Kerala, Joana, Luca, Juna

We left Delhi for Kochi, more precisely Fort Kochi, a small coastal village in Kerala that holds a particular charm beauty and a definate more zen feeling than Old Delhi, well anything is more zen then Old Delhi.
Our friends joined us there for what was to be a wonderfull week together. They arrived in the morning after a good twelve hours of travel and how on earth they managed to stay awake for the rest of the day still remains a mistery. As a result little June got feverish for a few days but nothing dramatic.
The hotel we were supposed to stay at didn't have any rooms left so they put us up in a little annexe around the blck resulting in us staying in an art deco looking house with four bedrooms, two on top, two below, all for us.
The kids could scream and shout all they wanted without bothering any one.
I got up on the first day early and did a sunrise yoga on the roof top, amazing.
Not as we were expecting yet as we were told Kerala in general is pretty clean (Indian standards).
The food though being adapted for tourist, and I dare anyone eating medium spicy here, was excelent.
Beeing at the see a lot of fish and squid freshly caught. One restaurant even went to the market to buy there fish every time someone ordered.
Kochi has it's Chinese fishing net dominating part of the shore and a few historical places amongst which a synagogue which we failed to visit due to shabat and our kids being tired.

Oh yes a little something about us leaving Delhi.

We arrived at Delhi airport on time but couldn't get into the airport, you are not alowed in an airport in India without a written proof of some kind saying you have a ticket, a copy on an electronic device isn't enough, you need a hard copy printed on a piece of paper or you don't get in the airport. Further, you are not allowed through security without a tag on your bag, that tag is then stamped or tagged so that before you board the plane if your tag has been ripped of you are not allowed to take your handbag on the plane, need I say more?

It sure was great seeing the van Pratovicz family, it is always a bit like coming home when you are on a long trip and someone close to you hops in.

A few days in Kochi a few walks and eats later we got a car to Allaphooza and after visiting a few house boats of we were on this thirty meter floating house with all comforts on board. Three rooms each en suite a deck, sun deck a crew of three and a kitchen for a few nights on the backwaters.
The trip started out disappointingly as we traveled as if on the circular road of a town in queue amongst other vessels. Thirty minutes later we stopped for lunch, our cook had prepared some typical Kerala dishes, with more success to our palates then the kids. We traveled on to be alone on the backwaters no one in front no one behind but the occasional raft crossing the river, a few kids swimming, a lady slapping her laundry on a rock, a man soaping himself and washing himself (with underpants and longhi's on) or a fully dressed woman washing her thick long black hair, the river serves purpose to many a thing here.
I am wondering if I should take a swim.
Julian is having a blast with June, Matthew is an angel though you can sence some sadness, after all it is his brother who got the privilege of having a friend over.

The backwaters are of a stunning beauty the calm, the endless views, the turquoise kingfisher fleeing as the boat approaches revealing it's electrical turquoise colored back, the cormoran perched on a single branch, springing from the bottom of the river, wings wide opened to let them dry, the breeze of the moving house boat allowing the temperature to be bearable and sunrises and sunsets in colors I didn't know where possible. Ok ok not all is positive, the thousands of insects on you as soon as the sunlight dims is a downer but what a small price to pay for all the beauty experienced here.
The few stops we did in the riverbank villages were enlightening, peoples faces are smiling here the contrast of the white teeth on the black skin only accentuates the welcome that faces extend.
In one village we even got invited for an evening meal as we were watching a fish being beheaded, we politely refused. A little later after church the women came out we were or should I say the kids were touched and pinched and tickled as we were led back to our boat by the crowd going the same way, all that again with smiles and laughter.
Visiting the Indians here is being visited by them in return.
Did I swim in the backwaters........?

We continued on a after 3 days on the backwaters to Kovalam, ended up in a clean but aged hotel, before moving for three days in an Ayurvedic resort.
People come here for one or more weeks to cleanse there bodies from the inside by ways of specific diets and massages, yoga and meditation. Ayurveda is supposed to have beneficiary effects on various diseases amongst which cancer.
A little word on the massages. I was seated on a wooden stool in a room that resembled what I pictured as a Cuban torture chamber in a prison. A cow covered mattress on the floor and a wooden massage table, a rope hanging from the ceiling. Before the massage begins you are asked to strip, the therapist (in my head the torturer) a tiny man with a Sadam haircut and moustache. He proceeds in rubbing your body in oil after giving you a vitalizing scalp massage (think hard and strong) then opens up the mattress, takes a few rags of the brown paper bag he had brought in and proceeds in attaching them to the rope. You are then instructed to lay face down on the cow hind.
Then it starts..., my executor hangs himself to the rope and starts to forcefully rubbing his feet
with long strokes on me, ass to left hand cross to right foot back to right hand cross to left foot.
Ten minutes later you are turned arround and the same starts all over. A pretty intense experience, not the most pleasant massage I have had, yet an experience not to miss set in a surrounding different what I was used to, not your average spa experience.

With Vals birthday coming up we moved to a 'chiquer' hotel to celebrate and a few days later left the v
avn Praets behind to move to Jaipur.

Very curious about the more 'rough' India and the 'Holi' festivities we move on to the pink city.