16th December – To Kerala

Bethan broke up from school on Friday and we flew with Indian Airways to Kochi on Saturday. The flight took less than an hour but despite the time constraints they managed to serve us a delicious hot lunch! I must remember to book an Indian veg, as opposed to a European veg meal on our BA trip home in the summer. With a bit of luck it will be significantly more palatable.

Sree Krishna in the make-up room

On our arrival we were met by our driver and the tour company representative who took us to our hotel, the Taj Malabar, on Willingdon Island. We had a couple of hours to settle in, then we were whisked off to see a Kathekali demonstration. Kathekali is traditional and highly stylised dance form practised only in Kerala. We saw the dancers applying their make up (a rather lurid green in the case of the person playing Lord Krishna) and were then treated to a 45 minute dance demonstration.

Sree Krishna resisting the charms of the demoness

We returned to the hotel at about eight o’clock and with Bethan tired after a hectic end of term and the travelling, opted to avoid formal eating, and had two excellent pizzas delivered to our room.