EC-Rider Travels

Today has been a bit of a travelling one. We said farewell to our friends who had looked after us at Windermere, including a personal call from the MD who was mortified that he had not come to meet me personally! After several references to James Finlay on our tours and walks yesterday, I had mentioned my rather tenuous connection to Ancel, our guide and it had obviously got back to the hotel. Unkie had told me, they were key players here until the mid-seventies and everyone was very excited. Fortunately, I don’t think the rather controversial Panorama programme had reached India!

Arun was ready and waiting and we headed off on our four hour drive to Kochi (Cochin). It was a long windy road back down the mountain, but we saw some lovely scenery along the way and different crops growing: pineapples, rubber and tapioca. Kerala definitely seems wealthier and more sophisticated than Tamil Nadu, with much larger houses and many more people wearing western clothes which I find rather sad. Interestingly girls from Kerala tend to have curly (slightly frizzy) hair unlike those of Tamil Nadu who have straight, black hair (like Maud!). Arun says it is a good way of knowing where your girl is from!

We reached Kochi at about 2pm and checked into The Malabar House in Fort Kochi. We were given an upgrade which was a nice surprise and have lovely big rooms with huge wooden beds – but nothing behind them so goodness, knows how you keep the pillows on! We were told that it was owned in the mid eighteenth century by a Dutchman and subsequently by spice traders, tea traders and bankers. Fort Kochi sits on its own little island dominated by the huge Naval base and a lot of nice looking shops, plus …. a dance theatre, which we were privileged enough to visit to see a dance show!

As we arrived, there was a huge picture of Charles and Camilla on the wall outside as they too had been honoured with such a special evening. It started with the ritual of applying the makeup, which was an art form in itself turning the two male dancers into a green faced prince (green means a prince) and the very much larger and hairier guy into a beautiful young damsel. We were then given a demonstration of the exercises they have to do every morning (mainly with their eyes) and the meaning of the moves and how they represent certain emotions. And then off they went. It was a terrible tale which had been explained to us beforehand, though still struggled to make head or tail of it. It was more mime than dance to not the most tuneful of music,! Analida and I somehow managed not to get the giggles, as the electricity went out for the third time, and the pink paint started running down the Princes face into his green chin. We felt we had been very lucky to see it, but perhaps did not need to do so again!