pakdoktergolfblog

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Kathakali dance.....

Thursday, 21st January 2010

After the afternoon tour of the Museum and the Jewish Quarter and Synagouge in Mattencherry in the afternoon, the group was booked for a cultural show before proceeding for a seafood dinner at a nearby seafront restaurant. The first part of the show was a demonstration of the performers putting up the make-up on their faces.

The show was a mix of classical Indian dances, the baratha natyam and perhaps the most impressive and probably the signature of Keralan culture, the Kathakali dance. The strength of the dancer is in his or her ability to express the different forms of human emotion by means of intense facial expressions. The descriptions and explanations of the various facial expressions tremendously helped pakdokter in understanding the finery and intricacies of the Indian dances...

There was also an exhibition of the Kalari Payatu, an ancient form of Martial Arts from India, claimed to have predated even the Shaolin masters and Karate and Jujitsu froms of the Far East!

the artiste demonstrating the facial make-up...

the welcome dance ...

quite like our own tarian lilin...

baratha natyam....

one of the many expressions of the kathakali dancer...

a scene from the Ramanaya epic...

Sandra with the performers on stage...

The Malabar House, Fort Kochi...

Thursday to Saturday, 21st to 23rd January 2010

The group had specifically requested to stay at the Malabar House in Fort Kochi, having discovered it through the internet as well as having heard about it from Ravi and Siti who had toured Kerala about 3 years ago. And we were not disappointed. Although it was pricey , being a boutique hotel with the Relais and Chateaux certification, it was worth it!

The old Malabar mansion, now owned and managed by its German-Spanish couple owner has 17 rooms, an open courtyard restaurant, a small swimming pool,a wine bar serving Indian wines and tapas and an ayurvedic spa. Each room is pretty and comfortable with all the modern comforts.

Being located within the residential enclave of Fort Kochi, all the tourist sites are within walking distance and many shops, restaurants, galleries and boutiques are easily discovered in its vicinity.

the front gardens of the Malabar House..

the spiral staircase up to the upper floor rooms..

Ravee at the reception desk waiting for our room keys..

courtyard restaurant...

a pool to cool down from the sweltering heat..

pakdokter's partner at the coffee table in the suite..

what a comfortable bed...

a nice corner for reading or surfing the net...

pakdokter's lunch of Kerala seafood thali...

view of the courtyard and the swimming pool

form the wine bar...

the wine bar with a selection of reds and whites from India..

art pieces on sale...

art works were also available at the David Hall house near theMalabar House..

the Viogner art collection, the Sula Savignon Blanc and

the Sula Chenin Blanc...

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Aleppe to Fort Kochi (Cochin)....

Thursday, 21st January 2010

The usual local breakfast was served Thursday morning. We had banana pancake, toast with local fruit jam, idli with smabar and fresh fruits ( pineapples, papayas and mandarin oranges). The freshed liquidised pineapple drink was delicious and the masala tea and bru coffee were great!

typical breakfast on the houseboat..

After breakfast the boat cruised out of the canal where we were anchored for the night and set out into the lagoon in the direction of the jetty for the boats of this cruise company. Along the way we passed boats with fishermen at work for the day's catch.

local fishermen at work...

the jetty for the Rainbow Cruise boats...

a final photo with the 3 crewmen of the houseboat...

John, our driver and guide, was already waiting for us at the jetty. Using the highway, it would only take about one hour to drive from Aleppe to Fort Cochin - our next destination. But John decided to drive us along the more scenic coastal road which a twice as long. However this was made up for the many photo opportunities that came along.

Chinese fishing net in the canals...

these nets are called Chinese fishing net because they were

introduced here by the Chinese...

this 'lock' prevents sea water into the backwaters during the monsoon

and allows the backwaters to release its water into the sea...

dried fish....ikan kering...

poor man's food...?

Another Day on the Houseboat...

Wednesday, 20th January 2010

The standard tour package of Kerala usually included only one night of the houseboat cruise on the backwaters of Aleppe. We had specifically asked for a 3-day-2-nights cruise for we wanted to have more time to explore the different parts of the backwaters.

Pakdokter woke up early Wednesday morning, in time to catch the rising sun. The canal was so quiet except for the flocks of various species of birds feasting on the dead little fishes thrown away by the fishermen who had cast their fishing nets in the canals during the night.

sunrise at the Kerala backwaters...

dead little fish thrown away by the night-time fishermen...

After another hearty breakfast of Keralan dishes, the boat set out to explore different regions of the backwaters. The boat took us through canals that trespassed a vast expanse of paddy fields as well as canals that had little villages along the water. At some stretches the canals were quite crowded with many similar houseboats ferrying the tourists to the region.

Sandra and Dollah.....

pakdokter's partner scouring for a photo-shoot....

Siti navigating the boat...

some canals had heavy traffic...

a lovely little church....

vast expanse of paddy fields...

the pump-house....

water pumped out from the rice field into the backwater canal..

local ladies crossing the canal in their own row-boat..

enjoying our 'setengahs'.....

We went to the fish and seafood shop that we stopped at yesterday as a few other shops that we looked at did not have much fish or prawns on sale. Ravee bought another lot of sea prawns forthe chef to cook at dinner. He also bought a duck from a duck farm which the chef cooked into a spicy masala curry...

duck curry, chicken masala, curry prawns..

fried bitter gourd, pineapple chutney, beetroot salad,

Kerala rice and chapatis....

Friday, January 29, 2010

Aleppe, the Backwaters of Kerala....

Tuesday, 19th January 2010

We left the Spice Village Hotel in Thekkady at 8 am because we would require about 4 hours to reach Aleppe where we were to embark our houseboat for the cruise in the backwaters of Kerala at 12 noon. We made it in good time and the houseboats were all anchored in a row at the jetty waiting for their respective passengers to arrive.

Our house-boat was the 'Mermaid 11' - run by the Rainbow Houseboat Company. It was a deluxe houseboat with 3 ensuite bedrooms, an upper-deck dining lounge with the satellite TV and the lower deck lounge behind where the skipper of the boat navigated the vessel from.

The boat had 3 staff, the navigator, the cook and an assistant who both helped the cook as well as the skipper.

From the embarkation jetty, the houseboat cruised out into what appeared like the open sea but was actually only a wide lagoon. Further on the houseboat was directed to cruise along narrower canals of the backwaters passing along many paddy fields and villages.

We were served a delicious spread of fish and chicken curry, a few types of vegetables, sambar and chutneys to go with the light and fresh Keralan rice and chappatis.

The cook even made some local savouries to go with masala tea or bru-coffee at about 5 pm. We checked out a local fish and sea-food shop and bought 12 tiger prawns, each the size of a 1-kg lobster, to be cooked for dinner. The chef was ordered to grill the prawns with masala seasoning!

After the marketing we checked out a local ayurvedic spa. Some of us wanted foot reflexology - but they do not offer that in their establishment. It was strictly Ayurvedic Spa and Massages. So we decided not to go through the 'oily' experience.......

We anchored at a quiet corner somewhere in the backwaters for the night and had our delicious grilled prawns for dinner apart from the other dishes that came with the standard menu that was included in the houseboat package.

houseboats in anchor at the jetty....