Saturday, March 8.
Kerala from Houseboat to the Hermitage Hotel. We sat out on the front deck of the boat until breakfast which was very enjoyable yet again. We moored at exactly on 930 and we disembarked into Antony’s car for the 20 minute drive to the hotel.
Once there we were left to ourselves in reception for almost 30 minutes before we were shown to a temporary room, although Anthony had said previously that the hotel would not be busy and we would not have to wait. It was not until 1.30 that we were shown to the room we had booked which was delightful with a gorgeous Seaview. Meanwhile, we sat by the infinity pool and the palm trees fairly content.
We unpacked what we needed in the new Villa and went for a cooking demonstration of a fish curry at 3 pm. This was interesting despite the fact that I thought it would all be far too hot for me to eat. But David was in his element. At the end, we at picked up the dhal curry and the delicious bread the chef had made in strips. We left the vegetable and fish curries for our supper later on.
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Back at the room for an while and then into afternoon tea or rather coffee which was nothing fantastic but in a beautiful setting overlooking the beach. Then back for another session at the pool at 6:30 for preparing for the evening outing to the Theyyam, a religious festival for the Hindus
Theyyam is a ritual performance involving extended chanting of mantras and ceremonial preparations that typically span 8 to 10 hours. The ritual culminates with the placement of the mudi (sacred headgear) on the performer, a moment believed to mark the entry of the deity into the performer’s body. As part of the process, the performer consumes madhyam (toddy), which is believed to suppress personal consciousness, allowing the divine consciousness of the devatha to manifest. This practice aligns with philosophical concepts found in Hindu texts such as the Yoga Vasistha, which describe how divine entities (devatas) can enter the human body, parakāya praveśanam at a Paramanu level. There is no concept of God in Hindusim, rather the concept of Devatha and Brahmam. Hinduism traditionally recognizes a multiplicity of devatas, often cited as 33 crore including Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara, rather than adhering to the notion of a singular, all-encompassing god
We then got a phone call to say it has now been put forward to leaving at 7:30 instead of 9 pm. We settled on 7.45 and went into the restaurant promptly at 7 pm to eat our fish curry and I actually enjoyed the fish part of it. It was a 45 minute journey to the temple through busy streets at times with all the shops and their gorgeous selection of vegetables well lit up. Our guide took us into the temple complex which was heaving with bright lights and people, it was estimated up to 2000 were present. We had to take our shoes off and walk some distance until we got to a small temple where we eventually manage to get a seat on a bench at the back with people sitting down on the floor in front of us. There was an atmosphere of expectation in the air and we saw various monks parading , a lot of chanting, more processing, but never saw the highlight of the evening, whatever this was: I was not too sure. After two hours we left, David very enthralled by the experience but Chris just glad that she had in fact gone. It had been very hot and humid during the wait We were back in bed by 11:30 pm.
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Neeleshwar Hermitage Hotel sea view cottage, inc b'fast
A beautiful, private boutique beach hotel, the Neeleshwar Hermitage is set in twelve naturally landscaped acres, The Hermitage is built according to the traditional architectural principles of Kerala Vastu. These dictate that a building should be constructed in such a way as to conform to the subtle laws of nature operating in the area, so the whole site is oriented to the east and the rising sun.
There are 12 cottages with carved and dressed woodwork fashioned in traditional style by local craftsmen so skilled that their usual work is building and restoring temples. These craftsmen have also produced the handmade furniture. Each room is decorated with both traditional and contemporary objects d'art. The result is an uplifting sense of elegance.
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Sun 9th March
India to Vietnam.
I had a swim before breakfast which was taken in a beautiful setting right next to the beach, splendid. We then sat by the pool and swam before packing up to be ready to leave at noon. It was a two hour plus journey with Anthony to Mangalore airport, which was on a plateau, high above the rest of the area.
We took off at 5 pm on an Indigo flight which was almost full and was quite a noisy two engine plane. We landed in Mumbai an hour and a half later, and had four hours there. But it was only a less than five hour flight to Hanoi which passed fairly quickly with a so so meal and a tiny bit of sleep.
