I've gotta lotta catching up to do...

Lets see where should I begin?  I'm writting this retrospectively by some weeks now. Anyway I'll do my best!

 

The Studio:

Working at the studio has been a real eye opener, into the luxury that Gaurav has by having employees who do the weaving for him (wonderful Gopal the master craftsman and Sujawadin,  his apprentice), but also into the many sides of the textiles industry. definitely food for thought for the future....

 

Pam and Kerela

Kerala was beautiful, it is green and luscious and vibrant and has 100% literacy (apparently) which shows in how the streets are just a little bit more organised and the people very approachable.  We did a mini tour, flying into Ernakulum, about an hour 1/2 north east of Kochi.  We stayed in the old town of Kochi, Fort Kochi, in a very nice guest house. A very hot guest house at that as we were on the top floor and as you know, heat rises. As did the humidity as the days wore on....

In Fort Kochi we saw the 'famous' chinese fishing nets and the men who work them from about 5am until 2pm.  Their catch is proudly displayed (often still twitching) on ice to be sold to passers by and cooked to your liking.  I even climbed up on one, and although they look rickety they are in fact quite sturdy.  We didn't buy any fish, worrying about the health and hygene - unnecessarily so. As it happened poor Pamela was struck by a dodgy tum not from the yummy street food we had munched but the yummy (it really was) meal we had had at the restaurant on our first night. Oh dear.

 

 

 

On another evening we went to a performance of Kathakali, where the costumes, make up, music, and facial expressions play the major parts, so much so that the 'producer' spent much time explaining to the audience the importance of each. Watching the make up being applied was fascinating, as was (most) of the performance.

 

 

We spent 2 nights in Fort Kochi, so Pam could recover, and on the 3rd day caught a bus to Aleppey, the epi centre of the backwaters and the ketu vellem house boat holiday industry.  The bus ride was a little nerve racking, but the 'natural air con' certainly was a refreshment from the heat and humidity. There are no windows on Indian buses. No worries - except for that of falling out of the window when the bus hoons it around a corner and overtakes an auto at the same time!!

Once at the backwaters we boarded our own beautiful little Ketu Vellum.  These are traditionally made boats (no nails or screws at all!) that were once used for taking rice around the region on the waterways. Now thee is a strong holiday trade in hiring them out for overnight stays. Which is just what Pam and I did. And it was well worth it.  It was off season, so the only other holiday makers were Indian families with their children. This time of year is not one when you will see a lot of westerners, the monsoon is imminent mid June, something I was glad for, as the backwaters were a lot quieter than usual (the rows of resting Ketu Vellums were evidence of this).The views over the little settlements on narrow strips of essentially embankment  that separate rice paddies from canal from lakes was serene and one that we were to have the pleasure of again 3 days later.

 

 

 

Refreshed, relaxed, well fed and thoroughly looked after ( the boat came with cook, waiter and captain) and with only a couple of mosquito bites each (miraculously, as we were on the water and there were at least a gazillion of them buzzing around) we went on to Varkala.

 

Varkala is a place somewhere between a backpackers hangout and a spa resort for those mad enough to have a herbal enema in the name of Ayerverda (traditional herbal therapies).   The first night was literally a wash out. The most tremendous storm cam lashing down with the loudest thunder ever. One of the few cafes/bars made a feature of it, calling the evening  ' Moonsoon Night' and with the power cut that followed and the rain dripping through the palm leaf and corrugated metal roof, they certainly had all the atmosphere that night. A group of us, probably all the holiday makers in the village, huddled around candles and supped beer for many hours making for a fun evening.  Once the rain had subsided Pam and I, armed with the handy in-built torch on my mobile phone (Nokia really have thought of everything!), gingerly hopped over the puddles (and waded through some) back to our guest house.

We woke early the next day, fearful that monsoon really had started, and surveyed the beach that lay beneath the cliff top that Varkala sits on. Maybe we'll get to have a lie on it?....More tomorrow.