Periyar

We met up with the man who had found the bag (remembered where it might have dropped out) and found everything was intact. He refused to take any sort of reward but eventually agreed to take something to give to a local charity. We shook his hand and thanked him. Arif was certainly an honest man and while it was a shock at the time gave us a good impression of Kochi and its inhabitants.


Our driver who said little yesterday, began to open up a bit. He drove us out of the city through very attractive villages in flat countryside, followed by low hills then higher ones. He was happy to stop at any point for us to take photos. A high point was seeing an elephant being transported on a truck. It''s the season of festivals here and elephants are dressed in finery to take part. We had an explanation for some of the plants we saw, jackfruit, rubber trees, cocoa beans, pineapples, various spices and later tea and coffee.

We stopped to see coconut oil being processed. The whole tree is used, the coir for matting and ropes, the pod for coconut, milk and oil and the wood for building. Once the oil is processed the remaining fibre is used for cattle feed. We stopped for lunch then it was on to higher ground to visit a tea plantation. We had a conducted tour of Connemara Tea (though most of it is sold in India). We never realised before that black tea is roasted. The resultant brew was very pleasant and we purchased a DVD of Kerala which explains about the local wildlife as well as the processing of tea, coffee and spices. Old habits never die as it would make an ideal school resource. All the old geography books with ladies picking tea are coming to life. Kerala is called "God's Own Country" by its inhabitants (most seem highly amused at the idea that Scots say the same about Scotland) and it seems it is well eqipped with tea, coffee, cocoa, fruit and vegetables as well as spices. The only downside is the monsoon and the hotter weather. Our guide says now is the best time to visit. A week of this will be R and R after the bustle of the north.

Our guide, Shijo, having worked out that we are open to all opportunities, got us tickets for a martial arts display called Kalaripathayu (or something like that!), lasting an hour. The ceremony was lit by lamps, and held in a small sunken arena with seats round it, which all added to the drama. There was a great deal of controlled offerings to the gods before the 8 participants demonstrated using swords, shields, knives, a scarf (to tie the opponent up or for strangulation we presume) finishing with very large baton twirling and jumping through fiery hoops.

Our meal tonight was fish and chips Kerala style, and large prawns done on the tandoori - delicious! It was early to bed for an early start on Lake Periyar tomorrow.