Early morning yoga followed by a trip to an elephant sanctuary, a long drive back to the hotel then a fantastic meal in Cochin Fort.
I just managed to get to the yoga class provided by the hotel at 6.30 a.m., with two others. The teacher, Manoj, is a really lean and fit 30-somethiing who is extraordinarily flexible. After some seemingly gentle asanas he announced we would try something more advanced - a crow and a headstand.
Sofia achieved a personal best with her crow - and mine was improved too. My headstand was my best yet - straighter and I stayed up longer. I think it must have been the preparation asanas he did but it seemed like yoga magic at the time. Let's hope I can keep this up when I get back home!
Today's tour was a 90-minte drive into the countryside to visit a rescue sanctuary for elephants who are ill, have been hit by a train, or injured fighting, called Guruvayor Devaswama Punnathur Kotta.
They have approx.65 elephants at the moment - all ages - and they all have sad eyes as they chew on their diet of banyan leaves and branches with their leg chained up. Everyone left feeling a bit embarrassed at having to witness it but aware that the tiny entrance fee - about 5 pence plus another 25 p for the privilege of using a camera - was helping in a small way.
The journey was very interesting, driving through busy towns and villages, especially Cherai where we were faced with the backsides of 17 huge elephants all stood in a row. We took this to be an auspicious number as this represented one elephant for each person in our group!
There were people on their back in costume banging drums and the occasional firecracker exploded in the background. This was in celebration of the festival of Pooram, which is Kerala's version of Pongal, with a twist, and it all started in 1798 when the local raja was refused entry into the local temple because he was late.
The journey back was like any road trip into a big city on a Saturday evening - long and tedious.
On our free evening we all went our separate ways and I went with Lynne, Linda & Sofia in a tuk tuk driven by Aslan, a Muslim, who let me steer for a few seconds. I can report that autorickshaws do not have power steering!
We were heading for Jew Town where we had picked a restaurant from our previous day's tour, but they were closed for the Sabbath (doh!) so Aslan recommended the Hotel Seagull where we feasted on a whole grilled mullet cooked in coconut milk and various spices, or Molly as we called her, plus a paneer makhani, nataranjan kurma (veg kurma with fruit and coconut), rice, aloo naan and poppadums, which are called the same in the local language (Malayalum) as home. (In Hindi they are called paddads.)
Washed down with three quadruple gins, a pineapple juice, and a bottle of water, this cost us about £7.50 each, including service charge.
Time for bed Zebedee!
Namaste!
I just managed to get to the yoga class provided by the hotel at 6.30 a.m., with two others. The teacher, Manoj, is a really lean and fit 30-somethiing who is extraordinarily flexible. After some seemingly gentle asanas he announced we would try something more advanced - a crow and a headstand.
Sofia achieved a personal best with her crow - and mine was improved too. My headstand was my best yet - straighter and I stayed up longer. I think it must have been the preparation asanas he did but it seemed like yoga magic at the time. Let's hope I can keep this up when I get back home!
Today's tour was a 90-minte drive into the countryside to visit a rescue sanctuary for elephants who are ill, have been hit by a train, or injured fighting, called Guruvayor Devaswama Punnathur Kotta.
They have approx.65 elephants at the moment - all ages - and they all have sad eyes as they chew on their diet of banyan leaves and branches with their leg chained up. Everyone left feeling a bit embarrassed at having to witness it but aware that the tiny entrance fee - about 5 pence plus another 25 p for the privilege of using a camera - was helping in a small way.
The journey back was like any road trip into a big city on a Saturday evening - long and tedious.
On our free evening we all went our separate ways and I went with Lynne, Linda & Sofia in a tuk tuk driven by Aslan, a Muslim, who let me steer for a few seconds. I can report that autorickshaws do not have power steering!
We were heading for Jew Town where we had picked a restaurant from our previous day's tour, but they were closed for the Sabbath (doh!) so Aslan recommended the Hotel Seagull where we feasted on a whole grilled mullet cooked in coconut milk and various spices, or Molly as we called her, plus a paneer makhani, nataranjan kurma (veg kurma with fruit and coconut), rice, aloo naan and poppadums, which are called the same in the local language (Malayalum) as home. (In Hindi they are called paddads.)
Washed down with three quadruple gins, a pineapple juice, and a bottle of water, this cost us about £7.50 each, including service charge.
Time for bed Zebedee!
Namaste!
Hi, this is me Junaid hope you enjoys Kerala alot
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to Junaid in Cochin for his help correcting some of my spelling - now corrected!
ReplyDeleteGood evening, hope you had a good day in Kovalam am so glad to meet someone special like you. Blogger was stuck when i tried to comment to your blog last night was tired for an hour
ReplyDeletegood now am using pc.
It was my first experience to travel with an group,first i wanna say thanks to Wendy for bring you all here and specially thanks for gift i like it so much.Hope we can meet again Keith.