Dodgy massage...and a bit of Kathakali

Our last day in Kerala…was interesting! We had our first (and last) Ayurvedic massage. I’m not a fan! I got taken into a backroom of a dark house where I was asked to get completely starkers (the picture showed people wearing a towel!) and sit on an oily plank of wood. This wasn’t a good start. Then I just get rubbed a lot by two guys who on more than one occasion got a bit too close for comfort. The oil didn’t smell too good and overall I’d give the experience about 2 out of 10. Don’t think V was a huge fan either, but she was just happy laughing at me….

In the evening we saw a Kathakali. A traditional dance performance in Kerala. This was much better and very interesting. It takes the dancers and musicians at least 12 years to learn (the proper performances can go on all night – ours was just an hour and a half). Each action and hand movement means something different almost like sign language..and has it’s accompanying drum beat / sound. The make-up took an hour and a half to complete and looked stunning and even more impressive as we learnt about all the different stones that the colours were produced from. After this we completed our Kochi experience with another night on the dock with V bargaining for seafood and then having it freshly cooked. We also met a French lady who we’d met in the Ashram and so shared dinner with her.

The next day was our flight to Mumbai with Kingfisher airlines. They’re a cross between Virgin and Easy Jet. They’re the same people that make the beer and the guy is another branson / Stelios wannabe. However, nice airport, good flight and comfort and definitely much better than any train or bus that we could have taken (ok it was ten times more expensive!). Also, some nice compliments from the lovely Kingfisher stewardesses who didn’t seem to mind that Vanessa was sat next to me ;-) Straight off the flight we got a taxi to Mumbai central bus station (well, parking lot under a flyover) and bargained our way onto an air conditioned coach heading for Udaipur. Although it was 12 hours it went very quickly and was surprisingly comfortable (I think after our mammoth train experience from Goa to Kerala any subsequent traveling has been made to feel like first class!). We arrived in Udaipur at 4.30 in the morning where one guy took us to his guest house..he was in the lonely planet so we went with him and his place turned out to be cheap and reasonable so we’ve stayed there since.