Up in the hills
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2007
1
24
30
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Ootacamund,
India
Friday, February 15, 2008
After our trip to the back waters finished earlier than we thought, and our huge tip had gone almost unnoticed by our cook - it was 2 nights acommodation for us and he didn't even blink an eye... we decided to carry on up the coast to Fort Cochin, our stop off point before heading back in to Tamil Nadu, and up to Ooty, a hill station and former British retreat.
A pretty painless bus journey meant we arrived at around noon, checked in to a hotel near the ferry port in Ernakulam, one of the districts of Kochi. Based by the sea, Kochi consists of Ernakulam on the mainland, Willourghby(sp?) Island and Fort Cochin, another island just 15 minutes away on the ferry, which costs about 3p. We spent the afternoon doing some actual sight-seeing for a change (after some exceedingly good cakes from a bakery on the way to the centre). Fort Cochin has the oldest church in India, St Francis Church, built around 1500 and renevated a few times since then, so it's still in pretty good shape. There's also Santa Cruz Basilica, which was closed for lunch when we passed by. Down to the harbour and we walked passed the large cantilever fishing nets which are used at high tide to catch shrimp. Unfortunately high tide was at 11am the next morning, and we were heading off for Ooty, so we didn't have a chance to see them in action although we did see some dolphins playing around in the bay while we had a drink.
To emphasise the fact we were taking in some culture for a change, we went in search of the Kerala Kathakali Centre to try and book some tickets for the 'theatre' later on that evening. Having found it, we saw that there was a traditional Indian martial arts demonstration for an hour, so we figured, bring it on, the more cutlure the merrier :) apparently founded over 5000 years ago, it (and I'm afraid it'll have to remain 'it', I haven't got the flyer on me to tell you what it was actually called...) was the original martial art. Four young guys aged about 10 - 25 each came on to the stage, showing warm up techniques, blocks, attacks, holds etc to a crowd of about 7 people. From the second row, it all seemed pretty dangerous and frighteningly real from the expression on their faces when they were being bent over backwards in a double handed no release hold that could break your arms and knees in several places. Next came the weapon fights, bamboo sticks, knives, and swords, again, all pretty hairy stuff when you see it close up with the sparks flying over your head. None of it really prepared us for the finale though, when the trainer produced a 2m long weapons made up of a few razor sharp metal strips (that they had to have a police license for). It was pretty terrifying when he started to spin it around as fast as he could, over the heads of the audience, we'll have to put the video up on Facebook so you can experience it for yourselves. The original weapon used to be 3m long and have 4 blades, and if you had 25 men charging you from all angles, this would be your weapon of choice. Sorry Pryce, they wouldn't let us have one, but I'm sure you'll be able to get one off eBay. Oh, and Shelley's just informed me that 'it' is Kalarippayat.
We followed the matial arts with a drink next door just to clam down, and then we wer back in the same place to see a Kathakali performance, which is an elaborate 'silent' theatre with just music, facial expression and gesture to tell the tales from the famous Ramayana. All in all it was pretty silent, apart from the actor who played Shiva disgused as a forest hunter who made Punch and Judy noises. The costumes and make up are all part of the spectacle and are really impressive. The make-up itself takes about an hour and a half which you can watch before the show. We saw just one part of one of the stories, and it went on for about 2 1/2 hours, which when you're sat on garden furniture in a boiling room, watching people flap around making silly faces going 'ooooooOOOooo ooooo' is about all you can take. The full renditions of the whole Ramayana can go on for over 9 hours, I think you get a medal for sitting through the whole piece.
That pretty much wrapped up an entertaining (although painful in parts) day on Fort Cochin, and we caught the ferry back to Ernakulam, to get ready to head up to either Coimbatore or Mettupalayam the next day on the way to Ooty. We chose to get as far as we could in a day, so that we could catch the morning train up to Ooty at 7am. However, our 4 1/2 hour bus journey turned in to 6 hours, and the next 1 hour journey ended up being closer to 2 hours, so we finally arrived in Mettupalayam extremely knackered, and we managed to sleep through the alarm, and a hotel wake up call the next morning. We got the bus a couple of hours later, so all was not lost, it's still a very scenic route up through the hills, with lots of waterfalls and tea plantations on the way.
Ooty (short for Ootacamund) is a very chilled hill station around 2000 meters up in the Nilgiri hills. There seems to be a much more sedate pace of life up there, a far cry from the cities of Tamil Nadu. We'd already decided to do a horse trek, so Fernhills Palace was our first port of call, where we could book for the next day. the place is filled with men hanging arond the bus stand with varios horses and ponies, but some of them looked a little worse for wear, so we wanted to use somewhere reputable, so that we knew the horses would be well looked after. The two we had ended up being former race horses, and our guide a race horse trainer (apparently...). After asking the day before that the guide was included in the price, we started off with the guide walking along beside us after leaving his pony behind... Turns out that although the guide IS included in the price, his pony isn't... that would be an extra 350 rupees for the 3 1/2 hour trek. Best case of 'read the small print' we've had since being away. Horse riding was excellent, the scenery around Ooty is a great mixture of rolling hills, forests, rivers and plantations, with a hint of the English countryside in there with gorse bushes and other flora and fauna introduced by the British. We passed through a number of Toda villages, with lots of smiles and waves from the locals along the way. We also managed a few trots and canters, which Shell loved, however, after we stopped for lunch I had to double check that everything was still present down below. However, we both felt the effects this morning, and the bus journey down the other side of the mountain on the most potholed and bumpiest road in India didn't really help with our saddle sore... The bus journey was a bit of an eye-opener as well, but not for Shell, she couldn't look out the front window for fear of seeing the driver take another blind corner on the wrong side of the road, while narrowly missing a heard of goats and their shephard. Who needs rollercoasters when you've got maniac government bus drivers and a fricking great big twisting mountain road to tear down, all for only 36 rupees each (about 50p), bargain!
The torture bus left us here at Sultan Battery, where we are going to explore the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctury from tomorrow. We've hired a jeep and driver for the day, and will be packing in the sactury, some caves, a water fall, a mountain, some tea, coffee and spice plantations, and maybe some more Kathakali... or maybe not.
Anyway, that's us up to date, and seeing as we're the only Westeners in the village, we're going to have a wander round to the amazement of the locals, and see if we can have a few staring matches while tring to find somewhere tohave a relaxing drink. I have a feeling we might end up back in our hotel room with Star Movies for an early night as we've got a 6am get up tomorrow.
Take care, lots of love
Peeps and Shell
xxx
