerala. We stop at a laundry. The wash for many people is done in the river. Especially the wealthier families have their textile washed by others.
We arrive in Thekkady where we are received with garlands. We have a funny asymmetric room. We have lunch and go into the village. At 4 pm we leave for a spice tour, but that was not very interesting. We had visions of red pepper fields, but we just visited a botanical garden with some explanation about herbs and trees.
By the evening we have an ayurvedic massage for one hour. We were delicious rubbed and massaged with oil. The massage ends in a steam cabin. You sit in a kind of box with only your head sticking out. During the massage you have to wear a kind of paper diaper. You can also have a head massage. We find that too much for now but decide to take another massage the next day, because it was marvellous and very relaxing.
After the massage, we go back into the city. We buy a beautiful necklace. We also buy scarves. We don’t fancy to have a full meal, so we just take some coffee with a tasty pastry (50 cents for 2xkoffie and 2x cakes). In the room we eat some nuts and drink a glass of wine.
Breakfast takes a while today. Not everything that is on the menu is available so during breakfast a staff member is send to do some shopping first. After breakfast we go to the Periyar park in Thekkady. It is a very busy place, many local Indian tourists too. We take a boat trip on the lake. It is a beautiful area, but not very exciting.
We see otters, birds, a wild pig and a deer. After the boat trip we make a jungle walk. We cross the river in a bamboo raft and walk for 2 hours with a guide. Nice, many beautiful old trees, but we did not see a lot of animals. Only 2 large squirrels.
At about 2 p.m. we are back at the hotel. At 3 p.m. we have our second massage. It was nice. Ingrid finds the stabbing in her navel less nice!
We have dinner at a French Bakery. A simple homemade cabin. The front part serves as a restaurant. The hostess cooks delicious. She uses only fresh products. We eat aloo palak (Spanish with potatoes) and garlic naan.The weather is just right! Never too hot unless you walk a long time in the sun and in the evening it is just fine without jacket.
After a hearty breakfast in a small restaurant called "Wilderness" we leave at 8.15 a.m. for the next stage of our tour. Along the way we would stop at a tea factory, but today is a holiday so on arriving the factory unfortunately proved to be closed.
We stop somewhere in a village. On a intersection dozens, perhaps hundreds of pilgrims packed in cars pass by. They have flags and pictures of krishna with him. The people are cheerful, and waving to us. They are dressed in black or orange.
En route we have lunch in a restaurant. According Muthu most dishes are too sharp for us in this region. We eat biscuits, bananas and rice balls.
The landscape is hilly and dotted with tea plantations. We stop at a rubber plantation and watch how the rubber is harvested. We are getting closer Cochin on the Arabian Sea. Temperatures are getting higher. About 33-35 degrees Celsius (91.4° to 95° F) here, and that’s hot on a long travel day!
When we arrive in our room at the hotel in Cochin it shows that the floor is wet because of a leaky air conditioner. We change room and refresh ourselves a bit. We have only a few minutes before we go to the theatre .
Cochin is the center of the famous dance drama of Kerala, the Kathakali. As we arrive at the theatre one of the employees of the theater is drawing sand paintings on the entrance floor of the theater. Before the show begins you can watch how the actors are painted on stage. You can see it from close. The paint is made from natural materials. Also the (rice) glue they use to pasted paper forms on their faces. Very special to see. The main forms are painted on the face by another but the finishing touch is done by the artists themselves. There is a peaceful and serene atmosphere on stage and oil lamps are lit.
Eventually the show starts. It is quite long show, according to some group members even too long, but we stay till the end. A wonderful spectacle. A combination of music, dance and play. Beautiful costumes. Great performance with many gestures. Hands and feet are playing along. The bad and angry personage has something put in his eyes done, so they become completely red for a few minutes! Even the intestines are ripped from the devil on stage!
After the show we have dinner with the group. Muthu and the driver join us for dinner. Beer is not allowed here, but an Indian is resourceful, so we get here the beer served in .... white teapots and cups!!
IBreakfast in the hotel is very chaotic today! We are with four at a table and order toast. No, no toast today, no cake..... no breakfast. 6 staff members consider what to do. One of them has a brilliant idea; let’s buy bread, and so one of them is leaving to get some bread from the shop. After a while we have our breakfast. But ..... moments later, 4 new guests arrive. They order ...... toast. No, no bread today. The same process repeats. Not very efficient! A very entertaining spectacle, but our guide Muthu will arrange breakfast for the next day.
