saturday 02/02-08moring by the pool, reading.
when i was at the internet cafe the husband went off with a man who said he could help him find the film of the year 2007 - taare zameen par. they didn't find it.
went for a walk in the "opposite direction" along the beach. walked by an enormous "garden", with sunbeds, walking paths made of concrete with light poles around, a little lake, restaurant chairs, a bar, toilets and a stage. and no people. later we were told by Mohindas the fisherman that it belonged to a very big and exclusive hotel up in the hills. the drive their guests down here in little cars. met kader, his daughter sanooja and niece anzy and talked to them for a while. were invited for tea on our way back. continued through the little village panathura. fascinating that quitea few people live in houses made of straw. beautiful. but i guess everything gets wet during the rainy period. right by the sea side was a beautiful mosque, what was almost falling down in the sea. there are amazing mosques, churches, minarets, temples and shrines everywhere. even in the tiniest little villages, where all the houses are made out of braided palm leaves. had tea with sannoja and anzy and talked for a long time. they tried to teach us to count to ten in malayalam. very difficult pronunciation! sanooja is a teacher, working in "the other village". she made us very good ginger tea, and sent her cousin to buy buns with vegetables (very hot, couldn't eat), or a boiled egg in the middle. fun! i'm going to bake boiled egg buns too! :)
on our way back home we met mohindas the fisherman. he told us that in -85 he earned 27 000 rupees in one night's fishing in goa. so he went back home and bought a wife and a house. but since then he gets less and less fish, and so far this year he almost hasn't had anything at all. we've seen the fishermen at the beach in the mornings, and they're really working hard for hours and hours, and the nets come up almost empty. mohindas had a hundu sign tattooed on one hand and a christian cross on the other, ty symbol that he is a hindu but doesn't believe in the cast system.
sunday 03/02-08the sea was upset last night, and this morning we noticed it had torn half the beach away. in one end the steep was 2 m high.
the fishermen had a good catch this morning, we were told. the waves had halmed down, and for the first time since we got here they didn't do their best to knock me down when i entered the sea. we stayed in the water for quite a while. i'm going to miss it.
read by the pool. i'm going to miss this too. went to thiruvanantapuram to look for the taare zameen par film. apparently it's so good seeing it makes you a better person. wouldn't want to miss that. were told about a music shop further up the road. found it. the film hasn't been released on dvd yet. bought a hindi horror movie instead, and a love film because the cute shop keeper recommended it. we've bought malayalam films earlier. they're cool, because the same slightly round guy with enormous moustache seems to be the star in all of them. and they make lovely exagerated eye movements, and the music and faces and zooming are all so exagerated it's no problem following the story even though you don't undstand a single word of malayalam. i love watching music videos on tv at nights :)
went for a sunday strall in the city. walked by a tatooist who had just tattooed a man sitting on a piece of cardboard on the side walk. the man with the new tattoo was very upset. i wonder if there was something wrong with it. sat for a while in the park, looking at dressed up sunday people walking by or sitting down eating sunday nuts. they paint their babies in a very funny way, with enormous black eyebrows and black under their eyes. a baby sitting next to us also had big black dots here and there. maybe whe wouldn't keep still during her make up :) the little bigger girls have nicer make up, but they keep painting their eye brows so they look enormous. cool.
back at the hotel the conference guruswer ehaving a ceremony on the beach. the über guru was sitting in front of a beautiful elephant, and the minor gurus were being phtotographed one at the time together with them. the über guru must have seen the love in my eyes, cause when the photography session was over he went up to me and said go ahead, nodding his head towards the elephant. he lloked youngish, and was very heavily chained. he didn't look too happy, and kept nodding his head up and down. i really hope the chains were just very temporary, and that he is normally a very happy and well looked after elephant... we left for a while to buy something to drink, and when we came back he had gone. hopefully to take a nice long bath and then finish off with an evening snack of bananas. i was a bit disappointed with the gurus. according to my prejudices people with very long beards and long white dresses should be nice and loving, not wanting poor little elephants be dressed up in gold and chains just to have a nice background for their final photo. stupid fake gurus!
when we got out after showering and packing and cooling off under the fan the gurus were watching a kathakali show at the beach. we sat down in the sand and watched too. most of the gurus left ealy, and the remaining few talked on their cellphones. when the show was over there were only maybe 10 gurus left. my prejudices against gurus have nog changed, from thinking they are nicer and kinder than ordinary people to think that they are just as rude and selfish as the rest of us, only with longer beards and dresses.
monday 04/02-08watched th fishermen work at our beach, and talked to some teenagers who asked me about the political system in sweden. when the husband came back from being at another beach we walked together to a third beach and bathed, and looked at other fishermen. they had a good catch today too, and kep on fishing for hours and hours. we've never seen them fish for so long during the week we've stayed here. saw a weird long necked bird eating crabs.
petted the baby goat. said good bye to the internet guy and some other people. checked out. read by the pool for a while. went to buy a bed cover for the grand mother. had a dhara or something at the ayurvedic centre. it's supposed to be good for treating head aches and insomnia. lay down on a wooded bed. i managed to talk the girl out of giving me a full body massage, and only massage the face, head and neck. after the massage the fun part began. a big kettle was hanging above my head, the kettle was filled with luke warm oil, that ran through a whole in the bottom and onto my forehead. very comfortable. several litres of luke warm oil than poured into my hair. in case you didn't know, i can tell you that washing several litres of oil out of your hair is not very easy. first the ayurvedic lady washed the hair with a herbal shampoo that looked like grean porridge and smelled horrible. then she washed it with a bucket of ordinary shampoo. than i washed it with a bucket of ordinary shampoo. a few hours later i washed it again, but this time only with an ordinary bottle of shampoo. and the hair was still unbelievably oily.
bought some chocolate and went to kader and sanooja to say goodbye. met the most beautiful dog at the beach. cuddled with him for a while. had a 7up and said goodbye to the sea and the sand. watched it grow dark, and said good bye to all the fishing boats that light up the night like a floating city.
at 19.40 a bus took us to the airport. three hours to get through security check. but that was good, i think waiting at airports is boring. bought sandwiches and juice at a kiosk while we were waiting in line. instead of change (which was quite a lot of money, half a day's pay) we got a little chocolate bar and a chewing gum and the explanation "balance". we were a bit surprised and a bit amused, so we only told them to at least give us a bigger chocolate bar. at another kiosk in another line when i bought something to drink the boy behind the counter was about to give me my change back when his boss got hold of his hand and told me that sorry, no change. and another boy gave me a chocolate bar and said balance. balance is cool. if i ever get a shop i'll remember to use it.
