Day 9: Massage, cotton mill, beach

Aug 07

I woke up 6:30 to work on the blog. It is hard to keep up on the posts when there is not email at places, or we do not have time. I actually lost my USB cord. I think that it is in London still. Without this I am unable to upload my pictures. So I will have to buy another one soon.

We ate a wonderful spicy buffet breakfast and then went to see some cotton industries where they were actually making cloths. It was neat to see them working. After seeing them get made, we went to the store and bout some lungie. These are the traditional clothes worn by the men. They are like a sarong, just a piece of fabric wrapped around the waist and then tucked up to the height of shorts. They are very colorful. I also bought a traditional shirt for the people of Kerala. It is very lights cotton with long sleeves.

We went to a small resort type thingy where they give Ayruvedic massages. These are very popular in India. It seems to be their form of healing. They offered many different variations, but we decided on the 1.5 hour rejuvenating massage. It seemed to be a good deal at only $20 CAD. =) They used a lot of strong smelling oils. First I got an amazing head massage, followed by the face, then I laid on the floor and he gave me a massage with his feet. He worked on the back and then the front, using a lot of oil and a rope hanging from the ceiling for balance. Then I went on a table where he used his hands again to give me a full body massage. It was so amazing. I fell asleep at multiple times.

I had a little bit of an embarrassing moment with my masseuse before the massage. He asked me my name and I told him, then he said something that sounded like a command. It was in the local language and I didn’t understand him so I asked him to repeat it, and after hearing it again I told him I did not understand what he was saying. He kept repeating it. I was confused, he seemed confused and frustrated. And then I realized he was saying his name! oops.

Oh and for those who have vivid imaginations, skip to the next paragraph. Haha I wanted to try to the true experience and so when I was told to take all my clothes off, I did. So I got the true FULL body massage. It was quite lovely. Those of you who are Zab’s friends will be relived to know that he did not go sans clothing. You are safe.

This was an amazing experience and I am glad that I was able to have it. Zab liked it also, it was his first ever massage! Unfortunately his masseuse had calloused feet and so there was a bit of exfoliation action for his foot massage. Poor guy.

After a quick shower to get off some of the oil we had been lathered in, we headed off to Kovalam beach. This is the nicest beach in Kerala we have been told. It was amazing. The waves were huge and there were not many people there. We walked the length of the beach and went body surfing in an area where there were half a dozen boggy boarders. The sand was black in most places. When we were leaving we were over taken by nice ladies trying to see us fruit. I bought some bananas, a mango, and a pineapple.

Zab asked if we could go to the lighthouse we could see from the beach. We went and were able to go to the top. It had an amazing view of the beaches, the surrounding area, and all the fishing boats out on the ocean. We were also able to work off some of the buffet food on the way up and down.

Zab and I dressed in our lungie for supper. It was really fun to dress up like the people of the area. We however did not know how to wear them, so we looked really silly. A nice waiter took me aside and put it on my correctly. I still don’t know what he did, but it felt much better.

I borrowed a USB cord from another guest and uploaded pictures for the blog. By the time I was done, after waiting for another guest to finish with the computer, it was about 1am. The garden path down to the elevator is like a maze in the daylight, and I thought I could find my way back by myself with my trusty flashlight, but I wondered around for 15 minutes before I went back to the lobby and asked to be directed down. A very nice man on night shift walked me down. Then I went to sleep, finally.