Today we a city tour in Cochin on the program. We first go to the nets. A special guide was added to the group. If you don’t hire a local guide the travel company will be in trouble with the unions, we hear. The guide takes us to a Dutch church and a Dutch cemetery. The tour continues with a toilet stop in a very expensive gift shop. We are invited to buy some souvenirs. Not so. Moreover, the people here are very intrusive.
We leave the tour and go for a walk ourselves. We wander around in the Jewish Quarter with a beautiful old synagogue we visit. There are very old, beautiful tiles on the floor. It is great to walk around in the Jewish Quarter. Many unique antique shops. We buy a nice wooden nandi (holy bull statue) and we visit a garden restaurant behind a small shop where we can drink and eat soup and noodles. A little later we find a fancy restaurant with a seaside terrace. There we sit down and take our time to watch the raptors overhead on the lookout for prey! Lovely here!
By the end of the afternoon we go back to the famous Chinese fishing nets to make some more photos/film in the beautiful soft evening light. It's fun to walk on the quay between the nets and fishing boats. The catch at night is bigger than during the day, so the real fishing starts after sundown. During the day the tourists are the biggest catch. We hear that you have to watch out. You will be invited to watch the net on a scaffolding, but when you accept the invitation the bill will be presented afterwards and it will cost you a lot of money. We therefore stay a little bit at distance when the fishermen call and admire the work that is done just from the shore. We stay for quite a long time before taking a tuk tuk back to the hotel. We had a great time in Cochin. We can really recommend Cochin.
Departure from the hotel is planned for 10 a.m. That feels like a long sleep!
Around 11:30 a.m. we arrive in Allepey.We board on a relatively small boat. Only our group is on board. We find a nice spot on the passenger deck. It is a fun and relaxing 3 hours boat tour through the backwaters of Kerala. Lots of interesting things to watch!
We see the traditional "houseboats." They are here for a long time, but nowadays they are very chic, sometimes even with air conditioning and solar panels! We see a lot of other types of boats too. Lovely trip. The daily life of the inhabitants of the villages alongside the canals of the Lagoon takes place on and around the water.
We see people in the water, often to the neck. They dip, do the laundry, brush their teeth there, etc. Whole groups of ducks are bobbing around in the water. They ducks are bred and herded here. There are also a lot of Ibises; beautiful birds.
Around 3 o'clock we arrive at our hotel. Wow, what a nice and unique spot here! We are brought with a boat from the hotel to our room situated on an island . It looks great! We relax at the frontside of our room, on a chair near the water under a banana tree.
In the afternoon we make a walk to the beach. The beach appears to be not very special, but the walk through the villages is fun. People live here from the coconuts. They work the fibers of the nut to a kind of flax. Many coconut trees here. We have dinner with the whole group today. Very good food again.The room service is great: If you place your order they bring it to you on a ferry from the hotel bar at the other side of the river! What a life!
Debbie a member of our group has her birthday today so we have breakfast together.
We leave at half past 9 with 2 small boats. A fun trip through 2 small creeks. We go ashore at a coconut plantation and drink fresh coconut milk from a coconut. The coconut was just removed from the tree for us, really fresh.We pass a small business where they fluff the coconut. The people make rope. We are invited to try to make a rope. Ingrid does not think the piece of the string she produced has passed the testing. Nice tour
At noon we had a lunch offered by Shoestring. Delicious!
After lunch we went with Peter, one of the group members in a rickshaw to the snake temple. The temple is impressive. Apparently it is sometimes very busy, but now it's empty. No snakes and no people. Only images of snake heads, most Cobras. Beautiful surroundings here. En route we see an elephant procession. The elephant arrives with the priests to a blessing ceremony. We are also invited to come and look. A lot of fire, music and rituals for a house.
When we are back in the hotel, Jan takes another massage. In the evening we chat with Mhutu about life in India and have a little party in honour of Debbie 30th birthday. The airco of this hotel does not work. As a compensation we get the next morning a complimentary breakfast.
7:30 a.m. breakfast. With a ferry to the hotel where we are picked up by a larger boat for a small cruise to a lock, where our bus waits for us.
It is hot today! We travel in the morning to our next destination Kovalam. We have lunch on the rooftop of the hotel.
In the afternoon we go to the beach and hire lazy loungers and a parasol. Jan swims in the sea. There are very high waves. At the end of the afternoon we walk around at the small boulevard of Kovalam. We order various garments that are custom made here from beautiful fabrics. It is very beneficial! Fun. We drink a cocktail, enjoy the sunset and have diner. At ten p.m. we are back at the hotel. Nice room with airco.
