India Day 5: Exploring Munroe Island and the Festival
Woke up early (again) for a dawn cruise on the canoe punted by Vijeesh himself this time. Was well worth the early alarm as we took a different route and saw the party lights of the temple for this evenings' festival as well as a truly amazing sunrise. Otters too!Afterwards we arrived back for a lovely traditional breakfast of pancakes, banana and melon...smashing.
But with nothing planned we took the opportunity to spend the rest of the mornjng relaxing a doing a fee chores like washing clothes and having a snooze. The room was lovely and cool with the aircon and fan and we could have slept.longer but woke ourselves up for lunch, more home cooked curry which was very tasty and mostly veggie but with a few small fried fish too if you fancied them.
After lunch we asked Vijeesh about yoga and he gave us the number of a local shala whom we whatsapped and set up a session for the following day. He also put a couple of pins in my Google maps app for a nearby cotton weaving factory and a juice shop so off we went, into the wilderness.
Munroe Island is a small, safe and friendly community. The locals were quite interested in us as we strolled through their home and many gave us a cheery 'namascara' or a shy wave.
The cotton factory (5 mins away from the homestay) we'd been told to just walk into. It wasn't a factory by western standards, more a house with no internal walls, just a big open space where two ladies sat working the big spinning machines. They smiled as we entered and asked us our names before showing us some yarn that was 1000 rupees for a kilometre! It did look like good stuff.
We left and walked for another 10 mins and found the juice shop on the second attempt (the first served only chai). Again the owners was friendly and asked our names and where we were staying. When we mentioned Vijeesh he smiled knowingly.and gave us an amazing juice concoction:
Grapes
Lime
Sugar
Chilli
Something that looked orange
And 7 up (he had a great way of pouring this by holding the bottle upside down, banging the lid on the table and pouring it straight into the blender). Tasted fabulous and was 100 rupees for two.
In the evening Vijeesh had found a festival with music and elephants about 15 km away so he hired some transport for us and we looked forward to what the evening might hold. We didn't know what to expect...and OMG was it awesome!
Firstly, at 6pm when we meant to leave we heard a car with a load stereo playing Indian dance music. I joked that it was the bus. It was the bus, a party bus not like I'd ever seen before. Crazy decor, tSsles on the steering wheels and neon lights...bonkers.
The whole homestay guests and Vijeesh went and we eventually found the festival. Essentially it looked bit like a carnival in a small town, there's one in Bridgewater in Devon. However, the similarities of it being dark and people lining the streets ended as 5 elephants started walking toward us. This was a great sight, but also a little upsetting as their back feet were chained together and the music that accompanied them was super loud (Vijeesh jad suggested we take ear plugs....so I did!).
Better were the floats with statues of Hindo deities and the awesome pumping jndian dance music...with the fanatical dancing crowds and processions of drummers. More than once did the dancers, just Indian folk, motion to us to join in and eventually we did. It wS a truly fantastic experience and one I shall never forget.
In my daily life, I'm a reasonably well reserved Englishman...but I'm pleased to say that there is someone underneath who wants to party.
We returned home on the party bus, clubbed together to pay the driver his 3000 rupees (300 each) and sat down to the the dinner awaiting us, with a Kingfisher beer from Vijeesh (200 rupees each added to the bill at the end). We shared stories until bedtime on another great day in India.
But with nothing planned we took the opportunity to spend the rest of the mornjng relaxing a doing a fee chores like washing clothes and having a snooze. The room was lovely and cool with the aircon and fan and we could have slept.longer but woke ourselves up for lunch, more home cooked curry which was very tasty and mostly veggie but with a few small fried fish too if you fancied them.
After lunch we asked Vijeesh about yoga and he gave us the number of a local shala whom we whatsapped and set up a session for the following day. He also put a couple of pins in my Google maps app for a nearby cotton weaving factory and a juice shop so off we went, into the wilderness.
Munroe Island is a small, safe and friendly community. The locals were quite interested in us as we strolled through their home and many gave us a cheery 'namascara' or a shy wave.
The cotton factory (5 mins away from the homestay) we'd been told to just walk into. It wasn't a factory by western standards, more a house with no internal walls, just a big open space where two ladies sat working the big spinning machines. They smiled as we entered and asked us our names before showing us some yarn that was 1000 rupees for a kilometre! It did look like good stuff.
We left and walked for another 10 mins and found the juice shop on the second attempt (the first served only chai). Again the owners was friendly and asked our names and where we were staying. When we mentioned Vijeesh he smiled knowingly.and gave us an amazing juice concoction:
Grapes
Lime
Sugar
Chilli
Something that looked orange
And 7 up (he had a great way of pouring this by holding the bottle upside down, banging the lid on the table and pouring it straight into the blender). Tasted fabulous and was 100 rupees for two.
In the evening Vijeesh had found a festival with music and elephants about 15 km away so he hired some transport for us and we looked forward to what the evening might hold. We didn't know what to expect...and OMG was it awesome!
Firstly, at 6pm when we meant to leave we heard a car with a load stereo playing Indian dance music. I joked that it was the bus. It was the bus, a party bus not like I'd ever seen before. Crazy decor, tSsles on the steering wheels and neon lights...bonkers.
The whole homestay guests and Vijeesh went and we eventually found the festival. Essentially it looked bit like a carnival in a small town, there's one in Bridgewater in Devon. However, the similarities of it being dark and people lining the streets ended as 5 elephants started walking toward us. This was a great sight, but also a little upsetting as their back feet were chained together and the music that accompanied them was super loud (Vijeesh jad suggested we take ear plugs....so I did!).
Better were the floats with statues of Hindo deities and the awesome pumping jndian dance music...with the fanatical dancing crowds and processions of drummers. More than once did the dancers, just Indian folk, motion to us to join in and eventually we did. It wS a truly fantastic experience and one I shall never forget.
In my daily life, I'm a reasonably well reserved Englishman...but I'm pleased to say that there is someone underneath who wants to party.
We returned home on the party bus, clubbed together to pay the driver his 3000 rupees (300 each) and sat down to the the dinner awaiting us, with a Kingfisher beer from Vijeesh (200 rupees each added to the bill at the end). We shared stories until bedtime on another great day in India.
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