Archive for March, 2007

… gokarna, a lotus by any other name would taste as sweet



Late march, around the 23rd, arrived at Gokarna. The dream of a relaxed sit by a beach with a sunset over the ocean was coming closer. It was a near thing … made the morning train from Mangalore with plenty of time to spare, and then fluffed around watching the world go by … watching […]

… one night in a small theyam park



I had read in that infamous guidebook about a style of ritual dance-performance, Theyam… it seemed like something worth exploring … a full night of trancy beats had eluded me so far, and this seemed to be about as close as I was going to get. Theyyam is centred around Kannur in northern Kerala … […]

… red green Kerala



Exhausting journey into Kerala, coming into Kunnur. At first Kunnur seems a bit of a dissapointment as a town, though it promises to have both Theyyam, a few bay side beaches with facing sunsets. But the town is large commercial, a bit smelly (diesel mainly thank fuck), and very busy. The bus stand is a […]

… extreme sport bus travel



I had read in that infamous guidebook about a style of ritual dance-performance, Theyam. This led me from Madikeri to Kannur in northern Kerala, apparently the hub of Theyam activity..I had been wanting to get another dose of Kerala since the beautiful morning train journey from Chennai, and the Theyam seemed like a beautiful, mad, […]

… madikeri motorcross



Real time, around March 15 …. initially I’d thought that Madikeri would be a brief stop between Virajpet and Kunnur, but as the bus pulled into town, I felt relieved to see so much green. Kushalnagar is still in harsh country, but Madikeri is very much in the hills, plantation country, very green, well wooded. […]

… health hints for the unwise, dodgy western medicine versus dodgy eastern



Jotting notes in Goa between swims, bike rides and belly turns. Looks like I’ve got my second serious case of wierdness in the stomach, and yes … it was almost certainly the water. After being offered dodgily filtered corporation water by Narasim with no ill effects, I took a few risks with water from coolers […]