Monday, December 30

Sreni collected us at 10:00 for a day in the local backwaters. They are only about twenty kilometres away, about the same distance as Trivandrum.

We were driving through a small town when Irma shouted stop. She had seen a church. We are going in to look around and I spot an interesting poster on the entrance pillar.

The church has an interestingly odd Christmas tableau, and a lot of crows sitting in the beams. The church echoes with their noise.

We will get to the backwaters at Poovar, and take a two hour boat trip. At several levels this will b a rip-off. It is much too expensive and the backwaters are, in fact never very far from main roads and villages. We also spend the first half of the journey in a convoy of little boats like a fairground ride at Linnanmaki.

However we will stop at the meeting point between the backwaters and the Arabian Sea, and that is impressive. Then we will lose the other boats and motor through some much more deserted channels.

In the evening we will go to a traditional Indian Katha Kala performance that Hari phoned us about while we were waiting for our boat. This will involve three men in elaborate costumes with two drummers and a singer with cymbals, and will take place at a restaurant-cum-ashram down a small alley off Lighthouse Beach.

We will sit with a Swedish woman we met a laughing yoga. Auo will be scared by the clown-like performers, Naa will get a splitting headache from the drumming, Irma will love it, and I will find it intriguing.