Arriving again at 5 in the morning we had to negogiate our way to our hotel in Ernakulam. Though we were spending a few days in Kochin so we could make it a leisurely tour, once we were settled.
After browsing the streets in the day we decided to go and see a traditional Kerelan dance in the evening. Being highly recommended by many of the guide books we expected it to be quite spectacular. However what we saw was rather different. We arrived early to watch the dancers make-up, as they plied thick rather scary face paint. The introductory act was an old man making rather absurd facial expressions and movements to signify the simpliest of things like 'butterfly'. The narrator/drummer told us how the man got up every morning at 5am to practise and that he'd being doing it for years. This was then followed by the dance in which the prince and princess fell in love, this involved two men making a rather lot of arm shakes and foot stamping. Needless to say we were less than impressed with the dance.
The next day we decided to take a backwater tour on a traditional Kerelan houseboat followed by a much smaller canoe. The boat was filled with Eastern Europeans, and Irish couple and ourselves. The boat trip was very calming and enjoyable until we arrived at a Sodium factory, the trip then went from enjoyable to tediously boring. Making a quick getaway Jo and I legged it back to the boat (I'm sure the stuff wasn't entirely good for you to inhale either) while the others explored the herb garden, fascinating stuff. From there it was onto the canoes as the Indian guides drove us along with sticks. We got to explore deeper into the backwater life and watched men making boats and women rope-making. Later we stopped to drink from coconuts that one of the guides had shimmied up the tree to get. Standing in the field amongst the coconut palms
and marijuna plants we sipped the coconut which was disgusting (some liked it!!!). It was no suprise that some of the tourists were trying to secretly throw them when the guides weren't looking. However, the highlight of the day had ot be Jo's entrance into the canoe, just as another tourist was getting into the front. This left her spreadeagled between the boat moving one way and the land the other, rather amusing to all around again, haha.
The next few days we spent browsing the old fishing village and shops of the Fort Kochin area. We were rather alarmed to find, when trying to get across to the Fort area that the boat next to the one we were on had sunk and even more concerned when after starting our journey we were made to move boats. Thankfully we made it there and back safely.
We'd also arranged to go visit an elephant training centre and wash the elephants. It was an amazing experience washing the family of
elephants including the baby. However, all tourists present (except 1 american woman) were rather shocked and annoyed by the treatment the elephants recieved. The handlers were discipling the elephants with metal prods with hooks on the end. Things didn't fair much better for the elephants at the training camp either and after giving the trainers a few harsh words we decided to leave along with the other tourists (except the American who opted to ride the poor animal).
After browsing the streets in the day we decided to go and see a traditional Kerelan dance in the evening. Being highly recommended by many of the guide books we expected it to be quite spectacular. However what we saw was rather different. We arrived early to watch the dancers make-up, as they plied thick rather scary face paint. The introductory act was an old man making rather absurd facial expressions and movements to signify the simpliest of things like 'butterfly'. The narrator/drummer told us how the man got up every morning at 5am to practise and that he'd being doing it for years. This was then followed by the dance in which the prince and princess fell in love, this involved two men making a rather lot of arm shakes and foot stamping. Needless to say we were less than impressed with the dance.
The next day we decided to take a backwater tour on a traditional Kerelan houseboat followed by a much smaller canoe. The boat was filled with Eastern Europeans, and Irish couple and ourselves. The boat trip was very calming and enjoyable until we arrived at a Sodium factory, the trip then went from enjoyable to tediously boring. Making a quick getaway Jo and I legged it back to the boat (I'm sure the stuff wasn't entirely good for you to inhale either) while the others explored the herb garden, fascinating stuff. From there it was onto the canoes as the Indian guides drove us along with sticks. We got to explore deeper into the backwater life and watched men making boats and women rope-making. Later we stopped to drink from coconuts that one of the guides had shimmied up the tree to get. Standing in the field amongst the coconut palms
and marijuna plants we sipped the coconut which was disgusting (some liked it!!!). It was no suprise that some of the tourists were trying to secretly throw them when the guides weren't looking. However, the highlight of the day had ot be Jo's entrance into the canoe, just as another tourist was getting into the front. This left her spreadeagled between the boat moving one way and the land the other, rather amusing to all around again, haha.The next few days we spent browsing the old fishing village and shops of the Fort Kochin area. We were rather alarmed to find, when trying to get across to the Fort area that the boat next to the one we were on had sunk and even more concerned when after starting our journey we were made to move boats. Thankfully we made it there and back safely.
We'd also arranged to go visit an elephant training centre and wash the elephants. It was an amazing experience washing the family of
elephants including the baby. However, all tourists present (except 1 american woman) were rather shocked and annoyed by the treatment the elephants recieved. The handlers were discipling the elephants with metal prods with hooks on the end. Things didn't fair much better for the elephants at the training camp either and after giving the trainers a few harsh words we decided to leave along with the other tourists (except the American who opted to ride the poor animal).
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