From Kollan station, we took a tuk tuk to Ashtamudi Villas, where we were staying. The grounds had mango and jackfruit trees.
We had a delicious freshly made lunch. We sat outside with a beautiful view of the lake.
After relaxing on the hammocks by the lake, we went on a sunset boat ride organised by the villas’ owner. As it turned out, we arrived on the day Kerala was celebrating St Sebastian, the patron saint of Kerala.
The boat ride was peaceful. We saw a variety of birds. As it got darker, we could see more and more colourful lights. The music started and fireworks went off. The boat owner took us to his house. After circling around more of the lake, he wanted us to return! By this point, we were getting hungry. More importantly, the owner of the villa had arranged for us to see the procession for the festival. There was talk of an elephant appearing! We turned down a second visit to the boat owner’s house and returned to the hotel.
We picked up some small bananas at our villa and got in the waiting tuk tuk. Helene had met the driver, Rajesh, on a previous trip here a few weeks ago. Rajesh was a local celebrity. He was a singer. We asked him to sing! After some mock reluctance, he eventually sand an English song in Malayalam. We didn’t recognise the tune. He then asked us to sing. After some hesitation, Cath started singing Auld Land Syne! We sang (mostly hummed) the song. He then sang a song in Malayalam and asked me to sing a Hindu song! My repertoire of Indian songs is zero. Or so I thought. I vaguely remembered the tune of this Indian devotional song. I started humming it and he started tapping the rhythm and we eventually got in sync, according to Cath.
After some searching we found the festival. Rajesh parked his electric tuk tuk (my first time in one), and we joined the crowds. The floats were colourful. They had various muscular Hindu gods on them. The music was loud. The giant speakers pumped out music and the live marching bands added to the noise. People danced energetically. The place was full of energy.
The whole event was somewhat overwhelming, especially since we were getting hungry. The few earlier bananas weren’t enough to make up for the lack of food during the past ten hours. The highlight of the parade was supposed to be an elephant. That is what kept us hanging on. However, after several false starts, we made our way back to the tuk tuk. At one point a cheerful young girl asked Helene, “Do you like our festival!”
Our return journey was somewhat haphazard. Many roads were closed for the festival. Rajesh continually asked locals for directions back to our hotel. At one point, I started directing Rajesh via Google Maps!
When we got back to our villa, a tasty dal and chapati dish was waiting for us. We devoured it as if we’d not eaten for days. For lunch and now, the dish was accompanied by an incredibly tasty freshly made mango pickle. The mango was sourced very locally! We could see the mango trees on the grounds. The fresh pineapple for dessert went down very quickly too.